ABSTRACT. Music and dance in relation to a sense of homeplace engage feelings and memory as well as the empirical and the historical. Although scholarly interventions about homeplace largely reference diasporic communities and their dynamics of identity and strategies of belonging, notions of homeplace in the homeland are also relevant, for example in matters of Indigeneity and nationalism. The gloss of the Japanese furusato or of the Hawaiian kuʻu home appear in discursive speech and in song. Aspects of place (the physically objective and measurable) and space (the phenomenologically experienced and culturally informed) as described by de Certeau (1984) are in play. Locating homeplace in "a sea of islands" further forms the specificity of place as physical and of space as cultural by considering an island homeplace in relation to continents and to other islands, i.e., the continental and archipelagic. Another variable are diverse positionalities—indigenous, heritage, and foreign—of those who describe it. Music and dance as separate entities as well as music & dance as a single construct document, represent, celebrate, and consecrate homeplace. Their point of reference can be place-specific, e.g., a named ceremony in a named temple within a named neighborhood, or can be space-signifying, e.g., a concert advocating Indigenous land rights. While a sense of homeplace through performance putatively privileges the musical and kinesthetic intelligences proposed by Gardner (1983), other knowledge domains contribute to this sense of homeplace, including architecture, spirituality, and navigation.

Paper 1: “Two Regional Perspectives on Homeland, Ocean, and Cultural Identity in Traditions of Music and Dance in Indonesia” The very name “Indonesia” contains the Greek-derived suffix “-nesia,” meaning island(s), and the country is often referred to by its citizens as “Nusantara,” the Indonesian word for archipelago. However, the sense of being “island people,” with close association with the ocean, varies widely among the diverse peoples who reside on one of the estimated 6,000 inhabited islands that stretch from Northwest Sumatra to Papua. Over my years of research on music and dance in Indonesia, I resided on the island of Java (in city of Yogyakarta) and on the island of Sulawesi (in the city of Makassar). Both these islands are large and support land-based industry and agriculture, but while most inhabitants of Yogyakarta and its surrounding countryside are fearful of the adjoining “South Sea,” whose goddess Kangjeng Ratu Kidul Kencana Sari (also known as Nyai Roro Kidul) has for centuries been propitiated with elaborate rituals and court dances with gamelan music, the inhabitants of Makassar and much of the coastal lowlands of the province of South Sulawesi conceive of the ocean and navigation as core to their cultural heritage and their wellbeing, figuring importantly in several genres of music and dance. Drawing on ethnographic research and on primary sources, I focus first on the Javanese dance/music of Bedhaya Semang and Bedhaya Ketawang, and then turn to the Makassarese dance/music of the Pakarena Makbiring Kassi and the sung epic of the Sinrilk Kappalak Tallumbatua. Contrasts far outweigh the similarities between these Javanese and Makassarese forms, and it is not my intention to draw parallels nor to argue deep structural linkage. Rather, I choose these examples to highlight the ways these items help us understand the cultural relations of these two peoples to the ocean, and their sense of self.

Keywords: ocean, island, marginality, power, Java, Makassar, bedhaya, sinrilik, pakarena

Paper 2: “Navigating the Sounds of Homeplace: Belonging, Wayfinding, and Returning in Indigenous Taiwan” The concept of wayfinding in Indigenous Taiwanese contexts is intimately connected to notions of homeplace and is dynamically expressed through singing and dancing. Serving as a potent decolonial strategy, it challenges dominant narratives of temporality and spatiality, particularly within social movements like the 2017 concert “Join the Indigenous People in Singing a Pathway Home.” This event was not merely a rebuttal to the Republic of China’s denial of Indigenous land rights but also a profound declaration of well-being and cultural resurgence. It reflects the revitalization of Indigeneity through the reweaving of traditions and practices into new pathways that navigate the complexities of a postmodern world (Clifford, 2013). Musicking, with its communal and expressive acts, thus extends beyond collective resistance, intertwining with the psychological and corporeal notions of homeland.This paper investigates the varied acoustic manifestations of wayfinding and its connections to collective homelands. I examine three expressive forms and settings within Indigenous Taiwan: 1) “Kulumaha” (Let’s Go Home), a gospel hymn of the Bunun people that embodies a spiritual call to return; 2) the Ballads of the Forest Workers, which have been composed by Indigenous woodcutters since the 1960s and document the nostalgia and lived experiences of labor; and 3) the Hualien County Joint Indigenous Harvest Festival, which asserts Taiwan as the homeland for all Austronesian peoples. These expressions of musicking, each accentuated by Christian, colonial, and commercial narratives, respectively, offer distinct insights into the theme of “returning” and constructing a sense of homeplace. I argue that these expressions exemplify proactive engagements in wayfinding, weaving a dynamic discourse between belonging and displacement, selfhood and otherness, continuity and change, as well as convention and modernity. They foster an Indigenous cosmopolitanism, offering a nuanced sense of homeland that is both locally rooted and globally informed.

Keywords: Austronesia, Taiwan, Indigeneity, homeplace, Clifford

Paper 3: “Embodying Homeplace through Music & Dance in the Philippines and Hawaiʻi” Homeplace presents contrasting meanings. Homeplace can offer refuge and sanctuary from an “outside world,” as developed by bell hooks in Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics (1990). It can also encompass the entirety of a lived universe, a position promulgated and celebrated by Epeli Hauʻofa in, among other titles, We Are the Ocean (1994). On the one hand, hooks establishes homeplace as a separable minoritarian, gendered, and political refuge for African American women from a white and male “outside world.” On the other, Hauʻofa describes Oceania as homeplace: “...full of places to explore, to make their homes...[and] in which peoples moved and mingled...” that reflects and validates the resilience of island people. I explore how such conceptualizations are informative for homeplace, both in the context of homeland and of diaspora. The comparison of two geographically separated archipelagic sites—Hawaiʻi in the eastern Pacific and the Philippines in the western Pacific—presents the possibility for similarities and differences about islandness and homeplace to emerge and be marked. Considering music & dance as an entity, the intervention considers the specificity of place reflected in song texts about favorite places, in musical and dance styles, and in materiality of musical instruments, dance properties, and performance apparel. These contrast with aspects of space that engage history, memory, appropriation, representation, and re-presentation. Illustrations for place and space from the Philippines include the kundiman “Mutya ng Pasig,” the pop ballad “Anak” and the dance Jota Moncadeña; illustrations from Hawai’i include the mele hula “ʻO Kona Kai ʻŌpua i ka Laʻi,” the hīmeni “Hawaiʻi Aloha,” and the hapa haole song “Waikiki.” In terms of homeplace as locale, Hauʻofa’s inclusivity and expansiveness is informative for the homeland experience, while hooks’s separation as refuge and sanctuary provides criteria of contrast for the diaspora.

Keywords: Hawaiʻi, Philippines, song, dance, Hauʻofa, diaspora

Paper 4: “Sounding Places of Worship: Ontological Interplay among Indonesian, Thai, and Philippine Music Communities” Reclaiming space as ‘our sea of islands’ (Hau’ofa 1994) upends hegemonic colonial views to make room for a diversity of secular and sacred ontologies. Worldviews about places of worship for music and dance practitioners increasingly contest established notions of sacredness in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Temples and churches, as physical spaces for religious activity, play an important sonic role in defining soundscapes of Southeast Asia. For example, despite increasing tensions between Hindu sects, castes, and clans, Bali’s mother temple, Pura Besakih, accommodates all forms of music and dance expression. Bangkok’s Wat Pho attracts thousands of devotees along with a lucrative mass tourism trade but consecrates ‘homeplace’ within the confines of its temple walls by generating ‘soundscape serenity’ for its Buddhist practitioners. Churches in Davao provide ‘sonic refuge’ from the bustling streets of this rapidly developing city for congregants of Protestant and Catholic faiths. Each of these sacred spaces are not only places of worship, but also vital venues for musical performances and rituals that bolster beliefs, traditions, and values of the communities that inhabit them. This paper utilizes a meta-ethnographic approach to three interrelated areas of inquiry: I. Modern soundscapes encroaching on traditional performance environments; II. Interconnectedness of music, ritual and belief; and III. Interpreting spiritual soundscapes through a cross-cultural perspective. In Thailand, temple ethnography will focus on practitioner’s worldviews on sound and faith in an ultra-modern Bangkok. In Balinese culture, music is an integral ontological part of religious ceremonies and rituals while in the Philippines, church music helps anchor spirituality cross-culturally as migration and labor have become a significant economic force displacing people throughout the region. I argue that Thai Buddhist, Balinese Hindu and Filipino Catholicism provide an ‘ontological interplay’ in their respective soundscapes where temples and churches mediate between music, spirituality, and community building.

Keywords: ontologies, meta-ethnography, soundscapes, sacred worship

ABSTRACT. Recent social movements have called for a reckoning of the privileging of white, colonial, cisheteropatriarchal narratives about identity constructs and histories in Canada. The 2015 final report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential schools included 94 recommendations as a framework for reconciliation with First Peoples in Canada. The #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements have highlighted the need to respond to heteropatriarchal and racist systems, while the recent increase in transphobic and anti-queer discourse across North America threatens individuals within the LGBTQ2S+ community. Responses to these movements include pressure to account for historic and ongoing injustices and to shift research priorities and methodologies to be more inclusive, actively grappling with power and its impacts on members of historically marginalized groups. To challenge and diversify perspectives, many scholars are rethinking settler colonial and white supremacist tropes and prioritizing systemically underrepresented histories through research practices grounded in reflexivity and relationality.

This panel session offers four case studies that reorient narratives about music in Canada through decolonial research and research-sharing methodologies grounded in an ethics of care. The panel consists of four papers by white-presenting, cisgender women from four decades, currently residing and/or working in the capital region of Canada. The “location” in which we live and work is significant not only as a place in which we come together as collaborators and friends, but also as the political epicentre of Canada and the historical meeting place of many cultures and communities. Drawing on queer, feminist and Indigenous research methodologies, the papers in this session explore the central themes of relationships and ethics as central to responsible research, while exploring our individual positionality as researchers with our respective communities.

Paper 1: Allyship, Listening and Community-Engaged Research: Settler Scholar Collaborations with the Native North American Travelling College

Political and ethical engagements in Indigenous research in Canada in the 21st century are growing areas of scholarship that are grounded in calls for disciplinary redress, settler reckoning with the history of and impacts of colonization, and shifting paradigms for researcher positionalities and engagements with Indigenous communities, cultures and art forms. Settler scholars and listeners are provoked to consider their positionality and influence in “the field,” and while some ethnomusicologists and Indigenous Studies scholars propose rematriation as a research methodology (Gray 2015, Tuck 2011, Giroux 2021), others challenge the “hungry listening” that characterizes much settler engagement with Indigenous expressive and artistic culture (Robinson 2020). As a settler scholar who has worked with and learned from Indigenous communities and musicians for decades, I struggle to reconcile the academic critique of settler research with Indigenous Peoples in Canada with the ongoing experiences, relationships, and interests of the communities and individuals with whom I work. Long-term community-based research that serves the interests of collaborators typically does not align with scholarly demands to theorize, “reconcile” and “decolonize.” Furthermore, research based in allyship and which responds to the needs of the community rarely intersects with scholarly expectations and priorities. In this paper I discuss my ongoing work with The Native North American Travelling College (NNATC) of the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory. As an institution committed to transmitting and sharing Kanien’kehá:ka culture and traditions within its community and neighbouring settler communities and organizations, the NNATC is both a physical space as well as a philosophical commitment to cultural continuity and bridge-building. In this presentation, I grapple with the tensions inherent in cross-cultural research and explore my role in supporting a number of projects that support the transmission of Kanien’kehá:ka cultural teachings and values.

Paper 2: Inclusive Inquiry: Methodological Reflections of a Queer Community Music Scholar

In Harmony: A Women’s Choir (IHAWC) has been operating in the Ottawa-Gatineau region since 1991. One of the first community choirs in Canada for lesbians, IHAWC operates as a community organisation with a mandate to offer informal music-making that reflects the experiences and affirm the identities of its members, now inclusive of trans women, genderqueer, and non-binary people. In the Summer of 2023, I began my thesis project examining identity, queer expression and inclusivity practices in queer community choirs. After inquiring about IHAWC’s interest in participating in my project, I was invited to join the choir, and am now a member of IHAWC. In order to challenge normative methodologies historically interwoven with colonial and heteropatriarchal systems of oppression, my thesis project aims to reflect the value systems of IHAWC (Harrison 2016), utilising postcolonial feminist research practices that centre reflexivity, intentionality, and ethics of care. I use the methodological approach of vulnerable writing (Page 2017) to acknowledge my subjective entanglement within my research as a queer individual with a long history of participating in the western choral tradition. I embrace my positionality as a queer scholar in a queer social space to question convention (Christi-Anne Carso, 2020) and disorient the traditional insider-outsider binary of fieldwork (Steven Moon, 2020). In this paper, I reflect on my time with the choir to question how I, as a queer Community Music scholar, may engage in anti-oppressive fieldwork. Reflecting on the fluidity of my positionality, I grapple with the difficulties of completing research “close to home” (Jackman 2010). In an era of increased anti LGBTQ+ sentiment, I confront my sense of responsibility to my community and peers in my scholarship.

