Survival of Indigenous music and dance traditions

The National Recording Project for Indigenous Performance in Australia was conceived as a collaborative response to Indigenous concerns for cultural survival. The project focuses on recording and securing archiving arrangements for Australia’s many highly-endangered Indigenous music and dance traditions.

The project comprises a professional international network of Indigenous stakeholders, allied researchers and industry partners for research into the survival of Indigenous performance repertoires and related linguistic traditions.

To ensure the project continues to respond to emerging needs, a number of ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences academic staff participated in the 10th the annual Symposium on Indigenous Music and Dance, held at the ANU North Australian Research Unit in Darwin last week.

Associate Professor Aaron Corn, from the ANU School of Music, is the Co-Director of the Project and presented his keynote, ‘Nations of Song’, at the Symposium.

“The Symposium celebrates Indigenous music and dance, and deepens our understanding of their central place within Indigenous cultures and law. Music and dance are an important part of Indigenous culture and society, and it's imperative that the important generational links and the sense of wellbeing within families and communities that they provide are continued.”

The ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences also supported numerous Indigenous industry partners to attend the Symposium including Steven Jampijinpa Patrick, Creative Director of the Milpirri Festival at Lajamanu, and Helen Rrikawuku Yunupingu, a linguist working at Shepherson College in Galiwin'ku.

This July, Mr Patrick and Ms Yunupingu also travelled with Professor Corn to deliver a plenary session at the 41st World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music in Newfoundland, Canada.

For further information: www.aboriginalartists.com.au/NRP.htm

L to R: Associate Professor Aaron Corn, Yukihiro Doi (ANU Music PhD student), Helen Rrikawuku Yunupingu, Steven Jampijinpa Patrick.