1,721,004 research outputs found
Recirculating songs: revitalising the singing practices of Indigenous Australia
Full text linkAlthough 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
Lone Singers: the others have all gone
No full textThe Lone Singers and/or the Last Singers of songs from various Aboriginal traditions have a
most important role to play in the preservation of knowledge. In areas of Australia where there
are regular ceremonial performances, group singing provides the norm for analysis. However,
in places such as Victoria, many songs sung by the elders have not been passed on, and only a
few individual singers remember them. The Lone Singers on many occasions said that they were
sorry for the verses because in the future there would be no one left to sing and remember them.
Therefore, the recordings and the knowledge of these songs that may originally have been sung
by more than one person are very precious. We will argue for the value of songs sung by Lone or
Last Singers, showing their special merits and their place in contemporary Aboriginal societ
Semantic extension in kaytetye flora and fauna terms
No full textFlora and fauna play a vital role in Indigenous cultures and their nomenclature reveals much about the society from which they belong. This article identifies the lexical structures and types of metaphor and metonymy that are used for naming plants and animals in Kaytetye, a language of central Australia. By linking semantic analysis to detailed ethnography this paper elucidates the cultural connections that underlie polysemous biota terms. Various types of semantic extension are found, including sign metonymy, where two or more species share a name because one signals the availability of the other. A subtype of this is what I call meaningful call metonymy. This is where an onomatopoeic bird name has lexical content, and thus the bird says the signalled phenomena. The paper also finds that alternate register terms turn up in everyday words for biota. The aim of this paper is thus twofold: to demonstrate the importance of investigating socio-cultural practices, multiple speech registers and ecological phenomena for understanding patterns of polysemy and diachronic semantics; and to identify the range of semantic extensions that give rise to biota nomenclature in Kaytetye, where we find the previously undescribed meaningful call metonymy
Text, rhythm and metrical form in an Aboriginal song series
No full textSetting words to (musical) rhythm is an attempt to match rhythmic positions and syllables in an aesthetically appealing manner. In English songs acceptability is based on two separate but interactive judgments: matching stress with metrically strong positions, and matching prosodic constituents with rhythmic constituents [1]. This paper investigates a genre of Aboriginal songs and finds that while prosodic and rhythmic constituents match, there is no requirement to match stress. Instead, the placement of syllables is conditioned by a caesura (word boundary rule) and a hierarchy whereby rhythmical units with fewer notes must not precede ones with more
Strengthening the Vitality and Viability of Endangered Music Genres: The Potential of Language Maintenance to Inform Approaches to music Sustainability
Full text linkIn recent decades, communities across the world have been impacted by a raft of deep economic, social and political changes within their local and global environments. For some communities, these changes have had little effect on the vitality of their music genres, or have even strengthened them. For others – especially indigenous and minority communities – the changes have threatened the viability of certain genres, often against the will of the communities concerned. This in turn holds potential repercussions for individual and social identity, social cohesion, and the strength of other forms of cultural expression within those communities, as well as holding wider repercussions for the diversity of human heritage and even potentially the adaptability of our species. Since the early 1990s, when linguists fully recognised the dire predicament of many of the world’s 6,000+ languages, the study of language endangerment and maintenance has raised general awareness of language loss, as well as increasing practical knowledge of how endangered languages might be supported. Relatively, efforts to sustain endangered music genres remain incipient. Breaking with a tradition in ethnomusicology of ethnographic and fieldwork-based studies, this dissertation theoretically investigates the ways in which research and practical experience from the field of language maintenance can inform efforts to support the sustainability of music genres. It responds to an increasing sense of urgency to address the wide-scale endangerment and loss of intangible expressions of culture, including music, as underscored by the 2003 UESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Drawing on literature from both language maintenance and ethnomusicology, interviews with linguists and ethnomusicologists, and a case study (in turn based on literature, interviews, and a field visit), in this dissertation I argue that the extensive experiences and discourse from language maintenance hold significant relevance to efforts that support music genres to become or remain