• BALOS BOOKBINDING .;'fT1'. I '::1 1 I't ABORIGINAL SONGS FROM THE BUNDJALUNG AND GIDABAL AREAS OF SOUTH-EASTERN AUSTRALIA by MARGARET JANE GUMMOW A thesis submitted in fulfihnent ofthe requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department ofMusic University of Sydney July 1992 (0661 - v£6T) MOWWnO UllOI U:lpH JO .uOW:lW :lip Ol p:ll1l:>W:l<J ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I wish to express my most sincere thanks to all Bundjalung and Gidabal people who have assisted this project Many have patiently listened to recordings ofold songs from the Austra1ian Institute ofAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, sung their own songs, translated, told stories from their past, referred me to other people, and so on. Their enthusiasm and sense ofurgency in the project has been a continual source of inspiration. There are many other people who have contributed to this thesis. My supervisor, Dr. Allan Marett, has been instrumental in the compilation of this work. I wish to thank him for his guidance and contributions. I am also indebted to Dr. Linda Barwick who acted as co-supervisor during part of the latter stage of my candidature. I wish to thank her for her advice on organising the material and assistance with some song texts. Dr. Ray Keogh meticulously proofread the entire penultimate draft. I wish to thank him for his suggestions and support. Research was funded by a Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Award. Field research was funded by the Austra1ian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Several staff members at AlATSIS have been extremely helpful. I particularly wish to thank Dr. Stephen Wild, Ethnomusicological Research Officer, who suggested that a project on Aboriginal music from south-eastern Australia would be worth considering and offered advice throughout the compilation of this work. I also benefitted from informative discussions with Dr. Tamsin Donaldson, Linguistic Research Officer, AlATSIS, and wish III to thank her for her advice concerning fieldwork and performance practice in south-eastern Australia. Ms. Grace Koch, Sound Archivist - Music and Oral History, AIATSIS, was extremely helpful in locating archival and library material. Sincere thanks to all the recordists who have contributed to the sample of songs. This thesis could not have been written without access to these recordings. I am indebted to Dr. Margaret Sharpe, University of New England, for transcriptions and translations of song texts and informative discussions concerning work in the Bundjalung area. I wish to thank her for her support and interest in the project. My most sincere thanks to Mr.Vic Hunter, Director of the Institute of Aboriginal Community Education, Northern Rivers College of Advanced Education in 1985. He introduced me to communities throughout the Bundjalung and Gidabal areas. I also appreciate the efforts of Pastor Frank Roberts, then President of the Bundjalung Tribal Council, who organised meetings with communities. Members of the Bundjalung Tribal Council were also enthusiastic and helpful. Photographic material is from a number of sources. I particularly wish to thank: Dr. Laila Haglund for access to the late Dr. Malcolm Calley's extensive photographic collection (and unpublished notes); Mr. Howard Creamer, National Parks and Wildlife Services, Armidale Branch; the Clarence River Historical Society, Grafton; Casino Historical Society; and AlATSIS for access to their photographic collections. I am also grateful to the Richmond River Historical Society, Lismore, for access to historical literature. For inspiring suggestions and support I wish to thank all members of the Writers' Group. Sincere thanks to Sara Knuckey for proofreading and advice on literary presentation. Finally, I wish to thank my family and friends for their help and support. IV 3NO HWfl'OA TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME ONE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF ILLUSTRAnONS (Maps, Musical Examples, Plates and Tables) IX LIST OF ABBREVIAnONS Xlll ORTIlOORAPHY xv CHAPTER 1. INfRODUCTION 1 Preamble 1 The Bundjalung Collection of Recordings 3 Singers Represented in the Sample 15 Anthropological and Lingllistic Literature 21 Previous Musicological Research 23 Synopsis of Chapters 25 CHAPTER 2. TIlE BUNDJALUNG (INCLUDING GIDABAL) AREA 29 Introduction 29 Ethnography of the Bundjalung (including Gidabal ) People 29 Introduction to the Bundjalung Area 37 The Bundjalung Tribal Council 38 The Institute ofAboriginal Community Education, NRCAE 42 Various Perspectives ofTraditional Culture 43 Remembering Songs and Singing 55 Listening to Recordings from the AlATSIS 60 v ERRATA The text should be altered to include the following minor alterations and corrections. P~ge Xl Line 5: "accordian" should read "accordion" xviii Map 3: "Marybourgh" should read "Maryborough" 4 Line 14: "Calley where" should read "Cal1ey whose" 9 Line 25: "Willougby" should read "Willoughby" 22 Line 5: "Pentecostaliam" should read "Pentecostalism" 24 Line 23: "the Ngiyampaa and Wangaaypuwan language" should read "the Ngiyampaa language" 44 Line 13: "difficult, even" should