Paper 3: Listening beyond the Silence: Exploring White Supremacy in Canada through an Anti-Racist Feminist Listening Methodology

White supremacy in Canada is a complex, often unmarked, sociopolitical economic system deeply ingrained in narratives of Canada and the Canadian imaginary. The consequences of white supremacy, however, result in unequal distribution of wealth, power, privilege, violence and death (Lipstiz 2018; Maynard 2018). Building on critical race scholars (Collins 2000; Harris 1993; McKittrick 2006) and scholars of listening in racialized colonial contexts (Bissett Perea 2021; Martin 2021; Robinson 2020), I consider sound as an alternative lens to deepen understanding and address the pervasiveness of white supremacy in Canada. In this paper, I reflect on my experiences listening to white supremacy in my recent study of sound, space, and whiteness in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, Ontario. However, researching whiteness and white supremacy is a political and contentious act that has the potential to reproduce the harm that anti-racist work intends to eliminate (Neal 2020). In dialogue with Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies, my methodological approach is informed by Feminist, Anti-Racist, Crip and Disability Studies practices of care-based scholarship centred on personal investment and responsibility, delicate consideration of ethics, voice and representation, commitments to messiness, action, and meaningful change (Kafai 2020; Tallbear 2014). Drawing on ethnographic, reflexive, and sound-based practices, I incorporate multiple strands of qualitative inquiry that guide what I call an anti-racist feminist listening methodology. I ask: How can I, as a white settler woman, study white supremacy ethically, relationally, and subjectively? How can music scholars practice living, being, writing, and listening outside of white supremacy? What are the impacts and opportunities afforded by an anti-racist feminist listening methodology? Through this paper, I reflect on how listening can be used as a connective practice to invest in more anti-racist futures.

Paper 4: Deconstruction and Emergence: Rethinking Narrative through Microhistories in Exhibition Development

Antoinette Burton describes archive stories as “narratives about how archives are created, drawn upon, and experienced by those who use them to write about history” (Archive Stories 2006, 6). Framing these stories as critical encounters that challenge the neutrality of so-called primary source materials, she suggests that archives are not merely sources or repositories, but rather constitute “full-fledged historical actors” (7). Museum collections, likewise, are never neutral. Artifacts speak in multiple ways, and the layers of story that surface are influenced by, and emerge in relationship with, words, images, sounds, and other artifacts in proximity; additionally, they are shaped by the experiences and frames of reference of people interacting with them.

The tangibility of active primary sources comes into sharp focus within the context of multi-media and multi-sensory exhibition experiences. In this presentation, I use the development of a popular music exhibition at the Canadian Museum of History to examine methodologies for public-facing research and storytelling that deconstruct common tropes (in this case, those that have historically centred rock and/as masculinity) to expand public narratives about popular music in, and as, culture. Using a thematic approach, the exhibition seeks to reorient around themes and microhistories that are inclusive and relational, while retaining a sense of subversive play in keeping with the subject matter itself.

What ironies are at play in the process of attempting to deconstruct linear narratives of popular music canon through a project that is – literally – the construction of a storied exhibition experience? Can construction be a form of deconstruction? Are there tools that may help to destabilize well-worn narratives without replacing them with essentialist counternarratives? And, what role might trust and emergence (after maree brown 2017) play in creating generative spaces for public engagement with contemporary history?

ABSTRACT. This panel investigates rhythm, belonging, and musical practices in diverse Lusophone contexts including Cabo Verde, Lisbon, and Afro-Brazilian traditions. Interrogating the intricate interplay between musical practices and senses of belonging, the panel sheds light on how musical practices shape identities, foster connections, and navigate the complexities of cultural exchange. Each paper within the panel delves into distinct yet interconnected aspects of this theme. From the beat-making practices of Lisbon's male afro-diasporic DJs and the transcultural resonances of world music singer Cesária Évora's music to the drumming patterns of Cabo Verdean Kolá San Jon and the traditions of Brazilian Quilombola communities, the papers collectively highlight how musical practices shape and negotiate senses of belonging across and within different postcolonial communities. Through ethnographic explorations, musical analyses, and sociocultural examinations, the panelists uncover how Luso-African Black Atlantic rhythms of music, dance, and social interactions serve as both expressions and creators of belonging that transcend geographical and social boundaries. By considering the complexities of cultural exchange and social engagement apparent in these musical practices, the panel offers insights into the role of music in shaping individual and collective identities within the Lusophone world.

Paper 1: Reflecting on Cesária Évora's Musical Affect: Weaving Threads of Belonging with Nostalgia, Rhythms, and Memories. Cesária Évora (1941-2011), a singer from Cabo Verde with numerous award-winning albums and world tours, was a somewhat unlikely global superstar. She was a small, late middle-aged woman of color from an unfamiliar place when she was discovered in the mid-1980s. Nevertheless, Cesária became a beloved figure worldwide as a musical ambassador for Cabo Verde. Cesária sang mornas (slow ballads) and koladeiras (lively dance songs) in her native language Kriolu, yet her musical messages nevertheless spoke across borders, tugging the heartstrings of listeners faraway. Why did her music speak to international audiences? I discuss here Cesária Évora’s communicative strengths and detail how a confluence of sociocultural global factors and individual agency helped Cesária achieve her full potential as the iconic “Barefoot Diva.” Cesária always remained grounded in her culture, yet she became a world citizen; albeit one who believed in the innate equality of all people and rejected hierarchies based on geographical or social origins. I maintain that while outsiders were initially drawn to her as the exotic other, they ended up identifying with Cesária as a fellow human being and learned something profound about themselves in the process (not unlike tourists who travel abroad and learn from experiencing the hospitality of others). Cesária extended hospitality to her audiences, opening her heart and arms to all listeners with her sorrowful mornas and high-spirited koladeiras. Empathizing with deep emotions expressed through such songs, outsiders and cultural insiders remembered their own joys and losses and connected as members of shared humanity. Cabo Verdean music’s familiar African Diaspora rhythms, structures, and gestures resonated with listeners, rejuvenating memories, and solidifying connections. In sum, I contextualize Cesária Évora’s reception at home and abroad as a groundbreaking, unique world music artist (1988-2009) while addressing the complexity of her legacy for Cabo Verdean musicians today.

Paper 2: "My son is also a DJ, he’s 8 years old”. How Lisbon DJs of African Descent Produce Beats, Knowledge and Masculinities Since 2013 Lisbon, the metropolis of the former Portuguese empire, has been put to the forefront of international avantgarde EDM outlets such as CTM, Unsound, Nyege Nyege, Boilerroom or Berghain by DJs like Marfox, Maboku or Firmeza. They produce their electronic dance musicstyles kuduro, tarraxinha or afrohouse (subsumed under "batida do gueto") in Lisbon‘s Angolan, Bissau-Guinean or Santomean immigrant communities in peripheral neighborhoods like Quinta do Mocho. Their tracks circulate via mobile phones and internet communities in Lisbon and reached the dancefloors of international hipster clubs via the Príncipe label. This paper situates Lisbon batida within the larger context of sound system cultures of the Black Atlantic (Alisch 2017) and foregrounds practical knowledge of beat-production in light of marginalised masculinities (Connell 2004). DJ Amorim is an Angolan DJ in Lisbon who was influential in the early 2000s through his „megamix“ compilations (Alisch 07 2022). DJ Marfox, the scene‘s foremost protagonist, states Amorim’s mixes as an important inspiration. Marfox moved to Quinta do Mocho to live in this hotspot for beatmaking (ibid.). This neighbourhood was built in 1990s to house people who‘d fled exacerbating wars and poverty in former Portuguese colonies in Africa. In their hyper-local Lisbon networks, younger DJs like DJ Maboku, DJ Firmeza or DJ Liocox share knowledge and teach their male younger peers and family members how to produce beats and DJ. The DJ Crew "Piquenos DJs do Gueto" (Little DJs of the Ghetto) namend themselves after the DJ crew "DJs do Gueto"(DJs of the Ghetto), whom they admired. During interviews and thick participation (Spittler 2001) around studios and on dancefloors since 2012, the Lisbon beatmakers often cited important elder figures who inspired them and also spoke of their own sons as active or aspiring DJs. This paper thus conceptualises how Lisbon batida DJs construe masculinity through generation.

Paper 3: Rhythms of Belonging - Sounded Affiliations in Cabo Verdean Kolá San Jon This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the performative and sound poetics of Cabo Verdean Kolá San Jon, focusing on different San Jon drumming patterns as technologies of spatialization and belonging. Following sociologist Vanessa May, “belonging” can be understood as “the process of creating a sense of identification with, or connection to, cultures, people, places and material objects” (2011, 3). Belonging describes a “feeling at ease” with these relations although it is “at times, a fiercely contested social and political issue that has tangible consequences” (2011, 3). Belonging emphasizes a phenomenologically informed understanding of identity and stresses the importance of relations to others. This paper brings into sharp relief the practices of San Jon drummers on São Vicente as means of creating and negotiating different senses of belonging. Central to this is the term toka which is used to denote specific drumming patterns as well as the act of playing Kolá San Jon as such. I examine how toka become vehicles for senses of belonging during the festas juninas on São Vicente. First, I show how senses of belonging are formed through learning and acculturation. Second, I discuss the aesthetics of Kolá San Jon in relation to both sound and material aspects. Finally, I provide a close examination of the various drumming patterns played during the festas juninas. I will demonstrate that these tokas express multiple forms of belonging. What I propose is an understanding of the toka as sounded affiliation. As sociologist Julia Bennett contends, “[b]elonging is also rhythmic”. To understand belonging, one must understand the relations to place, time, and community (2015, 956). I argue that through a close examination of drumming practices, the rhythms of belonging in Kolá San Jon shed light on the more intricate relations to place, time, and community in Cabo Verde.

Paper 4: Txôru, Résa, Trabadju i Festa: cosmopolitics of musicking across the Atlantic In Cabo Verde Islands, traditional festivities known as Tabanca (Santiago) or Kolá Son Jon (Santo Antão) are defined as a brotherhood, a sisterhood or even a confraternity that supports the fostering of mutual aid among its members through happy and sad moments of life. Conceived as territory-based organizations, the relational conception of these institutions requires processes of mobility which are essential to their survival as they regulate the most important aspects in the lives of their members and communities. They establish prescribed forms of behavior on the important occasions of social life. Therefore, these institutions coordinate substantial part of agricultural work, the collective activities for cleaning the fields (djunta môn) based on solidarity and reciprocity among their members. But, most importantly, they provide original forms of sociability and conviviality for social groups who do not have access to the modes in use by local elites. In other words, through these organizations one learns to mourn, pray, work, celebrate, and live in community. On the other side of the Atlantic, in the semi-arid region of the Piaui State, Brazil, the Caatinga holds the fourth major Quilombola territory of the country (IBGE, 2022). The socio-productive organization through Território Quilombo Lagoas, for instance, converges to a broad mesh of reciprocity that has guaranteed for centuries the reproduction of structures of confluences which are characteristic to Afro-Brazilian populations. This work proposes a debate on the cosmopolitics of musicking reverberated in all dimensions of Quilombola traditions, and how they echo with tabanca and kolá Son Jon institutions through resonances and discontinuities perceived during fieldwork activities. I argue that these cultural manifestations are oriented by holistic perspectives – relational-guided, diversity-conscious, and equality-friendly – that provide structures of belonging and celebrate hospitality through transnational frequencies and rhythms of belonging.

ABSTRACT. The Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies (IPNGS) was established in 1974, one year before PNG’s independence. Presently IPNGS is a national cultural institution of the National Cultural Commission. Since its establishment, it has been undertaking, archiving, and publishing music and dance research in the country.

This roundtable will include five present and former staff members speaking on a wide variety of topics, from overviewing IPNGS to specific research projects:

1. IPNGS origins will be discussed in relation to comparable institutions in Australia and Africa, as well as describing its structure, highlights of work to date, and challenges faced.

