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As an ethnography of Central Australian singing traditions and ceremonial contexts, this book asks questions about the vitality of the cultural knowledge and practices highly valued by Warlpiri people and fundamental to their cultural heritage. Set against a discussion of the contemporary vitality of Aboriginal musical traditions in Australia and embedded in the historical background of this region, the book lays out the features of Warlpiri songs and ceremonies, and centers on a focal case study of the Warlpiri Kurdiji ceremony to illustrate the modes in which core cultural themes are being passed on through song to future generations.
“I believe the book to provide quite a fascinating and up-to-date glimpse of Warlpiri music, a people who have had many academic collaborators, but whose musical traditions have not received sustained attention in recent years.” • Peter Toner, St. Thomas University
“This is a richly detailed ethnography of Warlpiri ritual and song… [It] offers a deeply textured analysis of the Kurdiji ceremony which unpacks the ceremonial structure of kin relations, the dances of ‘travelling ancestral women’ and the semantics of the song series performed by the men.” • Fiona Magowan, Queen’s University Belfast
List of Illustrations, Maps and Figures
Foreword
Otto Jungarrayi Sims
Acknowledgments
Notes on Text
Chapter 1. Song and ceremony in Indigenous Australia
Chapter 2. Yuendumu: A Brief Social History
Chapter 3. Warlpiri Songs: Rights, Genres, and Ceremonial Contexts
Chapter 4. Kurdiji, a Ceremony for "Making Young Men"
Chapter 5. Holding Warlpiri Songs: Addressing Musical Endangerment
Conclusion
Appendix of songs from the Kurdiji Ceremony
Glossary
References
Index