JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ONLINE MusicA JOURNAL OF THE MUSIC COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA Hop, Skip and Jump: Indigenous Australian Women Performing Within and Against Aboriginalism Introduction KATELYN BARNEY was in The University of Queensland library talking to one of the librarians, James, about my PhD research. He asked, ‘So, what are you researching again?’ and I replied, ‘Well, I’m working with Indigenous Australian1 women ■ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Iwho perform contemporary music, you know, popular music singers’. James Islander Studies Unit looked confused, ‘Oh, so are you going to interview that guy from the band The University of Queensland 2 Yothu Yindi ?’ This was not the first time I had been asked this and inwardly I Brisbane sighed and replied, ‘No, I’m just focusing my research on Indigenous Australian QLD 4072 women’. Streit-Warburton’s words immediately reverberated in my mind: ‘Ask Australia an Australian to name an Aboriginal singer and there is a fair chance that the answer will be Yothu Yindi’s Mandawuy Yunupingu. Ask again for the name of an Aboriginal woman singer and there is an overwhelming chance that the answer will be Deafening Silence. Deafening Silence is not the name of a singer; it is the pervasive response to most questions about Aboriginal women.’ (1993: 86). As Email:
[email protected] I looked at James, I wondered if anything had really changed in more than 10 years. The account above highlights how Indigenous Australian women performers continue to be silenced in discussions and discourses about Indigenous Australian 3 www.jmro.org.au performance.