Song-poetry of Central Australia: Sustaining Traditions (original) (raw)
Related papers
Recirculating songs: revitalising the singing practices of Indigenous Australia
2017
Although song has been recognised as the 'central repository of Aboriginal knowledge', this is the first volume to be devoted specifically to the revitalisation of ancestral Indigenous singing practices. These traditions are at severe risk of attrition or loss in many parts of Australia, and the 17 chapters of the present work provide broad coverage-geographically, theoretically and methodologically-of the various strategies that are currently being implemented or proposed to reverse this damage to the Indigenous knowledge base. In some communities the ancestral musical culture is still being transmitted across generations; in others it is partially remembered, and being revitalised with the assistance of heritage recordings and written documentation; but in many parts of Australia, intergenerational transmission has been interrupted, and in these cases, revitalisation depends on research and restoration. This book provides insights that may be helpful for Indigenous people and communities, and the researchers and educators who work with them, across this range of contexts. Cover photograph ulpare-ulpare (Arrernte) 'Perennial Yellowtop' (Senecio magnificus) © Lisa Stefanoff Cover song by M. K. Turner. Transcriptions (text and music) by Myfany Turpin. Kwarre-arle ayenge antyeye-le atyenge-ange tne-me girl-REL 1SG.NOM alongside-LOC 1sg.ACC-CNTR stand-PRS 'The girl who I am is standing with me.' Front cover: an Arrernte women's song received, sung and translated by M. K. Turner ('MK') in 2017. The song conveys two images for MK: a group of girls standing in a line proudly adorned for ceremony; and a girl walking through the grass where ankerte-ankerte 'yellow daisies' and arlatyeye 'white pencil yam flowers' bloom. MK describes this as a song of antethe 'blossom, or small soft feathers' which are used as ceremonial adornment.
Maintaining song traditions and languages together at Warruwi (western Arnhem Land
Recirculating songs: revitalising the singing practices of Indigenous Australia, 2017
As Indigenous musicians, language activists, scholars, educators, and others from around Australia undertake a variety of approaches in their efforts to revitalise song and language, in this chapter we provide a snapshot of the situation in Warruwi community, western Arnhem Land. Here, sustaining the local performance tradition of manyardi ceremonies and songs relies on maintaining diversity, and the task of documenting both linguistic and musical diversity has relied on intercultural collaboration and an interdisciplinary approach. Warruwi is a highly multilingual community where multiple small languages are still being spoken, and individually-owned song-sets (distinct repertories of songs) continue to be performed in public ceremony and passed on to children. In this chapter, we suggest that it is the maintenance of this diversity of languages and songs – rather than just maintaining individual languages or song-sets – which is highly valued by the community. For over a decade, a team of linguists, musicologists, Indigenous ceremony holders and educators has been working together on aspects of language and song at Warruwi. This collaboration has produced new insights into the social practices and ideologies that underpin the creation and maintenance of linguistic and musical diversity, and has led to the documentation of new expressions, particularly in the Mawng language. Interdisciplinary research on manyardi has expanded the documentation of lexical resources, such as patterns of polysemy and idiomatic expressions, and contributed to a more complex understanding of the meanings expressed through music and dance. From the perspective of David and Jenny Manmurulu – ceremony holders and educators for the Inyjalarrku (mermaid) song-set – this collaborative research has reinforced the ways in which performing manyardi not only expresses important aspects of their language, but also has the potential to unite the ancestral past with the future, as they draw on spirits of the country, while teaching the next generation to carry on singing and dancing.
Text and music in traditional Arandic songs of Central Australia
A number of studies have shown that pitch and rhythmic texts are independent components in many Indigenous Australian traditional songs. 1 Recent research has also found that text and rhythm combine in set ways. Word and syllable boundaries can provide constraints on how text and rhythm combine (Treloyn 2009, Turpin 2007a, Barwick 2011); and tempo (rhythmic mode), beating accompaniment and anacruses can all provide constraints on how words are set to music in the songs of north and north-western Australia (Barwick et al 2007, Treloyn 2009).
Song was one of the principal methods of transmitting knowledge in the fundamentally oral societies of Indigenous Australia. As the breadth of song traditions has greatly diminished over the past 200 years, archival recordings of song now form a significant resource of intangible cultural heritage for Australia's Indigenous people. The song performances recorded in the past are now being rediscovered, remembered and in some cases revived. This paper presents findings from a recent project involving the return of a set of poorly documented recordings of songs to Kaytetye people in central Australia. These newly discovered recordings, the earliest ever made of Kaytetye singing, are shown to be an important heritage resource for these communities. Working collaboratively with senior song experts in order to gain a better understanding of the meaning and cultural significance of various songs, I document the how this discussion of audio material generated important social-histories and memories, reinforced local understandings of rights in cultural heritage, and revealed both continuities and changes in Kaytetye ceremonial and song practice.
Wanji-wanji: The Past and Future of an Aboriginal Travelling Song
Musicology Australia, 2022
Classical Aboriginal culture in Australia consists of many different kinds of ceremonies, including travelling ceremonies that are often shared across linguistic and geographical boundaries. Each of these ceremonies is made up of dozens of different verses. Perhaps the most widely known travelling ceremony is one referred to in some areas as 'Wanji-wanji'. This was known over half the country and dates back at least 170 years, as evidenced in eleven legacy recordings and fieldwork interviewing more than 100 people across the western half of Australia. Like any oral tradition, the names of such ceremonies vary from place to place and from individual to individual. The extent to which a ceremony was known can thus only be seen through analysis of the music itself, rather than through reference to its names. This study analyses the most widely known verse in this ceremony, which we refer to as the Wanji-wanji verse. We identify the similarities and differences of the Wanji-wanji verse across legacy recordings spanning fifty years across three states. The most significant variation can be seen in the northern and southern peripheries of its 'broadcast' footprint. Our fieldwork has involved repatriating audio recordings to their communities of origin and sharing knowledge about the extent to which the ceremony was known. By implication, this activity has equipped custodians with the knowledge and confidence to potentially revive this once immensely popular ceremony.
Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation, 2014
This paper examines the place of creativity amid orthodox musical elements in the manikay (public song) tradition of the Yolŋu people of Northern Australia, particularly the song repertoire belonging to the Wägilak clan from Ŋilipidji. Beginning with the Yolŋu metaphor of raki (string) as it describes an individual’s historical constitution, an examination of productive ambiguities built into the rhythmic (bilma) and intervallic (dämbu) forms of manikay underpins the assertion that tradition speaks with living relevance through performed realisation and improvisation. The Australian Art Orchestra’s collaboration with Wägilak songmen, "Crossing Roper Bar," is introduced as a dramatic example of the manikay tradition working in and through contemporary expressions and contexts. This project sustains the ancestral bones of manikay, dutifully curated through the generations as an integral, orthodox framework with complex social, legal, and religious significances. Here, discur...