vibrant and viable. The dissertation presents four key outcomes of the research. The first is a theoretical framework articulating the synergies and disconnects between language and music, specifically in relation to their viability. The second is a framework for assessing the level of vitality of music genres, based on an equivalent framework for languages. The third is a case study of a specific music genre demonstrating how this framework functions in practice. The fourth is a set of recommendations for progressing efforts in music sustainability. I hope these outcomes may act as points of reference and departure for researchers, policy-makers, culture-bearers themselves, and other stakeholders in cultural vitality and viability, with the overarching aim to ultimately benefit the communities whose music genres are facing challenges to their viability. In this way, this dissertation contributes to a growing body of applied ethnomusicological research on the broad topic of music sustainability.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)Queensland ConservatoriumArts, Education and LawFull Tex
Tools for Analyzing Verbal Art in the Field
Full text linkSong is a universal human phenomenon that can shed much light on the nature of language. Despite this, field linguists are not always equipped with the knowledge and skills to analyze song texts and draw out their significances to other areas of language. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for a language community to ask linguists working in the field to record and document their songs. Barwick (2012) identifies a number of reasons why linguists should work on songs and identifies iTunes as a local repository for recordings of songs. This paper expands on these reasons and describes how iTunes software can be used for comparing, retrieving and managing recordings of songs. This not only assists analysis of song structure and text, but is also a useful means of providing the community with recordings, even in the absence of a local repository. The paper draws on our use of iTunes during fieldwork on central Australian Aboriginal songs. Our aim is to share the methodology and workflow we use and to encourage linguists to work on this universal, yet often neglected, aspect of language that is often highly valued within the language community.National Foreign Language Resource Cente
Songs from the stations: Wajarra as performed by Ronnie Wavehill Wirrpnga, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal and Dandy Danbayarri, with additional verses by Patrick Smith, Jack Gordon and Marie Gordon
No full text'On-line' resources for off-line communities
No full textIn small communities in Central Australia, many Aboriginal language speakers do not have access to computers or internet. In such contexts, how then do we ensure research materials are 'on-line' to the people with whom we record and work? This paper considers how my Arandic song research, conducted in such small communities, can be made accessible and 'pertinent' to community members. Pertinence is 'relevant for the language community's aims and efforts for their language' (Nathan 2006). I consider how audio recordings are used and how song books are used and then discuss a collaboration with Batchelor Institute (BIITE) that aims to create an audio book of an Alyawarr women's song series. Data storage, management and retrieval play a role in how pertinent and quickly audio recordings can be made available to community stakeholders. Community requests are often for a particular set of songs, or by a particular person. These songs are embedded in larger recordings and may span many recordings. The use of iTunes, not just as a management tool but also as an annotation tool has proven efficient. A methodology for extracting songs as separate files whilst maintaining their link to the original recording, then importing and annotating in itunes, enables the exact material requested to be retrieved and burnt onto CD within a short time. These CDs are listened to in private and on some occasions played on a ghetto blaster as 'back-up' for singers at a ceremony where only a few people know the words. A new genre of expression that has emerged through a language revival program has been the local creation of songbooks. These children's songs are typed up, printed, illustrated and spiral-bound. They are used regularly in classrooms and the pictures stimulate further discussion. Although there are audio recordings of these songs, it is the books that are used as a tool for teaching the lyrics and their meanings. Furthermore, the audio and the song book are detached together. The Alyawarr song series publication aims to fulfill both needs. The book will include descriptions and images of what the songs refer to, as well as of the ceremonial designs and dancing. An accompanying audio CD will enable it to be used in other contexts. We also consider sound printing, where audio can be accessed by placing an Audio Reader over the text, as a means of reliably linking sound with text and images.PARADISEC (Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures), Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories, Ethnographic E-Research Project and Sydney Object Repositories for Research and Teaching
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