Hearing histories of the western Pilbara: an interdisciplinary study

Hearing histories of the western Pilbara: An interdisciplinary study of Indigenous songs composed in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in the twentieth century and technologies to sustain them into the future 

Australian Research Council Discovery Project – Sally Treloyn (lead CI)

Researchers: Sally Treloyn and Nick Thieberger (University of Melbourne), Mary Anne Jebb (AIATSIS); Kimberly Christen (Washington State University); Andrew Dowding (Tarrarru Pty Ltd), Reuben Brown (University of Melbourne)

This project aims to investigate Indigenous song traditions of the western Pilbara through current practice and legacy recordings. It aims to show how public song traditions were used through the twentieth century as tools to manage environmental change. By recording and documenting songs and histories, and curating and developing an online collection of song-based digital heritage items with a virtual landscape interface, the project is expected to produce knowledge about the role of digital collections and cultural mapping in supporting the sustainment of endangered song traditions. It also aims to develop tools for use by communities and researchers to secure legacy, crowd-sourced and newly created records of intangible cultural heritages for the future.

 

Recent media:

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/breathing-new-life-into-old-songs