“We Are Australian”: an Ethnographic Investigation of the Convergence of Community Music and Reconciliation

“We are Australian”: An ethnographic investigation of the convergence of community music and reconciliation. “We are Australian”: An ethnographic investigation of the convergence of community music and reconciliation. Julie Ann Rickwood Interdisciplinary Cross-Cultural Research Programme Research School of Humanities and the Arts The Australian National University 21 June 2013 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The Australian National University Canberra Statement of Authorship I hereby declare that this thesis is entirely my own work. This thesis contains no material previously published or written by myself or another person, except where reference is made in the thesis itself. This thesis has not previously been submitted towards a degree or diploma in any university or other higher education institution. Julie Rickwood 21 June 2013 This research project has received clearance from the Human Research Ethics Committee at the Australian National University: Protocol 2009/337 Indigenous readers are advised that the thesis contains names and images of deceased individuals. IN MEMORY OF JEANNETTE HENNESSY-WRIGHT, 1957-2011: A SINGER IN A COMMUNITY CHOIR, A LONG TERM FRIEND AND A DETERMINED WOMAN And the first sound I heard in my heavens was the sound of moving air becoming the wind. Richard Lewis 1991 The second sound I heard in my heavens was the sound of many voices blending into one. Julie Rickwood 2013 IN RECOGNITION OF THE YOTHU YINDI FRONTMAN, 1956-2013: A MUSICAN, EDUCATOR AND CAMPAIGNER FOR RECONCILIATION “On the last day of National Reconciliation Week (Mabo Day) we are extremely saddened to learn of the passing of Yothu Yindi frontman Dr Yunupingu, who died overnight at his home in Yirrkala, East Arnhem Land following a long battle with kidney disease. Dr Yunupingu was an inspiration to all Australians; a passionate advocate for reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians, and was named 1992 Australian of the Year for his commitment to reconciliation and work as a musician and educator.” Dr Tom Calma AO and Ms Melinda Cilento Co-Chairs of Reconciliation Australia 2013 Acknowledgements I have many colleagues, friends and family with whom to share my gratitude. I am sure to have forgotten some and will gloss over others in the need for brevity. For those not mentioned individually know that I have greatly appreciated your input. To the singers of the community choirs, thank you for your voices and your friendships. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your musical endeavours. To the choral leaders, musical directors, music organisations, arts organisations, and festival directors thank you for your willingness to be part of my research. The generosity of spirit and the openness to talk freely have been greatly appreciated. Some of your voices will be referenced, many are not. Know that even if not quoted directly, or indeed included in the bibliography, all conversations have informed the thesis. Importantly, I want to thank a fine collaborator, Rachel Hore, for ongoing conversations and support of my work. My profound gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Howard Morphy, Director of the Research School of Humanities and the Arts and the 2013 Huxley Memorial Medallist, and to my advisors, Dr Ruth Lee Martin, Senior Lecturer at the School of Music, and Dr Sarah Scott, Convenor, Museums and Collections, for their sound guidance, encouragement and practical support. They have been stimulating commentators throughout my project. To my cohort of doctoral students at the Sir Roland Wilson Building (SRWB) I am grateful for the support, friendship, collegiality, good humour, fine lunches at our workplace picnic table, and social evenings to unwind. I thank many of those same students and the convenors of the Thesis Writing Group, Professor Paul Pickering and Emeritus Professor Alastair McLachlan for the insightful critique on the early drafts of my chapters. Many academic and administrative staff members at the SRWB have also been valuable colleagues. Importantly I thank Jonathan O’Neill, Elen Turner, Hamish Dalley, Alec O’Halloran, Kathy Chen, Sophie McIntyre, Pam McGrath, Nigel Lendon, Jodi Neal, Robyn McKenzie, Jilda Simpson, Rebekah (Bek) Plueckhahn, Dorothy Horsfield, Dewi Cut, Tzu-Yu Chiu, Jo Victoria, Jacqueline (Jac) D’Arcy, Catherine Smith, Ursula Frederick, Katie Hayne, Pip Deveson, Alison French, Maryam Rushidi, Ann Jones and Emma Arnold. i I would also like to thank my cohort of postgraduate students at the School of Music and the convenors of that group, Professor Stephen Wild and Professor Aaron Corn, as well as the staff and postgraduate students at the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology who were important companions for theoretical discussions and commentators on my research in the early stage of the project. Gratitude goes to my colleagues in the various professional societies to which I belong: the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (ANZ), the Musicological Society of Australia, and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. Their collegiality, friendship, sociability and feedback on conference papers have been paramount to the completion of this thesis and the publications that have emerged from it. The organisations have also often provided grants to support attendance at conferences. My candidature was significantly supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award and field research funding was provided by the Australian National University (ANU). The ANU also provided funding for me to present at national and international conferences and for some brief comparative research in the United Kingdom (UK). I thank Kingston University for allowing me visitor status and Dr Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg for her supervision and friendship. Cheers to the singers, music event organisers, and other academic colleagues in the UK for their hospitality and generosity. I hope to return to further those tentative investigations. I am indebted to my close friends and family. They have encouraged and supported this journey. I especially thank my son, Mitchell Goodfellow, and his partner, Lucy Stevenson, fellow postgraduate students who understand the challenges faced and the need for enriching family times too. My very good friends, Jane Ingall and Andrew Stuart, have been uniquely present throughout this project, providing weekly meals, entertainment, laughter, holidays, and more. Jane, together with the other members of “the Aunts” (Somebody’s Aunt Dance Ensemble) - Helen, Anne, Margy, Robyn, Heather, Jackie, Claudia and Zsuzsi - have provided essential creative nourishment. Thanks must also go to my proof-reader, Sue Andrews. ii Abstract This thesis examines the convergence of the community music movement and the reconciliation movement in Australia. It analyses the contextualised, contested and complicated nature of the movements as well as the expression of the convergence in community choral events and choirs that bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous singers into the layered and textured lived experienced of ‘singing in between’. The community music movement in Australia reclaims music, making it accessible to everyone. It declares the individual and social benefits of making music, particularly with others. The reconciliation movement prompts cross-cultural engagement, recognition of Indigenous contributions to Australia, and, most recently, constitutional change. It seeks, of course, reconciliation between Australia’s Indigenous and non- Indigenous peoples. Both these popular movements provide opportunities for engagement in social and cultural justice. Both movements, however, are embedded with rhetorical discourses and threaded with notions that cloud and clutter. As a multi-sited ethnography the thesis provides a methodological and theoretical foundation that delivers a descriptive and interpretative analysis of the specific and localised expressions from case study choirs based in South East Australia, South West Australia and Central Australia. An interdisciplinary research project, the thesis also examines field research methodology and the creation of intimacy and knowledge, engaging with discussions within ethnomusicology and other disciplines about these aspects of ethnographic research. The thesis engages with academic research from numerous disciplines: Ethnomusicology, Anthropology, Musicology, Popular Music Research, Cultural Studies, Sociology, Cultural Geography, Music Psychology, History and others. It draws on publications on and from within Community Music, Reconciliation, Arts, and Community Development. I incorporate the voices of the singers through conversations, comments and communication and through the publications and documents of choirs, choir leaders, and music organisations, including their online presence. iii In this thesis I provide a snapshot of the way in which the community interactions explore, express and represent reconciliation through music making, and in so doing, how they prompt the reshaping of individual, local and national notions of identity, community and the practice of music. iv Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ i Abstract ........................................................................................................................ iii Prelude Reflection on an ethnographic episode: The story of the ‘Sorry Song’ ........... 9 Introduction

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