Cirrus@Austlit

'The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Murray Garde on the endangered genre of songs from western Arnhem Land in Northern Territory and another by Allan Marett on the contemporary relevance of a didjeridu-accompanied repertory recorded by Alice Moyle in the 1960s, the wangga songs of composer Jimmy Muluk.'  (Introduction)

'Song brings language and music together. Great singers are at once musicians and wordsmiths, who toss rhythm, melody and word against one another in complex cross-play. In this paper we outline some initial findings that are emerging from our interdisciplinary study of the musical traditions of the Cobourg region of western Arnhem Land, a coastal area situated in the far north of the Australian continent 350 kilometres northeast of Darwin. We focus on a set of songs called Jurtbirrk, sung in Iwaidja, a highly endangered language, whose core speaker base is now located in the community of Minjilang on Croker Island. We bring to bear analytical methodologies from both musicology and linguistics to illuminate this hitherto undocumented genre of love songs.  (Publication abstract)

'Morrdjdjanjno is the name of a song genre from the Arnhem Land plateau in the Top End of the Northern Territory and this paper is a first description of this previously undocumented song tradition. Morrdjdjanjno are songs owned neither by individuals or clans, but are handed down as 'open domain' songs with some singers having knowledge of certain songs unknown to others. Many morrdjdjanjno were once performed as part of animal increase rituals and each song is associated with a particular animal species, especially macropods. Sung only by men, they can be accompanied by clap sticks alone or both clap sticks and didjeridu. First investigations reveal that the song texts are not in everyday speech but include, among other things, totemic referential terms for animals which are exclusive to morrdjdjanjno. Translations from song language into ordinary register speech can often be 'worked up' when the song texts are discussed in their cultural and performance context. The transmission of these songs is severely endangered at present as there are only two known singers remaining both of whom are elderly. (Publication abstract)'

'An often cited feature of traditional songs from Central Australia (CA songs) is the obfuscation of meaning. This arises partly from the difficulties of translation and partly from the difficulties in identifying words in song. The latter is the subject of this paper, where I argue it is a by-product of adhering to the requirements of a highly structured art form. Drawing upon a set of songs from the Arandic language group, I describe the CA song as having three independent obligatory components (text, rhythm and melody) and specify how text is set to rhythm within a rhythmic and a phonological constraint. I show how syllable counting, for the purposes of text setting, reflects a feature of the Arandic sound system. The resultant rhythmic text is then set to melody while adhering to a pattern of text alliteration.' (Publication abstract)

'There are different ways of understanding a per-formance. One reviewer might wax lyrical about the tightness of the band, or the singer’s vocal abilities, while a different reviewer might discuss the extent to which people queued up to attend the performance and debate the social impact of the band. These two understandings greatly enhance our appreciation of music, song and dance in different ways. Analysis of the art form itself reveals the musical intuitions of those well-versed in its genre, such as what makes a ballad a ballad, or a trio a trio, and what constitutes creativity and incorrectness. The second understanding relies on analysis of the role of music in society, seeking answers for questions such as why certain music, song or dance is performed, and what else are performers doing in such activities. This is the understanding that eight of the nine contributors bring to this book, while Anderson contributes to the former type of understanding, which is also where my area of expertise lies as a linguist and musicologist.' (Introduction)

'Like many other Aboriginal song traditions, the song tradition that forms the focus of Melodies of Mourning, namely women’s crying songs (ngäthimanikay), is highly endangered and has been repeatedly identified as such by Yolngu associated with the National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia (Anon. 2007). Given the fragility of this tradition, and the fact that the loss of song traditions have major implications for their owners, for the health of communities and of individuals, and for the national heritage, this book is particularly welcome and timely.' (Introduction)

'Since 1986, Allan Marett has journeyed off and on to the towns of Wadeye (Port Keats) and Belyuen in the Daly River region of northwestern Australia to learn to sing, dance to, love, and understand the deep cultural significance of an Aboriginal song genre called wangga. Wangga do many things for the Marri-tjevin, Marri-ammu, and Wadjiginy peoples who sing them. They bring together the world of the living and dead in two contexts: the giving of songs by the ancestors in the dreams of songmen, and mortuary and circumcision ceremonies. For the first two groups, they are exchanged in ceremonies with two other groups, the owners of the song genres lirrga and dhanba, in a reciprocal social arrangement, invented in the 1950s, that keeps peace among these three groups. They connect the singers to the land and to the Dreamings that gave birth to the land. They create a sense of social solidarity among the Marri-tjevin when sung and danced in vigorous unison during ceremonies. Finally, they are a source of aesthetic enjoyment and creativity in the moment of their performance,' (Introduction)

