Sound recordings as maruy among the Aborigines of the Daly region of north west Australia
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Open Access
Type
Conference paperAuthor/s
Marett, AllanAbstract
This paper reflects on a set of anxieties concerning the relationship between living traditions of song and dance and the body of audio recordings of these traditions that have been generated in the course of my research. To what extent can the recordings be considered representative ...
See moreThis paper reflects on a set of anxieties concerning the relationship between living traditions of song and dance and the body of audio recordings of these traditions that have been generated in the course of my research. To what extent can the recordings be considered representative of the performance tradition and what role do they play in my research methodology? What are the best ways to make these recordings available to the communities from which they emanated? It seems almost inevitable that we should use our recordings as a lens through which to view aspects of a musical culture, and that the imperfection of the lens should cause us concern. But how do our interlocutors regard the recordings? How are they framed within their culture? To what extent does an understanding of these matters free us from our anxieties? In this paper I will examine how people in the Daly region of North Australia locate sound recordings within their cosmology, and how they, and other Aboriginal people in northern Australia, use archival recordings as integral elements of their traditions as sources for new creativity, to assist in the recovery of forgotten songs, as educational resources and as the focal point of discussions with visiting researchers. I will also discuss ways in which these insights have affected the design of a local archive set up in 2002 in the Daly community of Belyuen.
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See moreThis paper reflects on a set of anxieties concerning the relationship between living traditions of song and dance and the body of audio recordings of these traditions that have been generated in the course of my research. To what extent can the recordings be considered representative of the performance tradition and what role do they play in my research methodology? What are the best ways to make these recordings available to the communities from which they emanated? It seems almost inevitable that we should use our recordings as a lens through which to view aspects of a musical culture, and that the imperfection of the lens should cause us concern. But how do our interlocutors regard the recordings? How are they framed within their culture? To what extent does an understanding of these matters free us from our anxieties? In this paper I will examine how people in the Daly region of North Australia locate sound recordings within their cosmology, and how they, and other Aboriginal people in northern Australia, use archival recordings as integral elements of their traditions as sources for new creativity, to assist in the recovery of forgotten songs, as educational resources and as the focal point of discussions with visiting researchers. I will also discuss ways in which these insights have affected the design of a local archive set up in 2002 in the Daly community of Belyuen.
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Date
2004-01-01Publisher
Open Conference Systems, University of Sydney, Faculty of ArtsLicence
This material is copyright. Other than for the purposes of and subject to the conditions prescribed under the Copyright Act, no part of it may in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, microcopying, photocopying, recording or otherwise) be altered, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted without prior written permission from the University of Sydney Library and/or the appropriate author.Citation
Marett, Allan. “Sound recordings as maruy among the Aborigines of the Daly region of north west Australia”. Researchers, Communities, Institutions, Sound Recordings, eds. Linda Barwick, Allan Marett, Jane Simpson and Amanda Harris. Sydney: University of Sydney, 2003.Share