2. The IPNGS Audiovisual Archive contains the world’s largest collection of PNG music and dance recordings, 1898 to present. Recordings include those made by staff, outside researchers, as well as commercial recordings. The focus of a recent research project on 78 rpm discs will be highlighted.

3. While various parts of PNG have pottery-making traditions, the Adzera people of Morobe province remain very productive potters. In addition to making clay cooking pots, they are the only group that makes a clay drum, "simpup gur." Historical and recent research on this topic will be presented.

4. "Taibubu," a newly learnt dance genre from the Torres Strait (Australia), has been embraced and indigenized by the people of South Fly, Western province. This paper will explore why older genres, such as "madia" and "mado," are today labelled as “bad” or “evil,” and how they paved the way for the emergence of "taibubu."

5. Finally, research was undertaken in East New Britain province on the impact of COVID-19 on intangible cultural heritage, particularly focusing on Tolai "malagene" and "kutu-tabu." This three-year project was done in collaboration with the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) in Osaka, Japan.

ABSTRACT. During the 1950s, amidst the onset of Chinese exclusion policies in select Southeast Asian countries and regions, a substantial number of overseas Chinese repatriated to their homeland. Despite returning to Chinese culture, these individuals retained a significant degree of cultural inheritance from their former countries of residence. This article delves into the case of Indonesian returnees residing in the Huadu Overseas Chinese Farm in Guangzhou.After elucidating their historical background, the study employs fieldwork as its primary research approach, conducting participant observation and semi-structured interviews to investigate one of the music and dance activities. Subsequently, it probes into the motivations behind the Indonesian returnees' continued engagement in these activities and examines their significance. As a multicultural cohort, the returnees share common yet distinct experiences, culminating in the formation of a unique ethnic identity. Through their participation in music and dance activities, they foster emotional solidarity within the ethnic group, enhance intra-group communication, and contribute to the preservation of ethnic history.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the notion of emplacement (as the continuum of body, mind, space), and the implicit relation to the philosophical premises and the praxial outcomes of butō Japanese dance. A fundamental aspect of butō training is the notion of ‘Ma’ (間), a word that points at the in-betweenness of phenomenological reality, standing for pause, gap, or emptiness; ‘Ma’ is a notion which pertain to the philosophical predicaments of the Japanese School of Kyoto, and its main actor, the philosopher Kitaro Nishida. Through a comparative analysis of butō, and the notion of emplacement in contemporary society; and conversely the everyday displacement, as the human condition of the urban fabric; by bringing into play Nishida’s philosophical predicaments, this research establishes a correspondence between the two realities: communicating vessels of bodily transformation, both butō and the notion of emplacement, requires a re-evaluation and re-definition of the boundaries of the body, its haptics, a spatial and temporal re-colocation of the kinetic and proprioceptive momentum in of the human body. This investigation looks into Hijikata Tatsumi ankoku butō method of body transformation, suggesting a trajectory which connects the latter with the intensification, magnification, and metamorphosis of the human body in in the urban milieu. This paper will inquire into the phenomenological aspects of temporal and spatial perception of the body in performance suggesting a critique of everyday life: the perceptual reverberation of a body modified, elongated, re-engineered, by a novel awareness of its emplacement, and by a body trained to overcome its own physical boundaries, in Hijikata’s butō.

ABSTRACT. Amidst the globalization fervour at the dawn of the millennium, a wave of professional Chinese instrumentalists relocated to North America, driven by a convergence of personal aspirations and the complex interplay of social and political dynamics spanning their homeland and host country. As Vytis Čiubrinskas (2015) eloquently observes, “migration is associated with processes of ethnification, where territorial in-rooted-ness is maintained transnationally, and reterritorialization of descent, social memory, and heritage is enacted locally” (127). In this context, Chinese instrumentalists embarked on a journey of deterritorialization and reterritorialization, navigating new environments while seeking opportunities to advance their artistic pursuits. However, this transition often necessitated adjustments to meet local market expectations, whether by presenting "authentic" Chinese music, modifying their artistic standards, or blending local cultural elements with their musical practices (Chong 2003; Yung 2009). Drawing upon nine years of personal experience as a zheng artist in Canada and extensive fieldwork across North American cities, this paper explores the diverse musical pathways built by Chinese instrumentalists in the diaspora. Rooted in Mark Slobin's (1993) notion of diasporic interculture and Deborah Wong's (2004, 2019) insights into Asian American subjectivities, this study delves into the intricate power dynamics permeating various music spheres in the diasporic journey. By unpacking these dynamics, we illuminate the multifaceted negotiation of identity, agency, and cultural belonging within the vibrant musical landscape of North America.

ABSTRACT. My paper explores how forced migration affects musicians and their musical practices in their new host countries. Drawing on the case study of Afghan musicians who left Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, I aim to examine the experiences and challenges regarding the continuation of their musical activities in those new environments. Following the Taliban's takeover, there has been a significant increase in the trend of Afghan musicians leaving their country. With the nationwide music ban imposed, musicians no longer had a source of income and have faced harassment and persecution, sometimes even death. Many musicians have been able to leave the country to the neighbouring countries and to the West, particularly to Western Europe. How has the migration impacted their lives as musicians? Could they continue their musical practices in the new host countries? What challenges arose, and how could they be overcome? Based on ethnographic research with musicians of traditional Afghan music, primarily in Germany, this paper provides insight into the impacts of forced migration on musicians and musical practices. My findings present a nuanced picture: while the evacuation of these musicians spared them the fate of living in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, significant challenges arose in their new host countries, posing obstacles to their lives and to the continuation of their musical practices. My research is situated within ethnomusicology and the increasingly important field of “music and migration”.

ABSTRACT. The paper explores the complex cultural, social, and spiritual aspects of Indian festivals, focusing on Vedic traditions to provide an in-depth understanding of their rich tapestry. These festivals, which range from the early Vedic rites to the modern festivities, represent an exciting blend of ancient and contemporary cultures, blurring the lines between the sacred and the secular. The exploration covers ten different festivals, each contributing to the cultural essence of India. These festivals include Vasantotsava, Madanotsava, Sakrarca, Asokastami, Ekasalmali, Cutabhanjika, Puspavacayika, Kundacaturthi, Udakaksvedika, and Päñcalanuyana. The paper explores the tales, traditions, and meanings associated with each festival, emphasizing the close relationship between mythology, the natural world, and human emotions. It draws inspiration from various Vedic texts and authors like Bhoja, who extensively discussed these in many of his works. In conclusion, this study highlights the timeless essence of happiness, affection, and harmony that signifies India's festive environment, as recorded in the early Vedic scripters.

ABSTRACT. Mariachi music is a traditional male dominated performance genre that has become the symbol of Machismo, Mexicanidad, and Mestisaje (Alonso, 2004; Mulholland, 2007). Despite the smaller number of women who perform mariachi, their presence, and contributions to the preservation of this genre is significant, particularly within the Latinx diaspora. Prior research establishes women’s participation in this genre as instrumentalists since at least 1903 (Jauregui, 2007) and as all-female mariachi groups in Mexico in 1947 and the United States in 1967 (Pérez, 2013; Soto, 2015). While women have performed as all-female mariachi groups on radio, television, film, theaters, nationally and internationally during important historical periods (1940s-1960s) like mariachi men, mariachi women's history, voices, stories, and contributions have only recently been documented (Flores, 2013; Fogelquist, 2017; Mulholland, 2013; Pérez, 2002, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018; Jáquez, 2002; Soto, 2015). Fieldwork, participant-observation, and interviews at the annual international mariachi women’s festivals that launched in Los Angeles, California in 2014, Cocula, Mexico in 2019, Paris, France in 2023 and San Luis Potosí, Mexico in 2024 provide evidence of the resilience and impact of women’s participation in this male genre despite their smaller number. It also unveils the personal, social, and cultural meaning of their participation including their efforts to claim their space and place in this genre. This research further explores music and gender from a global and contextual perspective within traditional culture and considers tradition, continuity, and change. It also delves further into issues of cultural authority and relativism.

ABSTRACT. World Music festivals, with their global mandates and associations with traditional folk and rural lifeways, may have better reputations for being more eco-friendly than their rock counterparts, but they are by no means uniform, nor is any one of them really anywhere close to becoming impact neutral. While some like the Rainforest World Music Festival and WOMAD have made tremendous strides in recent few years, others like the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music and WOMEX have seemingly taken no steps whatsoever toward becoming as ecologically-conscious and benefit-oriented as gatherings like the Festival de Música Medicina in Peru. This paper, based on extensive longitudinal fieldwork conducted around the planet but grounded in these five particular case studies, documents through comparative means the musical ethnoecology of World Music festivals; namely, the ways in which organizers, vendors, festivalgoers, performers, and other agents perceive and manage the environmental and social impacts of mounting a large-scale open air music event within a chosen biosphere. The paper specifically traces how in each case 1) environmental damage is acknowledged and mitigated, 2) ecological and social sustainability is rendered, and 3) climate change is addressed and redressed. This troika of concerns is analyzed not only in terms of programming, staging, and performance, but also with respect to other operational domains like advertising, transportation, and food preparation and disposal. Accounting for such parameters is critical for shaping music policy around the current climate crisis, especially as festivals continue to grow globally as popular means for exhibiting World Musics.

ABSTRACT. The ASB Polyfest, an emblematic representation of Aotearoa New Zealand’s indigenous Māori and transnational Pacific Island communities through music, dance, and speech competitions, has been staged in Auckland since 1976. The festival began as a small-scale initiative in newly emerging urban Māori and migrant Pacific subcultures through the efforts of parents, students and educational leaders. Over the past four decades, the festival has expanded significantly in its scope and presently includes over 10,000 student performers on Māori, Cook Islands, Niuean, Samoan and Tongan stages, as well as a Diversity Stage to include additional cultural communities. The festival is established as one of Auckland's major annual events, for both educational achievement and cultural transmission.

Based on over ten years of fieldwork , this paper examines the festival's adaptive journey amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, transitioning from a purely physical event to a digitally accessible one through livestreaming and a dedicated festival app. The establishment of digital platforms has democratized access to this cultural spectacle, overcoming barriers of economic inequality and logistical challenges such as travel, overcrowding, and parking. However, this digital engagement introduces a nuanced disconnection from the festival's immersive sensory experiences.

This study situates the ASB Polyfest within the broader discourse on technology's role in the arts, and how these digital interventions have expanded the festival's reach and inclusivity while contemplating the intrinsic value of physical presence in cultural festivities.

ABSTRACT. The government of the Republic of Korea is keen to introduce its traditional and contemporary culture across the globe. Due to the popularity of Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, people around the world are thus aware of and drawn to the vast world of K-Pop in particular. As such, worldwide audiences can find music videos of their favorite idols, with translations into local languages, primarily done by fans who have learned Korean, specifically because of their devotion to the genre. But what of the far more complicated task of translating pansori, a narrative story-telling genre that employs complex language structures, obsolete vocabulary and references to ancient historical events and geographic sites, that even native Koreans do not understand?

Having studied traditional pansori for thirty years, the purpose of this research is to concentrate on contemporary iterations of the genre. The first portion of this study analyzes the variety of ways that pansori is performed today and “translated” both literally and figuratively by way of modernizing traditional stories and creating changjak (newly-created) pansori pieces with the intent of appealing to a young Korean audience. The latter portion investigates attempts to translate pansori texts into English as a means to engage foreigners with Korean traditional music and culture.

There is still a relative dearth of research on pansori in English. Thus, among other purposes, this paper will weave the issues of translation into the overarching observation of how pansori itself is changing and adapting in an era of inclusivity as the genre absorbs influences from the outside and conversely presents a rearticulated image of Korea to the world.

ABSTRACT. English-language Noh is a musical dance-drama in which the story is told using the elements and structure of traditional Japanese Noh. This is categorized as a “new Noh play” (shinsaku Noh). A leading group performing this genre is Theatre Nohgaku (TN), an international troupe of performers and licensed teachers who have trained extensively with Noh professionals to attain a high level of proficiency.

This presentation focuses on Pagoda, an English-language Noh performed by TN. I began conducting fieldwork on Pagoda in 2007 when it was developed at “TN week” in the U.S., observed numerous rehearsals in Japan with TN members and Noh professionals, and followed the troupe during its 2011 tour of the play throughout Asia. I argue that at every stage of the creative process, Pagoda relied on multiple ongoing acts of translation and communication through language, music, dance, and drama.

