Noongar | Jotup

Fusing traditional culture and the violin: how Aboriginal musicians enhanced and maintained community in 20th century Australia

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

The European violin was initially an imposition on Indigenous culture.

Key Points:

The European violin was initially an imposition on Indigenous culture.
But Aboriginal engagement with the violin cannot be exclusively seen as a means of cultural loss.
As my new research shows, Indigenous violin playing throughout 20th century Australia saw Aboriginal people adapting the European violin to fit within ongoing cultural practices.

Western music was often taught to Aboriginal people as a means of demonstrating civility and as preparation for assimilation into white Australian society.
Aboriginal people used music in the creation and preservation of individual, cultural and collective identities.
As historian Anna Haebich writes, Jetta played the violin for local dances, weddings and Nyungar-only campfire gatherings in the bush.
Read more:
An Ode To My Grandmother: remaking the past using oral histories, theatre and music

Music was provided by an Aboriginal jazz band playing locally made violins, banjos, steel guitars and gum leaves.
This couple walking down the aisle as these musicians played the Wedding March provides a rich evocation of the way western instruments were incorporated into Aboriginal music and events on their own terms.

An article from the Northern Champion in 1934 recounts a concert and corroboree that occurred in Purfleet, New South Wales, for the local “townspeople”.
The first part of the program was devoted to songs and native dances, followed by a corroboree which illustrated elements of native lore.
Each instrument was homemade and included single-string fiddles, violins and ukuleles made from tea chests.

These historical violinists are the predecessors of creative and innovative Indigenous string players who enrich our contemporary cultural life today.
Noongar violist, composer and conductor Aaron Wyatt made history in 2022 as the first Indigenous conductor of a state orchestra.

Retrieved on:

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Noongar Country of southwestern Australia is home to the world’s largest parasitic plant, a mighty mistletoe that blooms every December.

Key Points:

Noongar Country of southwestern Australia is home to the world’s largest parasitic plant, a mighty mistletoe that blooms every December.
And it holds great significance for Noongar people including the Merningar people of the south coast.
This is also the case for Noongar people, whose traditional diet reflects the biological richness of their Country.

But it’s also called mungee by Merningar and other southern Noongar groups.
Being mostly Merningar, we call it mungee and use that term here.
Read more:
To address the ecological crisis, Aboriginal peoples must be restored as custodians of Country

Mungee tells specific stories through where it lives, the plants it lives with, and when it flowers.
For Merningar, mungee is a powerful medium that helps restless spirits move on to the afterlife, known to us as Kuuranup.
Senior elder Lynette describes mungee as her teacher, providing guidance on how to exist in Merningar Boodja.

We saw parallels between patches of mungee and the communal kinship structures of Noongar society, where family is more important than individuals.
Before European settlement, extended Noongar families lived in largely separate groups, interconnected with other family groups as part of a wider geopolitical system.
Living a prosperous life within environmental boundaries is achieved by conservatively drawing upon a wide range of resources.

The plant’s unique biology, ingenuity and charisma has long been recognised by Noongar peoples and their lore.
Prolific annual flowers are a memorial to the many old people who have cared for their Boodja through millennia.
A second project worked on by Alison Lullfitz and Steve Hopper is funded by an ARC Discovery Indigenous grant.