read "difficult it is, even" 46 Line 44: "dances were frowned" should read "dances was frowned" 47 Line 5: "opportunites" should read "opportunities" 47 Line 13: "aprobium" should read "aprobium [sic]" 70 Line 18: "obvious by" should read "obvious from" 71 Line 23: "works such as R.H. Mathews" should read "works such as those of R.H. Mathews" 75 Footnote 2: "The vowel shift identifies which particular dialect a person speaks. Therefore a person" should read "The different vowel identifies which particular dialect a person speaks. A person" 77 Footnote 5: "ninetheenth" should read "nineteenth" 78 Footnote 6: "Collins descriptions" should read "Collins' descriptions" 78 Footnote 6: "timourous" should read "timorous" 93 Line 24: "(1978: 183)" should read "(1978: 183, 189)" 123 Line 13: "Jack Barron, lead" should read "Jack Barron led" 134 Footnote 19: "rubarb" should read "rhubarb" 176 Line 2: "accordians" should read "accordions" 176 Line 28: "accordians" should read "accordians [sic]" 177 Plate 23: "accordian" should read "accordion" 194 Line 3: "explains the order" should read "explain the order" 195 Line 13: "The well known Ngiyampaa, Wangaaypuwan songmaker" should read "The well known Ngiyampaa songmaker" 215 Line 3: "as morphology" should read "as the morphology" 229 Line 19: "The text and has been" should read "The text has been" 253 Line 17: "strenthened" should read "strengthened" 261 Line 18: "Seire" should read "Seine" 267 Line 33: "Issacs" should read "Isaacs" 270 Line 19: "Hearld" should read "Herald" 287 Line 4: "lingust" should read "linguist" 309 Line 3: "may comprises" should read "may complise" Translating and Explaining the Meaning of Songs 65 Teaching Songs, Dances, Language and Culture 67 CHAPTER 3. PERFORMANCE ETHNOORAPHY OF THE BUNDJALUNG (INCLUDING GIDABAL) 71 Introduction 71 Part 1. Song Categories Identified By Bundjalung People 74 Yawahr 74 Shake-a-Leg 93 Burun 105 Sing-You-Down 106 Blessing For Babies 112 Lullaby 113 Djingan 114 JawBreaker 118 Part 2. Song Categories Identified From The Literature 119 Corroboree Songs 119 Increase Songs -Species (Including Babies) and Rain 124 Hunting Songs 130 Healing Songs 131 Sorcery Songs 137 Mortuary Songs 141 Initiation Songs 142 Other 145 Part 3. Other Categories In The Sample - (Decontextualised) 146 Public Events Songs 146 Sites and Dreamings Songs 149 Other 158 VI Conclusion 159 Part 4. Material Culture 161 Body Decoration 161 Objects Carried in Performances 162 Objects Otherwise Incorporated into Performances 166 Part 5. Musical Instruments 171 Clapsticks and Boomerang Clapsticks 171 Drum/Pillow 172 Bullroarer 174 Other Instruments 175 Part 6. Song Creation 179 Part 7. Group Organisation In Performance 186 Song 186 Dance 189 Conclusion 192 CHAPTER 4. MUSICAL ANALYSIS 193 Introduction 193 Part 1. Donaldson's Model 195 Part 2. Song Categories Identified By Bundjalung People 2oo Yawahr Songs 2oo Sing-You-Down Songs 228 Conclusion 249 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION 251 BffiLIOGRAPHY 257 FILMOGRAPHY 272 vii VOLUMElWO APPENDIX 1. LIST OF SONGS IN THE SAMPLE 273 APPENDIX 2. SONGS OMITTED FROM THE SAMPLE 287 APPENDIX 3. SONG TEXTS 289 Introduction 289 Part 1. List Of Texts 292 Part 2. Song Texts And Contextual Infonnation 301 APPENDIX 4. MUSICAL lRANSCRlPTIONS 454 List of Musical Transcriptions 454 The Musical Transcriptions 457 Part 1. Song Categories Identified By Bundjalung People 459 Part 2. Songs Not Covered In Categories Established By Bundjalung People 519 Part 3. Musical Transcriptions By Other People 539 APPENDIX 5. RECORDED EXAMPLES ACCOMPANYING THESIS 553 List ofRecorded Examples on the Cassette Tape 553 Cassette Tape (Bound In Back Cover) VIll ,... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (MAPS, MUSICAL EXAMPLES, PLATES AND TABLES) MAPS 1. Places mentioned• in the Bundjalung and Gidabal areas xvi 2. Places mentioned in south-eastern Australia xvii 3. Australia showing places and areas mentioned xviii 4. Approximate locations ofAboriginal language areas of New South Wales and southern Queensland 2 5. The Bundjalung area showing where the recordings were made 6 6. Estimated original dialect boundaries within the Bundjalung area 33 7. The Bundjalung dialect chain 34 8. The Ngiyampaa area 196 MUSICAL EXAMPLES 1. Three rhythmic realisations ofthe text line mundalah mundalahbah in Mlb 202 2. Musical transcription of section 1 of S151 Maringgu 211 3. Two performances of melodic phrase c of Section 1 in M2b 217 4. Three melodic phrases from three sections ofM2b 219 5. Melodic structure of sections a and b ofM3a - Text 7: Grandfather and Two Girls and M7b - Text (13): Going to New England 235 IX PLATES 1. Dick Donnelly at Tooloom Falls in 10/76 10 2. Charlotte Page and her sister Leena King in 1988 12 3. Tom Close and Euston Williams 14 4. Charlotte Williarns at Mu/i Mu/i, the Aboriginal community at Woodenbong 1954-5 19 5. Pastor Frank Roberts Senior, singer, and his son Pastor Frank Roberts Junior, Tabulam 1955 20 6. Lyle Roberts under the Aboriginal flag in 1982 39 7. School children at Tabulam square dancing 48 8. The same children as in Plate 7 49 9. The same children as in Plate 8 50 10.