The playwright, composer, singers, and musicians collaborated on the text-music “score” of Pagoda to create a piece suitable for performance. Japanese is a mora-timed language without prepositions or articles, and with words ending in vowels, so the drum hits and calls do not interfere with the listener’s understanding of the text. But it is challenging to set text in English, a stressed-time language, to the classical 7-5 syllable Japanese poetic meter used in Noh without disrupting the natural flow. On tour, the stage was set differently at each new location, with adjustments to lighting, the pillars setting the dimensions of the stage, and the positions of the actors and musicians. A director, who is not seen in traditional Noh, slightly modified the actors’ costumes, props, and blocking for every venue. Finally, the performers constantly modified their performances. In all these ways, Pagoda relied on ongoing linguistic and artistic translation to create a favorable reception in each unique audience.

ABSTRACT. Congolese rhumba music is ubiquitous in Kenya. This has been the case for many decades. There are many reasons for this presence of Congolese music in the country, stretching far back to colonial and post-colonial times. The music is highly enjoyed by most Kenyans on radio, television, newspaper and magazine analysis, in parties and many other functions. As such, Congolese music has become part of the Kenyan popular and urban culture. Often times, a situation like this has the implication that such music enthusiasts understand and speak the language in which the music is rendered. Unfortunately, few Kenyans understand or speak any of the Congolese languages in which the music is couched. During the period of Soukous version of Congolese rhumba in the 1980s and 1990s, revelers from the Luyia community in Kenya, perhaps sought to enjoy the music optimally. To achieve this, the Congolese music which was ubiquitous thanks to the availability of Radio, Television as well as print media, would be received and localised by way of translations. Translations here can be explained as re-reading the music by the Congolese in new and own ways. It is intriguing how translations of texts and textualisation of guitar lines were done. It was apparent that revelers sought to have the music speak their local language. This is despite the fact that most of the concerned Luyia people are based in rural areas and do not understand or speak any Congolese language or French; languages in which Congolese rhumba music is rendered. Using empirical data of recorded music and interviews of music enthusiasts of the time, this paper discusses some of the songs that were translated. The paper further presents an analysis that provides reasons revelers engaged into the translations. The paper concludes that translations affected reception of the music in a special way.

ABSTRACT. This study delves into the dynamic interplay of translation, inclusivity, and reception of vernacular music within university community choirs, with a focus on the University of Cape Coast, Department of Music and Dance Students Choir. Employing a reflexive narrative approach, this enquiry examines how rehearsal sessions serve as an avenue for cultural exchange and understanding. It explores the processes through which vernacular music is not only translated in terms of language but also culturally transposed to resonate with a diverse university audience. The research highlights the choir's strategies in navigating the complexities of musical translation, ensuring that the essence of the original compositions is retained while making them accessible to a wider community. It also investigates the role of inclusivity in the choir's practices, considering how members from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds contribute to and experience the music-making process. The reception of these translated pieces by the university community is scrutinized to understand the impact of these practices on audience engagement and cultural appreciation. Through this lens, the study aims to shed light on the broader implications of such musical endeavours on fostering a more inclusive and culturally rich university environment. The findings of this research are poised to offer valuable insights into the potential of university choirs as agents of cultural translation and inclusion, promoting a deeper understanding and appreciation of vernacular music traditions within the academic community and beyond.

ABSTRACT. According to Embodied Music Interaction theories, music is something that performers and listeners interact with, using sensorimotor, cognitive, and energetic abilities that optimize the interaction (Lesaffre-Maes-Leman 2017). In instrumental music, Embodied Musical Interaction occurs between the sound-producing artifacts and the body as the mediator of musical reproduction. Over the past decade, the use of monitoring technologies such as sensors to capture and analyze musical gestures and bodily motion has been particularly relevant. Ethnomusicologists have observed the ongoing interaction in different musical cultures, often combining empirical measurement with methods from anthropology (Clayton 2020). Following this path and recent theoretical perspective on the musical gesture (Godøy and Leman 2010), this paper presents the results of research that investigate the musical gesture in launeddas music, a family of triple-pipe clarinets made of cane widespread in Southern Sardinia, considered the most important musical instrument of the island (Bentzon 1969). The research was carried out thanks to a device specially made by the engineer Francesco Capuzzi, who adapted the electroneddas (an electronic version of the launeddas designed by him) for research purposes. The analysis of the data collected with an initial prototype was presented a few years ago (Lutzu 2016). Thanks to a new prototype built in 2023, new and more accurate data were collected and analyzed with the support of a computer engineer. The aim of this further research, the results of which will be presented in the paper, was 1) to understand how fingering depends on both musical needs and ergonomic reasons; 2) to identify patterns of movement that are repeated in the different types of launeddas (thus hypothesizing a primacy of gesture in certain parts of the repertoire); 3) to develop a device and an analytical process that may be applicable to other types of aerophones.

References Bentzon, A. (1969), The Launeddas: A Sardinian Folk Music Instrument, Copenaghen: Akademisk Forlag.

Clayton, M. (2020), Empirical Methods in the Study of Music Performance: An Interdisciplinary History, in G. Borio et al., Investigating Musical Performance: Theoretical Models and Intersections, New York-London: Routledge.

Godøy, R., Leman M. (eds.) (2010), Musical Gestures: Sound, Movement, and Meaning, New York- London: Routledge.

Lesaffre, M., Maes P., Leman M. (2017), The Routledge Companion to Embodied Music Interaction, New York-London: Routledge.

Lutzu, M. (2016) Un dispositivo per l’analisi del rapporto tra musica e gesto nelle launeddas, in Anna Terzaroli e Andrea Valle (eds.), Extending Interactivity. Atti del XXI CIM – Colloquio di Informatica Musicale, DADI – Dip. Arti e Design Industriale, Università IUAV, Venezia, pp. 85-91.

ABSTRACT. Kōru (Japanese: コール) forms an integral part of the contemporary Japanese popular subculture of music, characterized by the collective engagement of audience members in rhythmic chanting, dancing, and the use of glow sticks to interact with performers onstage. Its historical origins are closely intertwined with three non-mainstream fringe cultures: Wotagei (ヲタ芸), anison, and underground idols (ライブアイドル).

During the Hatsune Miku live concerts, we witnessed thousands of attendees from diverse backgrounds engaging in spontaneous Kōru performances throughout various segments of different songs, without any prior rehearsal. The remarkable coherence and synchronicity of these spontaneous actions were particularly striking. Through a comprehensive observational study encompassing all holographic virtual concerts of "Hatsune Miku Expo" spanning from 2009 to 2023, we have discerned the evolution of Kōru within the VOCALOID music community, metamorphosing into a openly structured "gesture-chant" system. This evolution vividly mirrors the audience’s immersive engagement with VOCALOID culture, embodying their profound connection with this music genre based on consumer-generated media.

This study is poised to investigate the embodied cognition processes associated with audiences’ "VOCALOID-Kōru", employing a contemporary ethnomusicological lens and fieldwork methodology. Simultaneously, it aims to dissect the diverse array of components and the nuanced, intricately patterned movements of this phenomenon. Our focus lies on the "musical form-embodiment" matching mode and the instantaneous decision-making of "collective improvisation", analyzing how audiences shape their acceptance, understanding, and internalization of VOCALOID songs through interaction with the environment. An important inference derived from our research is that Kōru not only fosters the cultural development of virtual concert but also unveils the aesthetic significance of the musical synergy between virtual musicians and live audiences.

ABSTRACT. The Kalasha people, an indigenous group nestled in the remote Chitral district of northern Pakistan, follows a unique religious calendar with four cyclical events, collectively known as Khawsãgaw. They observe these events with distinct dance traditions that intricately intertwine with their deeply rooted cultural beliefs and rituals. This proposal aims to explore the embodiment of Kalasha dance, focusing on gestures and movements in two contrasting events: the joyful Uchaw-Khawsãgaw (Harvesting festival) and the solemn death ceremony. This study, using an ethnochoreological framework, aims to compare dance forms from two events, analysing differences in movement, gestures, and embodiment. In adherence to established etic norms within the field of research, I exercised restraint from intrusive actions, especially during the solemnity and intimacy of the death ceremonies. The study has been drawn upon my affiliation with the local context, acknowledging the Muslim environment in which the Kalash society resides, despite not being a Kalashi or fluent in their language.

Methodology: This proposal is informed by two fieldwork endeavours: one conducted in August 2021 and another in August 2023. In terms of methodology, I have employed participant observation, unstructured interviews with community members, and Actor Network Theory to elucidate the brilliance of Kalasha dance forms. Drawing became another important methodology for Data collection, as it helped as an ice breaker between me and the Kalasha community.

Working Hypothesis:

1.Influence of Cultural Beliefs and Rituals on Choreographic Elements: How Kalasha dance choreography reflects cultural beliefs, rituals, and social customs, intertwining aesthetics with Kalasha cosmology and religious practices.

2.Role of Dance in Cultural Expression and Identity Preservation: Kalasha dance serving as a vital cultural expression, transmitting collective memories and values across generations. How Kalasha dance reinforces cultural identity and resilience against external influences, through communal rituals and festivities, ensuring the preservation of Kalasha heritage amidst modernisation pressures.

ABSTRACT. The study of Adzewa, a captivating form of artistic expression encompassing dance, movement, gesture, and embodiment, offers a rich tapestry of cultural significance and human experience. This study delves into the intricate dynamics of Adzewa, exploring how it transcends mere performance to become a profound medium for communication and expression. Through a methodical examination of its historical roots, the research highlights the evolution of Adzewa's stylistic elements and its impact on the cultural identity of its people. The study investigates the nuanced language of movement and gesture inherent in Adzewa, considering how these elements convey complex emotions and narratives. The embodiment aspect of Adzewa is scrutinised revealing how dancers become vessels of cultural storytelling, their bodies echoing the collective memory and shared experiences of their community. This study also reflects on the pedagogical implications of Adzewa, suggesting ways in which this art form can be integrated into educational curricula to foster appreciation and understanding of intangible cultural heritage. Ultimately, this study posits that Adzewa is not only a dance but also a living, breathing chronicle of a people's ethos, offering insights into the human condition and the universal language of movement.

ABSTRACT. While China’s platformised cultural industries promote musical entrepreneurism, up-and-coming indie bands in China face several challenges in their journey towards a career in the music industries: a high regulatory threshold for participating in the live scene, little space for live experimentation, limited choice of online self-releasing platforms, and a censorship regime that limits criticism and creativity. In the past decades, the indie music industry has professionalised and has become incorporated into the state’s creative and cultural industries model, increasing regulatory demands for artists. Moreover, through regulations like the Internet+ policy, the government stimulated tech companies like Netease to create online tools for DIY musicians to record, release and disseminate their music, encouraging Internet-based creative entrepreneurship. The DIY career, which combines the DIY ethos with a professional pathway, has become a standard for participation in the global indie scene and fits well within this government-promoted model for cultural industries. This paper examines how up-and-coming indie bands, often overlooked in academia, navigate the precarious and competitive environment of professionalisation and regulation in China’s platformised music industry. Based on ethnographic methods and discourse analysis, the platform practices and motivations of three up-and-coming indie bands around Shanghai are analysed: Protostar, Acid Room, and Blue Liquid. The paper examines how these bands seek out opportunities and tactically draw on various digital tools to pursue a DIY career. It identifies six discursive repertoires that these bands use to motivate their approach to a DIY ethos – entrepreneurism, professionalism, authenticity, independence, convenience, and necessity – and argues that they adopt a self-entrepreneurial DIY approach to actively shape their career.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines Boomplay, a popular music streaming platform in East Africa, and its influence on burgeoning developments in Nairobi’s new music industry and Kenya’s cultural engagements with China. The platform is owned by China-based company Transsion, a leading mobile phone manufacturer for the African consumer market. First introduced to the Kenyan market in 2016, Boomplay offers a pivotal, though still unproven, digital infrastructure for Nairobi’s musical artists seeking to break away from previous informal industry attitudes. The platform is distinct from its competitors for its focus on African artists, offering little music from North American and European catalogs. Moreover, Boomplay has expanded beyond music streaming and operates as an investor in the Kenyan music industry. It funds music production, marketing, and live performance training programs, hosts an annual music industry summit, and recently organized its first music festival in Nairobi. Given Boomplay’s Chinese ownership, such local music industry initiatives in Kenya are habitually framed in global terms by the company itself as well as in popular discourse. Music and music streaming services are frequently positioned by the company as “universal,” having “no borders,” and critical to “cultural interchange.” In international media, Boomplay is framed as being in a “battle” against Western streaming giants such as Spotify and Apple Music to take hold of the African market. By analyzing the establishment of Boomplay and its services to Kenyan musicians and audiences, I argue that the streaming platform defies the binary logic of local or global. Instead, Boomplay occupies what sociologist Saskia Sassen calls a “third space,” in which it operates in nation-state configurations, is aided by transnational affordances, and is entangled in global market dynamics. By being in this third space, my paper suggests that Boomplay reconfigures notions of borders, thereby making and maintaining a sociocultural imaginary of a “China-Kenya.”

