James Howard PhD (Indigenous Arts and Cultures) Completion Seminar
2:00pm-3:00pm, Friday 25 June 2021, Register for Zoom link
Title: Sounding Cultural Reclamation: Reconnecting to an Indigenous Cultural Heritage through Music Composition
Presenter: James Howard (Jaadwa)
Abstract: This completion seminar presents a first-person account of cultural reclamation of my Jaadwa heritage through my music practice. The research documents my observed changes in self, and positions my creative output as a space through which I realise and reflect on these changes. The creative methodologies hybridise First Nations and Western approaches to understanding sound as a form of cultural expression. Accompanying this thesis are a series of recordings that capture compositions and improvised performances that respond to and inform my reconnection to culture.
The Wilin Centre respectfully acknowledges the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nations, their ancestors and elders, who are part of the longest continuing culture in the world.
The 19th Symposium on Indigenous Music and Dance will be held on 3rd – 5th December 2020 in association with the 43rd MSA National Conference and the 4th annual Symposium on Indigenous Arts in the Academy at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and Victorian College of the Arts on Boonwurrung country at the University of Melbourne. The event is also held in conjunction with the 1st Symposium of the International Council for Traditional Music Study-Group-in-the-Making for Music and Dance in Indigenous and Postcolonial Contexts at National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan.
Convened by Sally Treloyn and Tiriki Onus from the University of Melbourne’s Research Unit for Indigenous Arts and Cultures and Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development, this Symposium invites proposals for presentations that explore Australian and/or international perspectives on the following topics:
creation, resurgence, revitalisation, and/or reclamations of Indigenous music and dance
de-settling historical and contemporary discourses and narratives about Indigenous music and dance in settler-state contexts
digital environments of Indigenous music and dance in archives, in communities and on country
any other topic of relevance to Indigenous music and dance
The 19th Symposium on Indigenous Music and Dance will involve in-person and online presentations and performance/demonstration. If necessary, all presentations and performance/demonstrations will be delivered online.
Proposals:
Please submit proposals for presentation and performance/demonstration via the online submission form (link) by 15 August 2020. Extended deadline to 25 August 2020.
Proposals should include:
Title
Abstract or summary of 200 words
Presenter names and contact details
Preferred format (1): presentation or/andperformance/demonstration
Course: Digital environments of Indigenous Song at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dynamics of Language
Instructors: Associate Professor Sally Treloyn, Dr Reuben Brown and Jared Kuvent from The University of Melbourne. and John Divilli from Winun Ngari Aboriginal Corporation
In Australia, repatriation of song records from archives to communities-of-origin has emerged as key intervention used to support the social production and transmission of song knowledge. In repatriating and disseminating data it is essential that we consider the complex musical, social, economic and political issues to which legacy records, and the new digital technologies used to disseminate them, give rise. While our attention to musical resilience and vitality in contexts of socio-cultural, linguistic, economic and political change is growing, we are yet to consider how musical traditions are responding to this brave new world, and it is essential that we turn our attention to the technologies that we are using to sustain them. Using data from projects funded by the Australian Research Council investigating music sustainability, this seminar explored markers of musical resilience and vitality in Junba from the north-central Kimberley and Tabi from the west Pilbara. It considered how resilience and vitality in these songs interacts with the changing digital environments – both technologies indigenous to communities of practitioners, and those introduced by researchers and archives.
Evening concert from The 45th International Council for Traditional Music World Conference 2019 featured on live Thai TV. The Junba Crew is on at 1.22 and Inyjalarrku group is on at 1.35.
Thursday, 17 October 2019 at 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm AEDT Grant Street Theatre, Grant Street, Southbank, VIC 3006
Link to recording of the 2019 Lin Onus Oration.
For the 2019 Lin Onus Oration, Dr Lou Bennett will give an overview of her work in language retrieval, regeneration and reclamation over the past 30 years as a practicing artist and academic. Dr Bennett’s project, ‘Sovereign Language Rematriation’ (SLR), examines the importance of Indigenous research methods and practice-led research to the task of ‘rematriating’ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. SLR involves collaborative processes of Indigenous song arrangement, composition and notation to develop Song Pedagogy for language retrieval that aligns with the diverse contemporary learning contexts and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, especially those who do not speak their languages fluently on a day to day basis. At present SLR goes beyond the classroom of four walls, placing individuals, family and community back to sing and speak to country and each other.
Hosted by the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development as part of Wilin Week 2019.
We strongly encourage booking in advance for all of our events. This guarantees your seat, and allows us to communicate any unforeseen event scheduling changes with you.
RUIAC Co-Director Sally Treloyn speaks to Buzzfeed’s Laine Sainty with collaborators Rona Charles and Pete O’Connor about song revitalisation and community wellbeing in the Kimberley.
