This is an Open Access book licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence.

Vitality and Change in Warlpiri Songs

Juju-ngaliyarlu karnalu-jana pina-pina-mani kurdu-warnu-patu jujuku

Edited by Georgia Curran, Linda Barwick, Valerie Napaljarri Martin, Simon Japangardi Fisher and Nicolas Peterson

ISBN: 9781743329061

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.30722/sup.9781743329061

Publication date: 01 March 2024

Series: Indigenous Music, Language and Performing Arts

Warlpiri songs hold together the ceremonies that structure and bind social relationships, and encode detailed information about Warlpiri country, cosmology and kinship. Today, only a small group of the oldest generations has full knowledge of ceremonial songs and their associated meanings, and there is widespread concern about the transmission of these songs to future generations. 
 
While musical and cultural change is normal, threats to attrition driven by large-scale external forces including sedentarisation and modernisation put strain on the systems of social relationships that have sustained Warlpiri cultures for millennia. Despite these concerns, songs remain key to Warlpiri identity and cultural heritage. 
 
Vitality and Change in Warlpiri Songs draws together insights from senior Warlpiri singers and custodians of these song traditions, profiling a number of senior singers and their views of the changes that they have witnessed over their lifetimes. The chapters in this book are written by Warlpiri custodians in collaboration with researchers who have worked in Warlpiri communities over the last five decades. 
 
Spanning interdisciplinary perspectives including musicology, linguistics, anthropology, cultural studies, dance ethnography and gender studies, chapters range from documentation of well-known and large-scale Warlpiri ceremonies, to detailed analysis of smaller-scale public rituals and the motivations behind newer innovative forms of ceremonial expression. 
 
Vitality and Change in Warlpiri Songs ultimately uncovers the complexity entailed in maintaining the vital components of classical Warlpiri singing practices and the deep desires that Warlpiri people have to maintain this important element of their cultural identity into the future.

About the authors

Georgia Curran is an anthropologist who has undertaken collaborative projects in Warlpiri communities since 2005. She is currently a research fellow at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. 

Linda Barwick is a musicologist collaborating with First Nations communities in Australia since 1985 and Italian communities since 1979. She is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. 

Valerie Napaljarri Martin is a Director of PAW Media and Communications, based in Yuendumu, Central Australia. She has a Lifetime Achievement award for her contributions in the First Nations media sector. 

Simon Japangardi Fisher is a Director and Archives Researcher at PAW Media and Communications housed at Warlpiri Media Aboriginal Corporation, based in Yuendumu, Central Australia. 

Nicolas Peterson is emeritus professor of anthropology at the Australia National University. In conjunction with others he has written three land claims for the Warlpiri and two native title claims including for the heartland of Ngaliya Warlpiri people, Mt Doreen Station.

This is an Open Access book licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence.

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tweets

TY  - BOOK
PY  - 2024
TI  - Vitality and Change in Warlpiri Songs: Juju-ngaliyarlu karnalu-jana pina-pina-mani kurdu-warnu-patu jujuku
AB  - Warlpiri songs hold together the ceremonies that structure and bind social relationships, and encode detailed information about Warlpiri country, cosmology and kinship. Today, only a small group of the oldest generations has full knowledge of ceremonial songs and their associated meanings, and there is widespread concern about the transmission of these songs to future generations. While musical and cultural change is normal, threats to attrition driven by large-scale external forces including sedentarisation and modernisation put strain on the systems of social relationships that have sustained Warlpiri cultures for millennia. Despite these concerns, songs remain key to Warlpiri identity and cultural heritage. Vitality and Change in Warlpiri Songs draws together insights from senior Warlpiri singers and custodians of these song traditions, profiling a number of senior singers and their views of the changes that they have witnessed over their lifetimes. The chapters in this book are written by Warlpiri custodians in collaboration with researchers who have worked in Warlpiri communities over the last five decades. Spanning interdisciplinary perspectives including musicology, linguistics, anthropology, cultural studies, dance ethnography and gender studies, chapters range from documentation of well-known and large-scale Warlpiri ceremonies, to detailed analysis of smaller-scale public rituals and the motivations behind newer innovative forms of ceremonial expression. Vitality and Change in Warlpiri Songs ultimately uncovers the complexity entailed in maintaining the vital components of classical Warlpiri singing practices and the deep desires that Warlpiri people have to maintain this important element of their cultural identity into the future.
PB  - Sydney University Press
CY  - Sydney
SN  - 9781743329061
DO  - https://dx.doi.org/10.30722/sup.9781743329061
SE  - 382
ER  -
@book{2024,
abstract = {Warlpiri songs hold together the ceremonies that structure and bind social relationships, and encode detailed information about Warlpiri country, cosmology and kinship. Today, only a small group of the oldest generations has full knowledge of ceremonial songs and their associated meanings, and there is widespread concern about the transmission of these songs to future generations. While musical and cultural change is normal, threats to attrition driven by large-scale external forces including sedentarisation and modernisation put strain on the systems of social relationships that have sustained Warlpiri cultures for millennia. Despite these concerns, songs remain key to Warlpiri identity and cultural heritage. Vitality and Change in Warlpiri Songs draws together insights from senior Warlpiri singers and custodians of these song traditions, profiling a number of senior singers and their views of the changes that they have witnessed over their lifetimes. The chapters in this book are written by Warlpiri custodians in collaboration with researchers who have worked in Warlpiri communities over the last five decades. Spanning interdisciplinary perspectives including musicology, linguistics, anthropology, cultural studies, dance ethnography and gender studies, chapters range from documentation of well-known and large-scale Warlpiri ceremonies, to detailed analysis of smaller-scale public rituals and the motivations behind newer innovative forms of ceremonial expression. Vitality and Change in Warlpiri Songs ultimately uncovers the complexity entailed in maintaining the vital components of classical Warlpiri singing practices and the deep desires that Warlpiri people have to maintain this important element of their cultural identity into the future.},
address = {Sydney},
author = {},
doi = {https://dx.doi.org/10.30722/sup.9781743329061},
isbn = {9781743329061},
pages = {382},
publisher = {Sydney University Press},
subtitle = {Juju-ngaliyarlu karnalu-jana pina-pina-mani kurdu-warnu-patu jujuku},
title = {Vitality and Change in Warlpiri Songs},
year = {2024}
}