This book is an output of a four-year project on which the editors (and several chapter authors) have collaborated since 2018. Our project Reclaiming Performance Under Assimilation in Southeastern Australia, 1935–75 was funded by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project Scheme from 2018 to 2022 (DP180100943). It arose from conversations between Amanda Harris, Linda Barwick, Rachel Fensham, Tiriki Onus, Jakelin Troy, Jacqueline Shea Murphy, Matt Poll, Lyndon Ormond-Parker and Sally Treloyn about histories of the resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their practices of performing music and dance that deserve to be more widely known. We devised a project around detailed archival research, collaborative sharing and workshopping of materials, and creative methods of recuperation and reconnection. This book brings together some of the creative and scholarly work that has resulted.
Along with our initial project collaborators, we extend our thanks for research support to Sharon Huebner, Adnan Bhatti, Mujahid Torwali, Mahesh White-Radhakrishnan, and especially to Laura Case, whose editorial assistance has been vital to shaping this book. We also thank collaborators on workshops and engagement with archives over the course of the project: Adnan Bhatti, Lou Bennett, Tim Bishop, Nerida Blair, John Casey, Cameron Davison, Jason Fieldhouse, Luke Forbes, Payi Linda Ford and Emily Tyaemaen Ford, Shannon Foster, Michelle Francis, Dennis Fuller, Kaisi Fuller, Selme Fuller, Jennie Ginger, Anna Haebich, Lisa Haldane, Kevin Hunt, Carole Johnson, Regina Kantilla, Anthea Kerinaiua, Jo Kinniburgh, Cathy Mandile, Allan Marett, Sarah Muller, Francis Orsto, Gregoriana Parker, Frances Therese Portaminni, Jonathon Potskin, Augusta Puangatji, Nardi Simpson, Joe Sproats, Judy Sproats, Jacinta Tipungwuti, Jacinta Tobin, Lara Troy-O’Leary, Peter Waples-Crowe, Therese Webster. We thank Sydney University Press’s editorial team Susan Murray, Jo Lyons, Nathan Grice and Naomi van Groll, Series Editor Myfany Turpin, and the peer reviewers whose expert comments helped to refine the volume. Finally, we thank all of the contributors to the book for the thinking, expertise, creativity and passion they have poured into their chapters.
Throughout this book we capitalise terms Indigenous, Aboriginal, Native, Country, Elders, Dreaming, and render words in Indigenous languages in roman font (not-italicised), except where they are rendered as glosses on the main text.