This publication consists of an audio CD of 32 songs of the Aboriginal genre Jurtbirrk and a 48-page accompanying booklet. Jurtbirrk are Indigenous to the Iwaidja people of the Coburg Peninsula in the northwestern Arnhem Land, who now mostly live on nearby Croker Island. The genre is described in the accompanying booklet as ‘love songs’ since the lyrics are about the intimate affairs of the Iwaidja people, although the references to these affairs are cryptic and indirect.' [Review Essay] 

'Martin Nakata has chosen a title that is absolutely right for this book, Disciplining the Savages: Savaging the disciplines. In the nineteenth century, the Torres Strait Islanders were thought to be locked in savagery and sin and in desperate need of the civilising disciplines offered by assorted European academics, anthropologists and missionaries. In the present century it is the turn of the European disciplines to be savaged. Nakata, a Torres Strait Islander with a doctorate in Education, casts a critical eye on what assorted academics and missionariesthought that they were accomplishing as they investigated and patronised the islander communities of the Torres Strait.'  (Introduction)

'This book has one story to tell, but it is an important story about Aboriginal people in the state of Queensland from 1897 until the 1990s.1The story Kidd documents is that the trustees who had a fiduciary duty to protect and preserve the interests of their Aboriginal changes did not in fact do their duty very satisfactorily, but diverted wage money and other Aboriginal resources to projects of their choosing or in some cases simply pocketed it for themselves. For non-Australians and for some younger Australians it is important to remember that while all Aboriginal persons were regarded in the popular mind as non-citizens and as wards of the state, their status in the six states before Federation in 1901 was more complex. However, they were under severe restraints, of one sort or another, in all six jurisdictions. They lived in a state of ‘coerced dependency’ as Kidd puts it (p.72). In Queensland, Aboriginal persons were required to live where they were assigned, could not travel without permission (even if they did happen to have the money to do so), had to work where they were sent and had no rights to negotiate working conditions. In some cases they were required to work up to 32 hours a week without pay: ‘…year after year more and more men, women and children were contracted involuntarily to locations where there was no protection against labour exploitation, sexual or physical assault’ (p.63).'  (Introduction)

'Shimmering Screens is a study of the impact of Western technology in (and not necessarily on) a remote Aboriginal community, a memoir of how fieldwork changes the anthropologist, and a meditation on the ways in which Yolngu and balanda (white Australians) can interpenetrate each other’s worlds. Deger, a research fellow in anthropology at Macquarie University in Sydney, has written a brilliant book that analyses the ways in which one man, Bangana Wunungmurra, took up the challenge of making video in the Arnhem Land community of Gapuwiyak to reinvigorate Yolngu rom (Law) and pursue a personal redemption.' (Introduction)

'Lamalama Country provides the reader with a good insight into Indigenous Australian appreciation and management of country and resources. The perspective is that of two senior men who were grown up in that country. They list and picture a variety of plants and animals and tell the reader a little about their environmental and cultural significances. Their Indigenous voice is to the fore. Their account is set in context by a useful Preface and Introduction provided by the editors. It talks of groups removed from their traditional lands under the Queensland legislation and their enduring desire to return to look after the Country of their ancestors, to re-establish their knowledges of that Country and to pass it on to younger generations who need to know their ‘cultural roots’.' (Introduction)

'Songlines and Stone Axes is the first book of a new series on Transport, Trade and Travel in Australia published by Allen & Unwin that is designed for children and teenagers. It is an attractive and profusely illustrated 32-page book.'  (Introduction)

'A Story to Tell stands out among the body of work in the Indigenous life history genre. This small hardback publication is collection of short vignettes about Laurel Nannup’s personal life that illuminate a sense of her own community, and that of a generation of Nyungars in the southwest of Western Australia.' (Introduction)

'Winner of the inaugural Marrwarnging Award for Australian Indigenous writers, Corroboree tells the story of Wirrin, a small boy living a classical Indigenous lifestyle in the southwest of Western Australia. His favourite time of the year is springtime when bush tucker is plentiful and family groups gather for celebrations. We follow Wirrin as he participates in the family and group activities in preparation for the big bush meeting. Parents and grandparents provide the voice to explain the significance of events and procedures in the build up to and during the corroboree.' (Introduction) 

'Ysola Best dedicated much of her life to researching and documenting her Indigenous heritage and having recognised the role that her family played in the development of the Gold Coast, southeastern Queensland. Her ancestors and traditional custodians of the Gold Coast were the Kombumerri families of the Yugambeh speakers in an area which included Logan, Albert, Nerang and Coomera Rivers and Tallebudgerra Creek. Ysola spent twenty years researching her Kombumerri culture so that it could be passed on to future generations.' (Introduction)