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the use of social media platforms – including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube as well as do-it-yourself (DIY) platforms – in the context of the Hong Kong (HK) independent music scene, a fragmented terrain of stylistic diverse 'micro-scenes' on the edge of the city's hegemonic Cantonese pop music industries. In particular, the paper analyses and how such uses point to three main distinct logics: ‘industrial’ visibility (remediating pre-existing mainstream industries promotional strategies, such as award shows), ‘subcultural’ visibility (relying on the potential of memes and other internet-natives forms to generate an affective community of practice), and ‘archival’ logics (by generating alternative streaming platforms for accessing and circulating recordings) of digital visibility. These logics, beyond promotional regimes associated with digital visibility globally, largely compensate for the ephemeral nature of infrastructures supporting independent music in HK and are linked to processes of knowledge creation that variously index and contrast pre-established practices of musical promotion in the city. Relying of digital ethnography and mobilizing Bernard Stiegler's concepts of negentropic knowledge production and of technology as 'pharmakon', this paper in turn argues that paying attention to specific logics of visibility - embedded within, yet complicating emergent regimes of promotional of digital visibility - in the HK Independent music scene may afford better understanding of social media implications in systems of independent cultural production outside of the American and European social media ecosystems.

ABSTRACT. The Tony and Grammy-award-winning musical In the Heights (2008) tells the stories of many Caribbean immigrants in New York, represented by the protagonist Usnavi, who are confused about their identity, but finally rediscover their Caribbean cultural identity and rebuilding a community where Latinx immigrants coexist, interact, and thrive together. This musical employs various music genres including pop, son, reggae, funk, reggaeton, merengae to convey the urban cultural space of Washington Heights, a New York City neighborhood home to many Caribbean and Latin descent. These musics also serve as a metaphor for the interplay between individual and community development in the Caribbean diaspora, highlighting how the encounter of different cultures impacts racial dynamics, the ideals of racial harmony, and the formation of individuality. The theme song, “In the Heights,” in just eight minutes, showcases eight characters, presenting eight different music styles. Through examining the basic structure and tonality of the music of “In the Heights,” its use of hip hop and salsa, and the characters this song portrays, this study aims to interpret the process through which different musical genres, character designs, and stage arrangement are integrated into the creation of “In the Heights” to present the temporal and spatial context of Washington Heights during the 2000s. I argue that, in “In the Heights,” music serves as a crucial medium, providing a cultural platform for racial and ethnic minorities to voice themselves on stage. The portrayal of the Heights on stage metaphorically represents the real-life neighborhood, challenging the mainstream narrative of Western musicals. It allows the Caribbean diaspora to create a new reality in the Heights, contributing to the shaping of their community identity. Through its interaction with music and the affects associated with it, space is endowed with historical, emotional, and cultural significance, making it a unique entity.

ABSTRACT. This presentation focuses on the understanding of space “as a social construction, projection of the social in space, and as dynamic as time itself” (Rice; May and Thrift) by exploring the impact of major political and social circumstances on the tradition of the Song Celebrations in Latvia. Their history dates back to models that emerged after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars and the establishment of the German Confederation in 1815.

The large-scale Song Celebrations in the 19th century became part of the efforts to unite the Latvian nation and establish an independent Latvian state, which was achieved in 1918. However, the Song Celebrations between 1873 and 1910 could not happen without the singing of the Russian Imperial anthem. Those between 1926 and 1938 took place in an independent Latvia and on a strong basis of the national idea. After the Second World War, the Soviet authorities reshaped the event into the Soviet Latvian Song and Dance Celebration, supplemented with large-scale dance performances in a sports stadium, depicting various political motifs and slogans. The opposition of the participants to this approach became particularly obvious during the 1985 Celebration, one of the first and strongest manifestations leading to the Singing Revolution, which ultimately resulted in the restoration of Latvian national independence in 1990.

In 2003, UNESCO recognised the tradition of Song Celebrations in all three Baltic countries as a masterpiece of the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of humanity, followed by its inclusion on the Representative List of ICH in 2008. Nevertheless, in Latvia, the performers who make the celebration happen are still regarded merely as followers of the organisers’ intentions rather than equal partners. Hence, here issues of reclaiming places and spaces become part of the dynamics about space as a social construction.

ABSTRACT. The Central Soviet Area of China was a separatist regime formed in the southern mountainous regions of China by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1929 to 1934. This period marked the first instance of independent governance by the CCP, during which there were redistributions of the means of production, alterations in social classes and structures, and the reformation of laws within the Soviet Area. For example, land previously owned by landlords was redistributed to peasants, and women, who previously lacked freedom in marriage and social status, were granted marital freedom, political right, and job opportunities in society. During this time, a significant number of songs emerged from the Soviet Zone, influencing generations to come. Most of these songs were adaptations with lyrics set to three main types of melodies: traditional folk songs, urban popular music, and foreign music from Russia, Japan, and other countries. However, upon entering the relatively isolated geographical and ideological environment of the Central Soviet Area, these three types of music underwent significant changes in melody, lyrics, rhythm, accompaniment, performers, audiences, occasions for performance, and functions. Based on my current PhD research, this presentation will explore the musical changes resulting from shifts in space and ideology in the Soviet zone, and the important role these musical transformations played in the construction of new identities, social structures, and power relations against the backdrop of social revolution and war in the Central Soviet Area. These musical changes during this period not only reflect the evolution of sound structure, but they also enacted the development of social revolution in China.

ABSTRACT. On 1st October 2023, I travelled by train to Brighton, UK, to meet a middle-aged woman with a 1970s suitcase. In the suitcase was a beautifully preserved Mallorcan bagpipe (xeremies) bought by her grandfather in Mallorca in the very early 1960s, coinciding with the island’s first touristic boom, predominantly British-led (Buswell 2011). Major Humphrey John Stokes-Rees, a Highland piper himself, bought the instrument and brought it back to the UK, where it then sat in an attic for about fifty years. The instrument was intact: goatskin bag, reeded chanter and drones, and a beautiful textile cover, blue with bright flowers. This was one of the many instruments that had been sold to tourists during the 1960s and 70s by an earlier generation of local musicians. I had often heard about these instruments lost to tourism during my fieldwork in Mallorca in 2011-12: pipers lamented the fact that many xeremies had disappeared abroad, depriving them from valuable resources as they initiated a vibrant revival in the late 1970s (Balosso-Bardin 2016, 2023). As I examined the instrument, many questions arose. Could we identify its former owners? Maybe even the maker? Did it have any historical value? How could this instrument become accessible to the local community? In April 2024, I travelled back to Mallorca, and showed the instruments to several core revivalists. This paper analyses the instrument, as well as the different conversations triggered by its presence, sixty years after having left the island. What can we learn from this newly found instrument? How did the local musicians react? And what does it mean to restitute an instrument lost through tourism at a time when touristification is gaining ground not only in urban centres and seaside areas, but also inland, prompting socio-urban shifts and local anxiety (Coll et al. 2023)?

ABSTRACT. Sarangi is an ancient bowed instrument from India known for its soulful sonority and an uncanny ability to reproduce almost all the myriad emotional expressions that emanate from the human voice. It is a fretless instrument with over 40 sympathetic steel strings and three main playing strings made of guts which are pressed against by the cuticle above the nail to produce various notes. Sarangi had always remained in the background as an accompaniment instrument and was restricted predominantly to accompany vocalists and courtesans’ music in Kings’ courts and in certain socially restricted places called the Kothas. It was only in the mid 20 th century that Sarangi was popularized as a solo instrument by eminent Sarangi players such as Ustad Bundu khan, Ustad Bade Sabri Khan Ambale wale and, notably Pandit Ram Narayan who toured extensively and established this instrument as a solo concert instrument in the global music arena. During the presentation, history of evolution of Sarangi and its physical design will be explained. Audio and Video clips of Pandit Ram Narayan’s Sarangi recital will be played. Nuances of his approach towards various genres such as khayal, thumri and cinema music and his distinct technique of playing fast passages called the sapaat taans will be highlighted. Excerpts from documentaries made in India about Pandit Ramanarayan will be screened. I will also give a live demonstration of sapaat taans, their structure and pedagogical exercises developed by Pandit Ramnarayan to master these taans will be given on the Sarangi.

ABSTRACT. As of 2024, Bangladesh has witnessed a proliferation of 166 commercial tea estates, comprising the world's largest working plantations. Accounting for a total of 3% of the global tea production, the industry employs more than 4 million people. Sadly, tea gardens, that act as total institutions in the area, have seen the historical erosion of cultural identities belonging to the tea plantation workers. Historically speaking, dominance of the tea plantation economy erodes the process of cultural identity formation, and reproduction into successive generations – a consequence of generational economic alienation. Within this framework, this paper attempts to document the cultural practices through musical means adopted by tea plantation workers which silently defy lives consumed by the economy in the Phulbari tea estate of Habiganj, Sylhet in Bangladesh. Taking on a qualitative approach through the use of overt ethnography and in-depth semi-structured interviews, the research further brings forth the role of cultural practices through musical means as a tool of resistance from the continued invisibilization of this particular tea plantation worker community. It carefully looks into the music, art, and dances practiced within the everyday lives of the workers, which act as forms of preserving the subaltern as well as countering the mechanisms of the powerful. As far as the implication of the research findings are concerned, the study contributes directly to the understanding of music and empowerment, institutional power dynamics, and resistance from within through cultural practices.

ABSTRACT. Al-Mehbaj's design from a coffee grinding tool to a percussion musical instrument Ali alShurman Luminous Technical University College (LTUC)

Summary The researcher looks at Al-Mehbaj from the perspective of an ethnic musical point of view, as he used the term (Instrument) for the Mehbaj, not a tool, which he means a musical instrument. What is meant by instrument here is a musical instrument that the researcher classifies as a percussive musical instrument based on international classifications. This study aims to shed light on the Al-Mehbaj instrument by describing its uses and how it moved from a tool for grinding coffee to a percussive musical instrument. The researcher approaches the methodology of description and investigation in presenting and proving the research problem. The researcher also looks at al-Mehbaj's instrument from a cultural and identity point of view, as it has spread in most Arab countries and Jordan in particular. The researcher concluded that the coffee grinder was initially used as a primary function, and then adapted to produce various musical rhythms during the coffee grinding process. The player of this instrument can produce different variations of Eastern and Western musical rhythms with different dynamics.

ABSTRACT. This panel aims to explore the role of music as a practice of cultural diplomacy, offering new perspectives on the interaction between language, culture, and international relations in the post-colonial world. Colonization during the modern era profoundly transformed the linguistic map through exercises in oppression, erasure, and imposition. The end of great empires gave way to the resurgence of silenced languages, the emergence of creolized languages, and the persistence of colonial linguistic expressions as a form of distinction in contexts of non-independent postcolonial territories. Within the scope of this panel, we designate these different linguistic processes as post-colonial languages because their affirmation occurred after the end of historical colonization and is independent of subsequent official languages. The aim, therefore, is to explore how musical expressions in post-colonial languages act not only as vehicles for the preservation of cultural heritage but also as influential tools in shaping international relations and mutual understanding. The panel focuses on case studies in Goa, Cape Verde, and Mozambique, where linguistic choices for creating local repertoires have impacted global music scenes, thus facilitating intercultural dialogue and redefining identity narratives within postcolonial discourse. The panel will address the following key questions: How do postcolonial languages in music articulate cultural identity and historical memory? How do they contribute to international cultural diplomacy? What are the implications for linguistic diversity in the global music industry?

Paper 1 - Harmonizing Histories: The Preservation and Diplomatic Role of Fado de Goa in Contemporary India

Abstract: This presentation investigates the phenomena of Fado in Goa and its fundamental role as an ambassador of Indian culture. Fado, a performative genre deeply rooted in Portuguese tradition and declared a UNESCO World Intangible Heritage in 2011, resurged in Goa after 2014, leading to the establishment of the Fado de Goa brand. In 2017, Indian institutions officially recognized and classified it as an Indian music genre. The inclusion of a musical genre sung in Portuguese in Indian diplomatic circles, given Goa's history as a Portuguese colony until 1961, raises a nuanced topic that demands careful investigation. Therefore, this article will explore how Fado de Goa catalyzed the preservation of the Portuguese language in Goa, ensuring its continuation and relevance in contemporary Goan society. Furthermore, it will examine the role of Fado in strengthening India and Goa's cultural diplomacy, facilitating connections between Goan communities around the world and maintaining dialogue with Portugal. Through active engagement with the global Fado community, Goan musicians contribute to a broader discourse on cultural preservation and the transformative power of music in sustaining linguistic diversity. In short, by presenting historical connections through music, this presentation aims to contribute to broader discussions about cultural sustainability and the strategic use of music in diplomacy. It offers insights into how these connections can shape postcolonial cultural and linguistic politics, shedding light on the lasting impact of cultural heritage in defining contemporary postcolonial and decolonial narratives.

