Chanted tales from Highland New Guinea: a comparative study of oral performance traditions and their role in contemporary land politics. In parts of Highland PNG there are flourishing traditions of epic-like chanted tales. Often dealing with relationships between people and land, these are a highly valued cultural resource. From the perspective of comparative poetics they are one of the clearest known examples of measured verse that has developed independently of alphabetic or syllabic writing. ....Chanted tales from Highland New Guinea: a comparative study of oral performance traditions and their role in contemporary land politics. In parts of Highland PNG there are flourishing traditions of epic-like chanted tales. Often dealing with relationships between people and land, these are a highly valued cultural resource. From the perspective of comparative poetics they are one of the clearest known examples of measured verse that has developed independently of alphabetic or syllabic writing. This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of investigators to analyse the wide range of styles in which these narratives are performed, and further the understanding of their implications for cross-cultural study of verbal art and the politics of land ownership in present-day Papua New Guinea.Read moreRead less
Strategies for Sustaining Aboriginal Song and Dance in the Modern World: the Mowanjum and Fitzroy River Valley communities of WA. This project makes a major contribution to the community in which it is based by developing an appropriate and efficient model for cultural maintenance and regeneration through repatriation, recording, documentation, and digital dissemination. National benefit derives from the development of a model to preserve and sustain endangered cultural knowledges associated wit ....Strategies for Sustaining Aboriginal Song and Dance in the Modern World: the Mowanjum and Fitzroy River Valley communities of WA. This project makes a major contribution to the community in which it is based by developing an appropriate and efficient model for cultural maintenance and regeneration through repatriation, recording, documentation, and digital dissemination. National benefit derives from the development of a model to preserve and sustain endangered cultural knowledges associated with song and dance, and a pre-emptive strategy for the recovery of almost extinct traditions. National benefit also derives from establishing Australia at the forefront of international efforts to safeguard intangible cultural heritages, by revealing how access to recordings via digital platforms contributes to cultural maintenance and regeneration.Read moreRead less
When the Waters Will Be One: Indigenous Performance Traditions at the New Frontier of Inter-Cultural Discourse in Arnhem Land. This project will examine the emerging roles of Indigenous performance traditions from Arnhem Land as fulcra for the strategic development of new discourses between peoples of the region and the international community. The adaptation of music and dance traditions to new media and performance contexts will be considered as will the hereditary intellectual paradigms that ....When the Waters Will Be One: Indigenous Performance Traditions at the New Frontier of Inter-Cultural Discourse in Arnhem Land. This project will examine the emerging roles of Indigenous performance traditions from Arnhem Land as fulcra for the strategic development of new discourses between peoples of the region and the international community. The adaptation of music and dance traditions to new media and performance contexts will be considered as will the hereditary intellectual paradigms that underpin these processes. This project will also investigate historical antecedents to these new developments within the past 50 years, and explore their centrality to current attempts by Indigenous communities in Arnhem Land to achieve cultural and economic sustainability amid a continuing period of radical social change.Read moreRead less
Music, Arousal, and Mood: The Role of Loudness and Loudness Change in Cross-Cultural Music Perception. Despite decades of research into perception of Western music there are no studies applying experimental methods to perception of traditional Australian music. This project investigates a parameter present in all auditory events, from animal songs and alarms to music and speech: loudness. Results concerning the universality of loudness change and effects on mood and arousal will be reported to a ....Music, Arousal, and Mood: The Role of Loudness and Loudness Change in Cross-Cultural Music Perception. Despite decades of research into perception of Western music there are no studies applying experimental methods to perception of traditional Australian music. This project investigates a parameter present in all auditory events, from animal songs and alarms to music and speech: loudness. Results concerning the universality of loudness change and effects on mood and arousal will be reported to academic and local communities. Understanding how people experience loudness has implications for non-musical uses of sound, eg. more effective uses of loudness in non-verbal auditory warnings. Identifying effects of loudness on arousal and mood is also relevant to research on therapeutic or harmful effects of music and other sounds. Read moreRead less
Indigenising the Semantic Web: Ontologies for Indigenous knowledge and heritage resources on a machine-readable Web. This project will put Australia at the forefront of international efforts to realise a functioning Semantic Web in which all data transactions are handled by machines talking to machines. It addresses the government's call for the creation of infrastructure and e-research tools that enable high-speed distributed access to Indigenous knowledge and culture resources, and its outcome ....Indigenising the Semantic Web: Ontologies for Indigenous knowledge and heritage resources on a machine-readable Web. This project will put Australia at the forefront of international efforts to realise a functioning Semantic Web in which all data transactions are handled by machines talking to machines. It addresses the government's call for the creation of infrastructure and e-research tools that enable high-speed distributed access to Indigenous knowledge and culture resources, and its outcomes will revolutionise the way that these resources are managed, accessed and understood by users everywhere. Indigenous communities will benefit from increased protections for knowledge and heritage resources, and ability to access these in instantaneously customisable ways that promote wellbeing.Read moreRead less
