When the echoes are gone : a Yolngu musical anthropology

Abstract

Music is ubiquitous in the social life of the Yolngu people of northeast Arnhem Land in northern Australia. Not only does it accompany virtually every phase of ritual, including dance, painting, and the production of sacred objects, but it is frequently performed in non-ritual contexts as well, purely for the enjoyment of performers and listeners alike. As such, an understanding of music provides a unique and privileged point of entry into the study of Yolngu culture as a whole. The ethnomusicologist Anthony Seeger has written that an anthropology of music examines the ways in which music is an integral part of culture, while in contrast a musical anthropology examines the ways in which culture is musical and aspects of culture are created and re-created through musical performance. This dissertation is a work of musical anthropology. I provide a detailed examination of the form, content, and meaning of the songs of one particular group of Yolngu, the Dhalwangu people of the community of Gapuwiyak, N.T. I then employ this understanding of Dhalwangu songs to examine three aspects of Yolngu culture which have been subject to intense scrutiny in the Arnhem Land ethnographic literature: sociality, connections to country, and social change. I will demonstrate that musical structures and musical performances contribute significantly to the production and reproduction of these and other aspects of Dhalwangu culture. Yolngu culture is indeed musical, and a Yolngu musical anthropology enables a greater understanding of Yolngu culture in all its beauty, variety, and complexity.