Journal article
Cultural precedents for the repatriation of legacy song records to communities of origin
S TRELOYN, MD Martin, R CHARLES
Australian Aboriginal Studies | Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies | Published : 2016
Abstract
Repatriation of song recordings from archives and private collections to communities of origin is both a common research method and the subject of critical discourse. In Australia it is a priority of many individual researchers and collecting institutions to enable families and cultural heritage communities to access recorded collections. Anecdotal and documented accounts describe benefits of this access. However, digital heritage items and the metadata that guide their discovery and use circulate in complex milieus of use and guardianship that evolve over time in relation to social, personal, economic and technological contexts. Ethnomusicologists, digital humanists and anthropologists have..
View full abstractRelated Projects (2)
Grants
Awarded by AIATSIS Research Grant 'Sustaining Junba: recording and documenting endangered songs and dances in the northern Kimberley'
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
The research presented in this paper was supported by the Mowanjum Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre, the AIATSIS Research Grant 'Sustaining Junba: recording and documenting endangered songs and dances in the northern Kimberley' (G2009/7458), the Australian Research Council Linkage Project 'Strategies for preserving and sustaining Australian Aboriginal song and dance in the modern world: the Mowanjum and Fitzroy River valley communities of WA' (LP0990650) (chief investigators: Sally Treloyn (lead), Allan Marett (University of Sydney) with industry partners Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre and MAACC), and the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship 'Singing the future: assessing the effectiveness of repatriation as a strategy to sustain the vitality of Indigenous song' (FT150100141). Treloyn has had an ongoing relationship with the Mowanjum community and, specifically, stakeholders in the Junba dancesong tradition from Mowanjum and elsewhere. Through ongoing fieldwork and collaborations in the Kimberley, including reciprocal contributions to the development and initiatives of the Dolord Mindi media centre, ongoing consent, tangible benefit and reciprocity are priorities of Treloyn's relationship with the cultural heritage communities referred to in this paper. Treloyn is grateful to the co-authors and the Junba community of the north-west Kimberley for-this ongoing relationship.