Paper 2 - Between Marrabenta and Pandza: Generations, Languages, and Identities in Mozambican Music

Abstract: Mozambique was a Portuguese colony until it gained independence in 1975. Following independence, Portuguese was adopted as the official language. Marrabenta and Pandza are two popular music genres in Mozambique that have become national symbols. Marrabenta emerged during the colonial period, between the 1930s and 1940s, a time when the Portuguese language was imposed as a symbol of colonization, associated with cultural domination and assimilation. Marrabenta is primarily sung in indigenous languages such as Xironga and Xichangana and is considered a symbol of Mozambican identity and cultural resistance to colonization. It is predominantly practiced by a generation that lived through the colonial period. Pandza emerged in a period when Portuguese was already the official language of Mozambique, specifically in 2005, three decades after the country's independence. Pandza combines Portuguese with indigenous languages, aiming to reach an international audience in an era marked by globalization. It is practiced by youths born in the 1980s, a decade after the country's independence. This paper examines the relationship between the Portuguese language, identity, and music in Mozambique, observing how the Portuguese language manifests in Mozambican music in different historical contexts and how distinct generations of musicians perceive and utilize it. This study is part of a broader research project on musical practices, society, and creative musical interactions in the Mozambican capital, Maputo.

Paper 3 - “I became the ambassador of my island”. The Role of Cesária Évora in Cultural Diplomacy of Cape Verde

Abstract: This paper discusses the role of Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora in bringing global attention to the Creole language through her unusual, unique, and distinctive artistic career, thereby contributing to the internationalization of her homeland. Cesária Évora (1941-2011) was relatively unknown outside her home island and country until the late 1980s. Before Cape Verde's independence in 1975, her performances were confined to the bars and cafes of Mindelo on São Vincente Island, catering primarily to Portuguese sailors and military personnel. Although Portuguese was the official language before and after 1975, Creole is the language of dreams, whispers, and everyday communication among Cape Verdeans. Despite not being the language of instruction in schools, public spaces, or official communications, Creole has always been the preferred mode of expression for musicians reflecting their identity. In the late 1980s, Cesária Évora's artistic career took an unexpected turn under the guidance of Jose da Silva, a Cape Verdean producer based in Paris, where the scene of world music was thriving. This paper explores Cesária Évora's journey as an artist and her significant role in promoting her country and its "silent" language on the world stage, thus becoming an unexpected diplomatic cultural ambassador.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to examine the changes in the music context and performance practices of Ng’oma ya Bhalungu from the 1960s to the present. Ng’oma ya Bhalungu is the ritualistic music and dance performance, the Sukuma people use to communicate with their ancestral spirits. The performance which involves spirit possession is usually organized for various rituals such as healing, divination, power succession, and initiation rites. However, due to various social-cultural transformations in the spheres of religion, education, and politics as well as intercultural interactions and migration, this dance has undergone several changes. This paper highlights the changes by focusing on specific aspects of the ngoma such as song lyrics, drumming and dance style, rhythmic and melodic patterns as well as ritual context and performance time. This paper presents findings from my ethnographic study among the Sukuma people in Mwanza, Tanzania.

ABSTRACT. Music and dance have always existed as integral parts of the daily life and spiritual beliefs of indigenous people. They are outlets in which the cultural heritage of traditional societies can be preserved for the purpose of information, educating and entertaining generations. Gulum is a three-stringed lyre of the Bura people of North-Eastern Nigeria which has been used by indigenous musicians as a musical instrument performed at weddings, festivals, and community gatherings and also as an accompaniment to the daily performance of domestic chores. Despite evidence to suggest that music making is a universal human endeavour, studies indicate a decline in active traditional performances, particularly in local communities. This paper explores the innovative integration of music technology in the preservation and performance of gulum, within the context of Bura hadla dance and music. Through the lens of applied ethnomusicology, the study delves into the intersection of tradition and technology, examining how advancements in music technology can enhance the authenticity and sustainability of gulum performances. By employing digital tools and applied methodologies, this research aims to revitalize gulum traditions while ensuring their preservation for future generations.

ABSTRACT. The recent consciousness of plants benefits man’s total health and professional output, careers, and successes continue reverberating. The Nigerian environmental plants play major roles in the popular music voice production and dance styles across Nigeria. However, few studies have been devoted to plants concerning music in Nigeria. Therefore, this novel study exhumed the interconnectivity of plants to Nigerian popular music voice production and plants as determinants of dance styles. Nigerian popular musicians use traditional plants to enhance excellent voice production such as bitter kola, banana, alligator pepper, ginger, herbs, and spices. The study adopted ethnographic methods with interviews and textual and musical analysis. The study analyzed the song lyrics Moti Jorógbó; ‘I have eaten bitter kola’ by King Sunny Ade documents the uses of plants to enhance popular music voice production. Secondary data were sourced through the library and the internet. Ethnomusicology theory uniqueness draws on the values of traditional music and plant trajectories to expose the theoretical footing of plants and their entanglements with popular music and dance for expropriation and integration into the body of knowledge. The study discovered a means to easily identify Nigerian music and dances the Northerners dance with leg tips, the Igbos dance with energy hitting their legs on the ground the Yoruba dance using their big bottoms as a result of varieties of plant food consumption. The study reasons that traditional environmental plant foods determine the varieties of popular music and the signifiers of dance styles that are abundantly available in Nigeria. I conclude that plant food production should be prioritized in Nigeria to boost excellent popular music production in Nigeria. I argue that Nigerian traditional popular music can document itself, and analyze plants, environments, and sustainability trajectories in Nigeria.

ABSTRACT. Studies in ethnomusicology have focused on the sustenance of musical cultures as scholars engage in understanding the factors contributing to their decline or survival. The ability of indigenous music to thrive in changing contexts is crucial, as some traditions have faded due to unsuitable performance environments, while others require support to adapt and flourish (Schippers, 2016). In Ghana, one such tradition is Osoode, a recreational Akan music that continues to be recontextualized due to the changing contexts of its ecosystem. One of the contexts of its recent reinterpretation is its highlife version. Thus, this paper explores its evolution, a fusion of Osoode with Ghanaian Highlife. The historical and contemporary practices that have influenced the development of the Highlife version will be examined to analyze the recontextualization processes. The following questions will be addressed: What is Osoode Highlife music, and what are its features? How has Osoode Highlife contributed to sustaining Osoode music? Conceptualizing through the lens of sustainability, I argue that the recontextualization process has significantly contributed to the revival and sustenance of Osoode. The paper concludes that Osoode Highlife's continued relevance and popularity stems from its ability to harmonize an indigenous musical tradition with modern contexts, creating a unique sonic identity that resonates with various audiences.

ABSTRACT. Since a conversation at the ICTMD world conference in Bangkok in 2019, colleagues from Brazil and South Africa with longstanding commitments to non-extractivist, non-colonialist, or ‘reverse anthropologies’ of music and sound have been developing collaborative research dialogues developed under analogous conditions in their respective countries. This conversation has come to include community partners, students and colleagues from Mozambique, India and beyond. They have centred the experiences of socially oriented, self-organised music and dance teachers and researchers that prioritise countercolonial and redistributive approaches to production, education and research. Initiated via online meetings under pandemic conditions, these exchanges have been enriched by in-person visits to Johannesburg and Rio de Janeiro in subsequent years, as well as joint conference presentations. These ongoing and increasingly consolidated intercommunity relationships are during 2024 being deepened through dialogues not only across our contexts but also through concrete, practical collaborations. Examples of these interactions include online presentations to postgraduate classes to share the research present in our group on musical education, traditional peoples, music markets, and community movements. Beyond academic contexts, further interactions entail artistic collaborations in the field of production involving producers, artists, and community studios in the local contexts of the participating collectives. Our roundtable will report and reflect critically on the affordances and limits of these recent collaborations.

The presenters are: 1. From Brazil: Dandara quilombista school in Complexo do Alemão 2. From South Africa: Collective of local arts schools & activists: Luthando Arts Academy, Committed Artists For Creative Advancement (CAFCA) 3. From Mozambique: RIAMus (Re-valorização, Intervenção e Acção Músicas) 4. From South Africa & India: Researchers affiliated with the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) 5. Bilingual chair/facilitator

ABSTRACT. Creativity assumes the novel rearrangement of existing elements, both in the areas of artistic creativity and problem-solving. Humans excel creatively if they are comfortable with ambivalent situations, open to experimentations and play, and willing to take risks. With those considerations in mind, how might the external environment affect human creative capacity? In my paper I focus on how isolated and confined extreme (ICE) environments, characterized by small living quarters, limited interactions with the outside world, harsh external conditions, and an inherently elevated level of risk, affect the creative expression of individuals who live there. Specifically, I review instances of creative expression, particularly those of music and movement, that have taken place in the extreme environments of polar and space stations. I analyze data derived from my interviews with polar explorers and astronauts in light of existing theories of creativity. Also, I pose new hypotheses regarding the interplay of ICE environments and creativity. As the human race sets sight on Mars as the final space frontier while living conditions on Earth become ever more extreme due to the global climate crisis, the question of creativity becomes not only a matter of intellectual interest but a matter of survival.

ABSTRACT. In this talk, I discuss how musical practices, including dance, rework relationships among places in a recently resettled urban Indigenous community (niyaro’) in New Taipei City. Like other niyaro’ in NewPei, Cinemnemay formed around subsistence gathering and ritual practices among ‘amis migrants who came to the city seeking work in the construction trades. The niyaro’ orients itself toward the HsinTien River. Yet, founding members of the niyaro’ collected a stone from the Siuguluan River, which nourished their original communities in Eastern Taiwan. This stone subsequently became the focus of ritual practices and moved with the community when it was displaced by urban renewal. Meanwhile, a variety of popular and traditional musics also coordinate among New and Old Cinemnemay, HsinTien and Siuguluan Rivers, and Indigenous and settler spaces in NewPei. In particular, as a community formed of people from different original communities and in dialogue with other Indigenous communities in NewPei, the formation of a shared corpus of traditional songs has been an ongoing project in Cinemnemay; ritual songs thus trace the community’s dense relationships with other places. Thus, I argue that musical practices rescale river systems, ancestors, people, and Peoples into a network that exceeds settler containment of urban Indigenous people. This mode of rescaling NewPei within (and as) Indigenous place pushes our consideration of scale beyond usual accounts of scale in music studies, which often approach scale as an opposition between global and local scales or as a set of trans-regional (for example, South-South) networks.

ABSTRACT. The women of Ogidi, a town in Anambra State, South Eastern Nigeria, are concerned about the environmental sustainability of their community. They blame this unprecedented level of sustainability on the non-observance of indigenous environmental protection measures, by members of the society. In objection, during the annual lwa ji also known as New Yam festival, one of the most important festivals in the community, Ogidi women staged a protest using music and dance to challenge the reckless attitude of people destroying the environment. This study discussed how Ogidi women, use " Umuada" music and dance to call to order the people who cause environmental degradation in the community. The study employed a qualitative research design. The data was analyzed qualitatively. The study found that the songs, dance and dramatic movements were major strategies for promoting environmental sustainability. It was recommended that indigenous Umuada music and dance should be encouraged. This will help the community to promote environmental sustainability in Ogidi, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT. This paper scrutinises how the Indigenous hip hop album Warrangu; River Story speaks to Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences in Australia. The sounds and stories of the album invite the listener to reconnect to Country – which encompasses First Nations’ ways of being in the world in reciprocal relationships with land, waterways, skies, and (human) animals. Warrangu; River Story, produced by Muruwari and Filipino artist DOBBY, reconnects the artist to his cultural heritage in the Brewarrina Shire Region in Australia. The album follows the rivers of the Murray Darling Basin while protesting the privatisation of these rivers that disrupt the natural water flows. DOBBY, here, explores how the cotton and almond industry in the region directly causes droughts, referred to as water theft. As the performing of songlines traditionally embodies information about how to live with the land, Warrangu; River Story continues this tradition, in which central components are community and Elders – the knowledge holders who tell stories about the waters in recordings that compose the main thread throughout the music album. I will explore how DOBBY forges a connection between the audience and the rivers by rapping about his personal ties to the place, encouraging others to find that connection, too. The paper demonstrates how, therefore, personal stories are interconnected with regional and global stories. It focuses on how DOBBY positions the stories of his personal relationship with Country amidst current climate change debates (within and outside of ethno/eco-musicological debates), harnessing the connective power of music and culture.

