{"id":17373,"date":"2021-05-25T10:58:38","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T08:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.auxsons.com\/?post_type=focus&p=17373"},"modified":"2021-05-25T14:29:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T12:29:22","slug":"indigenous-song-keepers-reveal-traditional-ecological-knowledge-in-music","status":"publish","type":"focus","link":"https:\/\/www.auxsons.com\/en\/focus\/indigenous-song-keepers-reveal-traditional-ecological-knowledge-in-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous song keepers reveal traditional ecological knowledge in music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since the beginning of time, music has been a way of communicating observations of and experiences about the world. For Indigenous Peoples who have lived within their traditional territories for generations, music is a repository of ecological knowledge, with songs embedding ancestors\u2019 knowledge, teachings and wisdom.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The music carries the word of the ancestors across time, transmitting key knowledge from deep in our sacred memory. Academics are just beginning to see the deep significance of these songs and the knowledge they carry and some are working with Indigenous collaborators to unlock their teachings.<\/p>\n

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At the same time, non-Indigenous researchers and the general public are becoming aware of the historic and current loss of songs. Indigenous communities are also grappling with what this means. The loss of songs was brought on by brought on by<\/a><\/strong> colonization, forced enrollment<\/a> in residential schools<\/a><\/strong> and the passing of the last of the traditionally trained knowledge holders and song keepers.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Here in 2014, Coral Napangardi Gallagher and Tess Napalajarri Ross, two Warlpiri women, from Yuendumu, central Australia, perform a mimetic dance on their knees. They are depicting a scene from a song about a child who attempts to take seed paste from a coolamon but is fought off by the mother as she grinds the seeds. <\/span>(Margaret Carew)<\/span>, Author provided<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Time-honoured global traditions<\/h2>\n

A recent special issue of the Journal of Ethnobiology<\/a><\/em><\/strong> celebrates the power of traditional songs as storehouses of traditional ecological knowledge.<\/p>\n

Nine articles are rich accounts of Indigenous Peoples\u2019 time-honoured music-making traditions. These range from women\u2019s songs relating to wild seeds in Australia<\/a><\/strong>, to improvisational singing traditions in Siberia<\/strong><\/a>, to the use of turtle shell rattles<\/a><\/strong> across the United States and the hunting songs of Amazonian hunter-gatherers<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Although traditional music is threatened by past government-sanctioned actions and laws, with much already lost, Indigenous Peoples globally continue to use music in sacred and ritual contexts and celebrate their traditional songs.<\/p>\n

The lyrics in traditional songs are themselves imbued with meaning and history. Traditional songs often encode and model the proper, respectful way for humans, non-humans and the natural and supernatural realms to interact and intersect.<\/p>\n

A Tsimane\u2019 woman in Bolivian Amazonia playing a handmade wooden violin. Violins came to the Tsimane\u2019 through contact with missionaries. Today, some Tsimane\u2019 play the violin while singing traditional songs, illustrating the adaptive nature of Indigenous music. <\/span>(\u00c1lvaro Fern\u00e1ndez-Llamazares)<\/span>, Author provided<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In many Indigenous cultures, songs recount detailed biocultural knowledge that sits in specific places and thus can also document rights to, and responsibilities for, traditional territories.<\/p>\n

Inspired by potlatch speaker<\/h2>\n
<\/a>
Kwaxsistalla Wathl\u2019thla singing the starfish song.<\/span><\/em>
\n(Randy Bouchard)<\/span>, Author provided<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his role as ninogaad<\/em> (culturally trained specialist), Kwaxsistalla Wathl\u2019thla was the last culturally trained potlatch speaker. The cultural practice of potlatching is a central organizing structure of northern Northwest Coast peoples.<\/p>\n

The special issue was inspired by Kwaxsistalla Wathl\u2019thla Clan Chief Adam Dick<\/a><\/strong>.
\nKwaxsistalla Wathl\u2019thla was a trained Clan Chief, held four pa\u2019sa<\/em> chieftain seats, and among many other roles, was the keeper of hundreds of songs about the Kwakwaka\u2019wakw people, their traditional territory in coastal British Columbia, and all aspects of their lives and their ritual world<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

For instance, among the Temiar singers of the Malaysian rainforest<\/a> <\/strong>\u2014 who often receive their songs in dreams from deceased people and who believe all living beings are capable of having \u201cpersonhood\u201d \u2014 dream-songs help mediate peoples\u2019 relationships with these other beings.<\/p>\n