Acoustics of the Didjeridu. We shall undertake a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of the acoustics of the didjeridu-lips-vocal tract system. There is very little published technical literature on the dynamic acoustics of this important and uniquely Australian instrument, whose operation is surprisingly complex. A combination of stroboscopic measurements of lip motion, acoustic and vocal tract impedance measurements, MRI imaging of the vocal tract and computer modeling will be use ....Acoustics of the Didjeridu. We shall undertake a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of the acoustics of the didjeridu-lips-vocal tract system. There is very little published technical literature on the dynamic acoustics of this important and uniquely Australian instrument, whose operation is surprisingly complex. A combination of stroboscopic measurements of lip motion, acoustic and vocal tract impedance measurements, MRI imaging of the vocal tract and computer modeling will be used to synthesize all components of the acoustic system into one quantitative model. The expected outcome will be an understanding of this instrument of unparalleled detail.Read moreRead less
Melpa Kang Rom: A chanted narrative genre from Highland New Guinea and its role in contemporary electoral politics. Across a large region of Highland PNG there are flourishing traditions of chanted tales. These are the subject of a current ARC Discovery project based at ANU, which focuses on both the poetic features of these genres and on their political uses. We seek to augment this project through the participation of Dr. Joseph Ketan, an anthropologist with unique qualifications in that he co ....Melpa Kang Rom: A chanted narrative genre from Highland New Guinea and its role in contemporary electoral politics. Across a large region of Highland PNG there are flourishing traditions of chanted tales. These are the subject of a current ARC Discovery project based at ANU, which focuses on both the poetic features of these genres and on their political uses. We seek to augment this project through the participation of Dr. Joseph Ketan, an anthropologist with unique qualifications in that he comes from the project area, with an insider's knowledge of a local genre of chanted tales and its contexts of use in electoral campaigns, and with extensive previous research in relevant areas of political anthropology. The project will contribute to the cross-cultural study of verbal art, and to and the understanding of contemporary electoral politics in PNG.Read moreRead less
Planning for Sustainability of the National Indigenous Recording Project: a pilot project. This pilot project lays the essential groundwork for Yothu Yindi Foundation to carry out the National Recording Project for Indigenous Music, which will aim to record, document and archive today's leading performers of traditional music across Australia. Through workshops and community consultations, the pilot project will allow the Chief Investigators to collaborate with YYF to develop appropriate recordi ....Planning for Sustainability of the National Indigenous Recording Project: a pilot project. This pilot project lays the essential groundwork for Yothu Yindi Foundation to carry out the National Recording Project for Indigenous Music, which will aim to record, document and archive today's leading performers of traditional music across Australia. Through workshops and community consultations, the pilot project will allow the Chief Investigators to collaborate with YYF to develop appropriate recording and documentation methods that are sensitive to indigenous priorities and conformant with international best practice.Read moreRead less
Performing Indigenous Sovereignty: Aboriginal Australian commercial performances 1800-1949. This project strengthens our understanding of Australia's place in the world and enhances our capacity to interpret ourselves by substantially enriching knowledge about Australian race relations in the nineteenth century. This new knowledge about Indigenous participation within the material and cultural economies of Australia adds significant new dimensions to Australian cultural history. This also contr ....Performing Indigenous Sovereignty: Aboriginal Australian commercial performances 1800-1949. This project strengthens our understanding of Australia's place in the world and enhances our capacity to interpret ourselves by substantially enriching knowledge about Australian race relations in the nineteenth century. This new knowledge about Indigenous participation within the material and cultural economies of Australia adds significant new dimensions to Australian cultural history. This also contributes to Australia's internationally recognised leadership in cross-cultural performance studies, informing pedagogy and scholarship. This project has the added benefit of contributing to the mental health and well being of Indigenous people by reclaiming positive elements of their cultural history since colonisation.Read moreRead less
Preserving Australia's endangered heritages: Murrinhpatha song at Wadeye. This project will produce authoritative, thorough and archivally sound musicological and linguistic documentation of one of Australia's most vibrant indigenous song traditions, the public dance songs of Murrinhpatha people at Wadeye, NT. We will work with traditional owners to document three song genres (Dhanba, Wurlthirri, and Malkarrin) in the light of their historical and contemporary interrelationships with other local ....Preserving Australia's endangered heritages: Murrinhpatha song at Wadeye. This project will produce authoritative, thorough and archivally sound musicological and linguistic documentation of one of Australia's most vibrant indigenous song traditions, the public dance songs of Murrinhpatha people at Wadeye, NT. We will work with traditional owners to document three song genres (Dhanba, Wurlthirri, and Malkarrin) in the light of their historical and contemporary interrelationships with other local genres. More broadly, we will assess the song corpus as endangered cultural heritage of national and international significance, and will develop and apply appropriate electronic media interfaces to ensure longterm conservation and accessibility of the research within the community and outside.Read moreRead less