ABSTRACT. Resilience, as Ayyagari (2022: 7) observes, “may be one of the most salient terms of our time”. Although it has been employed in a variety of fields over several centuries, the use of the term in the field of ecology has been most influential in its more recent, albeit still limited, application in music research. Resilience offers one analytical perspective for building upon important earlier work on musical sustainability (such as Schippers and Grant 2016), with its value as an eco-trope a topic of lively debate (Titon 2023, Keogh and Collinson 2016). In this paper, I explore its usefulness in understanding and analysing musical activities in culturally diverse societies, focussing in particular upon the activities of non-mainstream or minority groups. In these plural social contexts, while ethnic or cultural diversity is often publicly promoted and celebrated, socio-political trends suggest a gradual movement towards cultural homogeneity that may threaten cultural maintenance (Nagy 2014). Here, resilience thinking can help circumvent the tendency towards habituated approaches in analysing contemporary practice of musical tradition, and can include a more nuanced awareness of important social issues – including impacts of socio-cultural (dis)location and experience and, for many migrant and refugee communities, physical displacement. By focussing on identifying the characteristics of musical resilience, I explore how musical adaptations may reshape, rather than diminish, the meaning and significance of music for a community. Various examples of resilience from my long-term musical ethnographic research with two different groups in two intentionally contrastive culturally diverse societies – China and Australia – reveal some of the diversity in characteristics of musical resilience, as well as interesting similarities in the parallel experience of minority groups in different culturally diverse national contexts.

ABSTRACT. This paper follows the trajectory of a creative research collaboration on Ngarigu language and music between linguist and Ngarigu woman Professor Jakelin Troy and scholar of language and music and musician Dr. Mahesh White-Radhakrishnan. Building on documentary materials, past scholarship and most recently, the exciting renewal of a Ngarigu song from a colonial era manuscript (Troy & Barwick 2021; Harris, Barwick & Troy 2022), this new collaboration involves musical, performative and linguistic exploration with documentary materials and scholarship and connecting with Ngarigu Country.

Harris, A., Barwick, L., and Troy, J. eds. (2022) 'Music, Dance and the Archive', Sydney University Press.

Troy, J. and Barwick, L. (2021), 'Claiming the ‘Song of the Women of the Menero Tribe'', Musicology Australia, vol 42, issue 2.

ABSTRACT. Nwátàm is a dance music festival denoting folkloric manifestation of ancestral spirits; their reverence in the performance is a thanksgiving ceremony for bountiful harvests and human multiplication in the agrarian culture and society of Ndoki in Southeastern Nigeria. The staging of this post-harvest ceremony coincides with the twelve days of Christmastide, December 25 to January 5, based on the Gregorian calendar. Nwátàm festival is one indigenous practice that did not seem to face the onslaught of European missionary efforts at suppressing the cultural practices of local communities. The resultant survival of the practice is thus a cause for curiosity and raises the question of how and why this culture persists. Despite this seeming sustenance, intensive distortion in the light of the modern Pentecostal movement has become notorious and responsible for what Okigbo (2021) termed “Africans’ cultural self-immolation.” Through ethnographic and archival studies, this paper references cultural expressions in Europe’s Christmas festivities, especially masquerade, as a possible explanation for the survival of Nwátàm in Ndokiland. It then interrogates the new form of Pentecostalism and its attacks on native cultures and their implications in the broader context of the ongoing scholarly debates on the crisis of African cultural identity in the light of Nkrumah’s Consciencism and W.E.B. DuBois’s discourses on Double Consciousness.

ABSTRACT. Teochew Opera, a traditional theatrical art form from Chaozhou, China, not only showcases the region's rich cultural heritage but has also become an important vehicle for identity and unity among the Teochew ethnic group globally. My research explores how Teochew Opera, through its unique performance art, promotes cultural continuity and strengthens the resilience of this ethnic group. By skillfully blending traditional stories, local languages, and community customs into its performances, Teochew Opera enhances the pride and sense of belonging among members of the Teochew ethnic group, while also maintaining social cohesion. Facing the challenges of globalization and technological change, Teochew Opera demonstrates significant adaptability and resilience, maintaining its cultural vitality and relevance through innovative performance forms and media. Since 2019, my fieldwork in the Teochew region of China has provided deep insights and data support for this study, further deepening the understanding of Teochew Opera's role as a cultural and community bond. This paper not only analyzes how Teochew Opera serves as a cultural bridge in modern society, connecting the past with the future and facilitating the transmission of cultural heritage, but also discusses how communities are adopting innovative measures to revive and adapt this precious art form, ensuring its continued prosperity in contemporary settings. Additionally, I will demonstrate how Teochew Opera effectively counters cultural homogenization, offering viable strategies for the protection and development of similar traditional art forms worldwide.

ABSTRACT. In most African societies, children and adults are represented in different social groups and their engagement in musical activities follows similar representations. Music making for children has been attributed to play mostly as mbre-etokeyen (children play) as they explore with toy instruments and imitate musical activities in their localities. In this paper, I examine how children's musical culture among the Ibibio people of Nigeria has moved into adult instruments as exemplified in ikon (xylophone) performances as a sustainability strategy. Although little attention has been given to children's musical activities, generally, I study how their engagements with ikon (xylophone) performances have contributed meaningfully to the growing popularity of ikon music and dance practices particularly in social media platforms. What motivates the changing trajectory from adults to children in ikon music and dance practices? Why do they gravitate towards popular music instead of traditional music for which ikon music is known? To examine these questions, the paper engages ethnographic fieldwork with two cultural groups through oral interviews and participant observation. Secondary data will also contribute to the study in examining the involvement of children in the emerging history, performance, and sustainability of ikon music and dance practices. This radical turn (from adults to children) questions basic assumptions about the role the children played in musical sustainability in different cultures of the world and shows a continuous engagement in transformation through modernity using elements of the past to evade the impending danger of extinction and loss of relevance. The paper discusses the dynamic of musical change especially modernism and tradition and how they synergize for sustainability.

ABSTRACT. Many of the Blind schools for visual Impaired students in Thailand and Laos do not provide music education as part of the school curriculum. Music activities are done after the school as a private ensemble for entertainment and leisure purposes. Blind students, therefore, lack of opportunities to access to music program that improves physical and mental health, along with enhancing music skills and musicianship. This research aims to provide music program for visual-impaired students at the blind schools in Thailand and Laos with the goals in promoting local cultures of North-eastern Thai and Laos music to blind students. The program includes curriculum in learning North-eastern and Laos musical instruments. Research methodologies include curriculum design, fieldwork study in teaching and assessment of the following criteria: social skill, physical skill, mental health, and music skill. The outcome of the program can improve both physical and mental health and students’ self-satisfaction and confidence along with providing students alternative career in music. Moreover, using local instruments can help preserving resources of the region and help preserving local music for cultural sustainability.

ABSTRACT. The Limassol Carnival was listed in UNESCO's National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2015. It is the only known carnival that includes Serenades, which are male choirs, within its celebrations. Originating in the Ionian islands, a serenade is a harmonised love poem, traditionally sung by men to women in a waltz or dance-like rhythm. Despite their origins as love songs, the Limassol Carnival Serenades serve different purposes and meanings. Primarily, the tradition glorifies the city's carnival, indulgence, and dancing through its melodies and lyrics. Unfortunately, the practice is on the brink of extinction and requires immediate action. This paper aims to shed light on the unique identity and cultural significance of the Limassol Carnival Serenades. My PhD research, which involves fieldwork, archival research, and analysis of identity, nostalgia, and safeguarding, has been instrumental in achieving this goal. Furthermore, I seek to highlight the cultural significance of the Limassol Carnival Serenades and propose alternative educational approaches to sustain this tradition. These approaches, including community music, formal and informal music education, and inclusivity, are not just theoretical concepts. They can act as practical tools that, based on my findings and personal experience as both a performer and an ethnomusicologist, I believe can play a pivotal role in sustaining and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Community music can advocate cultural evolution and sustainability through diverse-led educational approaches to ensure the Limassol Carnival Serenades prosper for generations.

ABSTRACT. In the ongoing Creative Europe project (2022-2025) Dance as ICH: New models of facilitating participatory dance events, the project’s main objective is to strengthen the capacity and knowledge in the museum and the cultural heritage sector's work on dancing as intangible cultural heritage (ICH), as a facilitation practice, and to establish renewed models for participatory dance events as a co-creative process in call from heritage communities. The project promises methodologies that are inclusive, participative, and co-creative, a bottom-up approach. From the perspective of one (of five) local projects this paper asks: In which ways are the methods used inclusive, participative, co-creative, and of beneficial for the music- and dance heritage community? I will discuss the preliminary outcomes in relation to the promised methodology of Nina Simon’s me-to-we design in Participatory Museums’ (2010), of two equal negotiating partners (Lynch, 2017), which make an open dialogue with all stakeholders about both content and method (Van Mensch 2012). Already in the initial phases the heritage community and their individuals approach the collaboration process in different ways: some with a distance and critically questions towards power inequalities of ownership, competition and funding, some praise the collaborative advantages, while others have clear goals of what they want to achieve. Baron’s (2016) call to increase dialogue with the critical heritage scholars in such projects seems evident. This research uses a multi-methodology: 1) Fieldwork and interviews of participants in music and dance rehearsals and dance events prior to, at the starting phase of, and during the project, 2) fieldwork observations and interviews with different stakeholders from the process of my colleagues first initiatives, through their facilitation processes to the creation and implementation of the renewed participatory dance events, and 3) myself wandering in and out of the multiple roles of being an activist researcher, and participant-observer ethno-choreomusicologist.

ABSTRACT. Ritual singing is a product of the folk music tradition that has come into being through the confluence of feelings and imagination of individuals in a specific geographical space. Ritual singing practices in the Garhwal Himalayas carve cultural expressions and shape social spaces of identity, belongingness, and community. The Garhwal Himalayas is a region with a consensus in its ethnocultural forms despite physical and social variations, making it culturally endowed. Various scholars have classified the Garhwali folk songs into different categories, including Jagar Geet, Chaiti Geet, Khuder Geet, Samskar Geet, Chopti Geet, Barahmasa Geet, Chaufla Geet, Tharya Geet, and Jhumelo Geet. These folk songs portray the relationship between women and the environment. These are indicators of the social status of women, occupational structure, and the importance of the physical location of space in their life patterns, thus creating a living cultural heritage. Through activities, expressions, knowledge, and abilities, the cultural legacy becomes part of the intangible cultural heritage that takes the shape of oral traditions, performing arts, social activities, rituals, knowledge, and practices about the environment. Therefore, intangible cultural heritage becomes an indispensable component in preserving cultural inheritance in the era of globalization. The present paper attempts to investigate the women-based folk songs of the Garhwal Himalayan region. Using theoretical, ethnographic, participatory, and linguistic approaches, the research will attempt to understand traditional ethnomusicology. The study will investigate how ritual singing leads to the social construction of gendered identity. The study focuses on understanding how a particular song depicts women's lived experiences and how these songs can be part of Intangible cultural heritage.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines Teochew opera and puppetry by focusing on the dissemination, teaching, rehearsal and stage practice of this musical tradition by one notable family, which has been performing Teochew Opera and Puppetry over five generations in Penang, Malaysia. Teochew opera and puppetry were transplanted to Malaysia with the immigration of Chinese and mainly exists as a preparatory performance for celebrations. Owing to the longer history of puppetry and people believe that puppets are sacred, puppetry are traditionally performed before operas as a way to cleanse the venue. This tradition is, however, gradually becoming less adhered to in modern times. Though Teochew opera and puppetry flourished in late 19th to middle 20th century, these practices have gradually been declining and changing due to changing preferences of audiences as well as competition from other modern performance genres such as pop music. For instance, one Teochew Opera Troupe that was founded by the notable family was disbanded due to poor box office sales. Other changes include, the transformation of these practices from sacred to secular, as they moved from outdoor performance spaces to professional, theatrical performance spaces as well as being made into television programs in the mid 20th century as part of the process of safeguarding and to comply with new communication methods. Through participant observation and ethnographic interview data as well as drawing on the theoretical framework of sustainability by Titon (2009) and Five Domains by Schippers (2015), I examine Teochew puppet theater groups and Teochew opera spaces associated with this family, challenges faced by this tradition and their efforts to sustain these practices.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores the social authenticity of Persian rap music within contemporary Iranian society, highlighting its role as a dynamic cultural force amid socio-political constraints. Drawing on interviews with Iranian youth and analysis grounded in theories of musical authenticity, this study examines how Persian rap serves as both a platform for social commentary and a medium for cultural expression. The core argument posits that Persian rap music embodies a form of "social authenticity" that resonates deeply with young Iranians, particularly through its engagement with themes of resistance and identity. The genre’s authenticity is reinforced by its lyrical content, which often addresses issues of political dissent, cultural norms, and the collective aspirations of its audience. This paper identifies three crucial elements—desire, feeling, and experience—that contribute to the music's authenticity, illustrating how these elements intersect to reflect and shape the socio-cultural landscape of Iran. The study concludes that Persian rap does not merely mirror societal challenges but actively participates in the cultural discourse, positioning itself as a significant agent of social change. By examining the interplay between music and social identity, this paper contributes to broader discussions in ethnomusicology about the role of music in expressing and shaping community identities.

