The craft of composing tabi songs - songs sung by individuals as distinct from group (e.g. corroboree) singing - was taught to young Aboriginal men in their initiation years. This collection of tabi in eleven Aboriginal languages with English translation is, with the exception of a few Maralga (mythical people) tabi, generally from the twentieth century.
The introduction by A. P. Thomas describes the way in which C. G. von Brandenstein went about collecting and recording these songs. Thomas also describes the demographic and social Aboriginal situation in the Pilbara when the tabi were being collected in the 1960s.
Pages 53 to 91 contain notes specific to each tabi including an explanation of the translation, who sung the tabi to von Brandenstein, and details about the tune created or used.
'That poetry is implicated with politics is incontrovertible. As Theodore Adorno writes ‘art exists in the real world and has a function in it, and the two are connected by a large number of mediating links.’ Those mediating links however, the things that connect each to the other, are harder to grapple with. What does the daily life of a protest poet look like compared to a conservative one when both work in a modern university? What poetry does the politician read?' (Introduction)
'That poetry is implicated with politics is incontrovertible. As Theodore Adorno writes ‘art exists in the real world and has a function in it, and the two are connected by a large number of mediating links.’ Those mediating links however, the things that connect each to the other, are harder to grapple with. What does the daily life of a protest poet look like compared to a conservative one when both work in a modern university? What poetry does the politician read?' (Introduction)
