Aboriginal wedding ceremony

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Ceremonial performances are seen as the core of cultural life. For example, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders these ceremonies bring together all aspects of their culture – song, dance, body decoration, sculpture and painting.

Ludo Kuipers, Anny Nungarrayi (centre) with other Warlpiri women perform a traditional dance during the 'Purlapa Wiri' Aboriginal dance festival in Alekarenge (Ali Curung or Warrabri), an Aboriginal community near Tennant Creek, 1976. Courtesy of OzOutback Internet Services.

Music, song, ceremony, performance and dance was and is still today a very important part of Aboriginal life and customs. There were songs for every occasion, some of which were expressed in special ceremonies.

Ceremony

Songs and dances were exchanged often at large ceremonial gatherings when many people gathered together and when trade goods were also exchanged. These gatherings often occurred at a time and place when there was plenty of food.

Ceremony is the underlying basis of Indigenous song, music, dance and visual arts. Ceremony contains many significant elements, some of which are specifically related to depicting Dreaming stories. Sometimes these expressions of music, art, song, dance and performance are seen as separate commodities in the Western world. However, from an Aboriginal perspective they are all part of a complex whole.

Song

Senior artist and elder David Mowaljarlai OAM (1928–1997) once stated 'song was the first idea, the principle of sharing which underlies our system'. Each song, like each design or painting is part of a moment in a larger story. Songs make up a song series or a 'songline' which is a map of the country based on the travels of the Dreaming ancestors. To knowledgeable Aboriginal people, seeing a painting or a design will call to mind a song. Many senior painters sing as they paint the story of the song.

Indigenous popular musicians tend not to write straight love songs. They are more likely to write about subjects important to their communities, especially land and community issues as well as protest songs. Songs about land relate their love of and identification with country, loss of land and attempts to return to one's country. Community issues addressed in songs include alcohol and keeping culture.

Kev Carmody says that music is an expression of:

culture, and the reality of a certain place and time...I'd rather play around the campfire, do it like that. That's where the music's created.
From Little Things Big Things Grow, documentary film, 1993

Kev Carmody. Courtesy of Kev Carmody.

Despite the great variety of song types from different areas, there are some common underlying features. Traditional songs are usually specific to local areas, often referencing local geographic features particular local animal species, historical events or the social environment.

In a ceremonial context, songs are seen as having a non-human origin. Old songs, evoking powerful Dreaming stories, are said to be created by the Dreaming beings themselves as they created the country in its present form. New songs may also be dreamed by individuals. The song text can evoke a complex web of associations and meaning for people who have extensive and specific local knowledge of country.

Bearing in mind that a performance of a central Australian songline may consist of hundreds of different song texts, the depth of knowledge it embodies and that is required for its decipherment is staggering. Truly the long song series of Australia are among the most impressive monuments of human culture.
Linda Barwick, The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture

Didgeridoo

Penny Tweedie, Aboriginal boys with didgeridoo and clap sticks at Dukaladjarranj, an important Dreaming site in Rembarrnga country, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, 1999, colour transparency. Image courtesy of Penny Tweedie.

Today, didgeridoo, painting and video clips may be the first point of contact with Aboriginal culture for an international audience. The didgeridoo has became the major symbol of Aboriginal music. The popularity of the didgeridoo amongst alternative Western peoples has raised concerns that the didgeridoo has been taken out of its original music context. These issues are addressed by Top End, Northern Territory, Aboriginal people through different websites, publications and conferences.

However, not all Aboriginal groups had didgeridoos which were originally found in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia and known as 'yidaki'. The didgeridoo is possibly the world's oldest musical instrument and is made from limbs and tree trunks hollowed out by termites (insects) creating a wind instrument.

Torres Strait Islands and Christine Anu

In contrast, Torres Strait Islander music is predominantly vocal with percussion accompaniment. Island songs are performed in two or three-part harmony which are improvised by the singers. A beat is always maintained for the singers and dancers on a large, waisted drum. ARIA award-winning singer, Christine Anu, from the Torres Strait has made her signature song My Island Home, an anthem for reconciliation among younger Australians after singing it at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Indigenous rock and folk

Music is one of the primary means by which Indigenous Australians maintain their identity and culture. There are many music types which flourish across Australia including Aboriginal rock and folk music. Coloured Stone, a band from Koonibba, South Australia, who fuse reggae, country-western and rock genres while making use of didgeridoo and Indigenous language words, wrote the hit songs Black Boy and Kapi Pulka (Big Rain).The Pigram Brothers combine harmonies with layers of acoustic guitars, dobros, mandolins and slide guitars to tell tales of their Broome lifestyle and community. Archie Roach, from Warrnambool, Victoria is well known for his protest songs including Took the children away. Prominent Yolngu band Yothu Yindi, from north-east Arnhem Land, has found a position in mainstream music industry, believing that they are a stepping stone to reconciliation, writing the hit song Treaty.

In the early 1970s Jimmy Little was acknowledged as one of Australia's premier country music stars, having made a hit single with pop song Royal Telephone in 1963. Although mostly recognised for country musical style, Jimmy dabbled with orchestral sounds (1972), reggae (1983). Jimmy found wide recognition with Brendan Gallagher, a musician and producer, when they recorded, in 1999, an album of mainly alternative and classic Australian rock songs from the 1980s. The resulting album Messenger was an immediate success reaching the top ten of the alternative music charts in 1999, winning an ARIA award for Adult contemporary album.