ABSTRACT. This paper addresses the challenges and opportunities of musical engagement as a means of empowerment for unaccompanied minor refugees and young asylum seekers in Lucerne, Switzerland. Situated within the framework of a four-year research project in applied ethnomusicology, the study focuses on recently arrived young people, predominantly from Afghanistan, and their use of musical practices to negotiate their new sociocultural landscapes. One of our central questions revolves around how musicking shapes young refugees’ experiences in their new environment and how these engagements may influence, challenge, or reinforce social imaginaries. Through six months of voluntary weekly “music listening sessions” in a transit center for minor refugees, insights were gained into their individual musical preferences and “musical literacies,” i.e., the musical knowledge they have already developed in their places of origin or on their journey to Switzerland. Within this temporal space, facilitated by music as “moments of choice and freedom” (Lewis 2015), participants engaged in musical dialog, occasionally selecting rap pieces, generally with preferences for artists from their own cultural backgrounds who rap in familiar languages. Based on the insights we gained from these sessions, a hip-hop workshop was organized, jointly led by a youth worker and a hip-hop artist, along with support from the research team, who then critically analyzed the outcome. In alignment with the assertion that refugee empowerment is pivotal in the process of refugee integration this analysis aims to contribute to the discourse surrounding the interplay between empowerment objectives and musical involvement among youth and young adults.

ABSTRACT. With the assumption that practice informs theory, this project proposes song co-writing as an Arts-Based Research (ABR) method which centers artmaking as integral to knowledge creation. I discuss four of my co-writing experiences, two in Urbana, Illinois in the United States and two in Santu Lussurgiu, Sardinia in Italy to start a conversation about what co-writing offers and what are its challenges as an ethnographic method.

When entering the discursive world of co-writing country—as an imagined place— there is a contestation of genre. I argue that co-writing as a method reveals individual relationships to creative community through the negotiation of genre. It is through ideas of genre that facets of songs are judged as good and bad, belonging and not belonging, and those judgements ripple out into representations of artistry, community, and participation. In many cases, one person’s idea of a musical genre is not the same as another’s. How might we understand the genre learning in practice and how do creative impulses interact with genre knowledge in collaboration? What does it mean to write songs and be an artist beyond the music industry?

I analyze and reflect on creative processes in these co-writes through a restructuring of genre in three ways: a formless form impossible to fill, a chain of responses that echo the past, and a constellation that allows for a multifaceted lens into the ways people learn to care and relate to artmaking. This multifaceted model of genre provides various lenses into the creative-collaborative process which contributes to a sensory and experiential ethnographic understanding of creative practice and community. Viewing song co-writing as an ABR method contributes to participatory research that fosters a place-based co-creation and re-creation of knowledge through and with song.

ABSTRACT. Today, it can seem that every aspect of the flamenco world has changed. Musicians have “fused” flamenco with other styles--from jazz to hip-hop, while some prominent 21st-century flamenco dance artists have gone to once-unimaginable lengths in their performances on the concert stage. Israel Galván has been known to dance while lying on the floor; Manuel Liñán leads a troupe of men dressed in drag; Olga Pericet opened a recent solo program in New York City, bare-breasted; and the young dancer El Yiyo cites Michael Jackson videos as his principal teacher. While debates about the so-called “purity” and “authenticity” of this traditional art form have raged for more than a hundred years, these novel developments send shivers up the spines of many traditionalists. Yet, at the same time, the once-denigrated art of flamenco has recently reached new levels of respectability, both in Spain and beyond. In 2010, UNESCO named flamenco an Intangible Cultural Heritage; flamencología has become a legitimate academic discipline, while Spanish conservatories and universities offer formal degrees in flamenco dance and music; the Spanish government regularly awards prestigious prizes to flamenco artists; and the rise of the Roma Rights Movement has led to a global reconsideration of long-held stereotypes about flamenco and the people with whom it is most closely associated—the term "Roma" has largely replaced "gypsy." Moreover, recent scholarship has explored important new directions, including K. Meira Goldberg’s work on the African roots of flamenco; Michelle Heffner Hayes’ discussions of the “anti-guapa” aesthetic (female dancers rejecting traditional ideals of beauty); and Idit Suslik and Ryan Rockmore’s examinations of gender-fluidity. In this paper, I will consider these issues and argue that—despite such sweeping alterations--the essence of flamenco remains largely unchanged.

ABSTRACT. “Replacing hips with feet” is the movement generation logic of Jiaozhou Yangge, which not only affects the "dance steps" and the dance body of the framework of action is formed, which also entangled “State and Local”, “History and the Present”, “Inside and Outside” and “Methods and Conceptions”. This paper focuses on the body narrative behind female dance movements in Jiaozhou Yangge, and uses the theory of “body” research to interpret how “dance steps” are “entangled” by the changes and adherence between multiple discourses. In the context of "multi-species ethnography", this paper explores the cross dialogue of "dance steps" in diachronic and synchronic space, and dissolves the multiple body narratives on the female dance movements of Jiaozhou Yangge.

ABSTRACT. Cognition depends on experience, and experience comes from the body with different sensorimotor abilities and memory functions. In musical practice, the individual’s process from music experience to music cognition and then to embodied cognition is essentially a process of “objective information accumulation - subjective knowledge reconstruction - the practice of human and environment collusion”. There are two traditional musical genres of Buyi ethnic group -- Buyi Opera and Bayin Seated Singing spread in the Nanpan River basin of Guizhou province of China, which are mostly dominated by local male artists. Some of them have learned these two musical genres since childhood, in which they have gained rich musical experience and formed unique musical cognition and physical memory in the long-term artistic practice. Eventually, they acquire multiple musical identities: Buyi Opera performers, instrumental accompanists and ceremony hosts. Based on the need of actual performance, these male Buyi artists with multiple musical identities often realize identity transformation through their unique dance movements, musical instrument playing techniques and ritual concepts in music practice. The process of such identity transformation also implies the change of gender roles caused by different musical genres, which leads to the change of male artists’ musical concepts. The purpose of this paper is to explore how male Buyi artists with multiple musical identities exchange their identities between different artistic genres and lead to the change of gender roles, and how those complex transformations affect on their music behavior and music concept.

ABSTRACT. Asian cultures have produced a rich variety of traditional performing arts, which form three groups: dance, puppet theatre, and dance-drama. A variety of masks is also used, mostly by male performers. Many similar genres exist, demonstrating mutual influences and regional specifics. One form, however - the lion dance, ubiquitously stands out throughout Asia. It also occupies the intersection of the three groups, being staged as a dance ritual and featured in puppetry and dance-drama. Originating in China, it has travelled widely and has been incorporated into most Asian cultures, under various forms, reflecting local characteristics. Therefore, a wide range of masks and costumes, music and movement patterns are used. But the common trait of all lion dances is their special, auspicious nature and as such they have been a domain of men. This presentation explores how women have challenged this male dominance, focusing on Japan and China. To provide the context, first, the main forms of lion dances in Asia are briefly overviewed, mapping their distribution throughout the continent, and further within Asian diaspora. Next, the "8,000 different variations" of lion dance in Japan are discussed, especially the distinctive one-man variety. It is this form that has finally allowed for the participation of girls and women. Several female lion dances recently staged are explored, juxtaposing the traditional and the creative type of performance in terms of women's agency and empowerment. Lastly, a comparison with all-female lion dances in Chinese diaspora in North America is made, focusing on the differences and the factors behind them. The aim of this presentation is to also call for a comparative, exhaustive exploration of lion dance and to look for collaborators in a future research project. Because, as omnipresent as it is, the lion dance is surprisingly understudied within the broader context of Asia and Asian diaspora.

ABSTRACT. In 2012, Mozambique’s Ministry of Culture announced plans to nominate tufo, a popular women’s song-and-dance genre, to be included on UNESCO’s list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The broader policy objective was to safeguard tufo—considered ‘at risk’ of losing its original characteristics—by establishing professional performance standards. While the application was never submitted, the narrow conception of the genre outlined in the proposal contrasted from tufo as it is practiced at local and regional levels by a vast network of competitive dance associations. Drawing on twenty months of mobile ethnography and performance-based research with dance groups in Mozambique, I examine these competing ideas of tufo through discourses about talent. While at a policy level, talented groups are those that reinforce the heritage imaginary, local discourses reveal talent to be relationally defined, and includes a group’s skills at moving across form and scale, from sonic and kinaesthetic configurations to their social and spatial movements. I follow one group, Red Star, as they prepare to travel to and perform at a carrama (festival) in a large urban center, to show how talent is understood as an embodied process that groups utilize as a way to navigate shifting terrains and avoid isolation. I argue that competing discourses of talent in tufo at the national and local levels are entangled with broader ideas about mobility and its gendered politics in post-colonial Mozambique, where women’s movements, when left unregulated, pose a moral threat to state-supported notions of ‘Mozambicanness.’

ABSTRACT. African indigenous music creation has its sustainability interrupted by civilization and other components of globalization. The ever-evolving new musical practices built on the existing ones inform the concept of “ecology of practice” in this regard. The African indigenous tribes as a phenomenon have their marriage right come with specific musical engagement in its celebration. The Akishe dance is the Jukun indigenous dance ensemble for marriage celebration procession and entertainment. Drawing from ethnomusicology and Dalcroze Eurhythmics Method of promoting creativity, this study investigates the training procedures of the ensemble by asking the following questions: 1. What constitutes the creation and performance of the Jukun Akishe dance? 2. Are there notable changes in the musical engagement of the ensemble? 3. What are these changes and how have they affected the sustainability of the music heritage? As a qualitative research, the author observed the training and performance of the dance and interviewed the exponent of the ensemble and other members of the community to generate data for the study. The study outcome shows some specific changes in the creation and performance of the music through training and rehearsals.

ABSTRACT. ABSTRACT Marriage is an integral part of the culture of the Yorùbá, also one of the oldest institutions that reflect the identity of a people. Orin Ìgbéyàwó as a rite of passage, expresses the symbolic musical elements of Yorùbá culture. It uses music as a primary mode of communication in traditional marriage ceremonies and provides an essential basis for deriving symbolic meaning and cultural values. Against the backdrop, the study aims to explicate the meaning and symbolic representations of Yorùbá culture in the selected Orin Ìgbéyàwó among Èkìtì people of south-west, Nigeria. The study also identifies the relevance of the traditional marriage songs Orin Ìgbéyàwó performed by the custodians of traditional marriage ceremonies, the Obirin-ile, ‘’Alagaiduro,’’ and ‘’ Alága ìjókòó, ‘’ focusing on the symbolic music representations in Yorùbá culture. It adopts the semiotics theory of Roland Barthes (1915-1980) to analyse the symbolic systems embedded in the marriage music and Theo Van Leeuvan (1947- 1996)—social semiotics for meaning-making as a social practice. Data for the study were collected through focus groups and structured interviews, library, internet, and archival materials. Five communities randomly selected from five local governments in Èkìtì State, two traditional marriage ceremonies per local government, and forty traditional songs were adapted as samples for the study. Findings revealed that the custodian of Ekiti traditional marriage ceremonies were creative, the music is entertaining and used as a major tool for communication during the the ceremony. Additionally, the music serves as a point of unity, irrespective of their varieties, and different, musical features. The study validates that the symbolic aspects of the Èkìtì traditional marriage music are central to the ceremonies and serve to express their social and cultural identity. It adds colour to the ceremonies because the meaning processes are culture based. The study recommended that Orin ìgbéyàwó can serve as a repository of indigenous knowledge of Africa and its documentation should be vigorously pursued by scholars.

ABSTRACT. The Khoesan today comprises of the remains of indigenous peoples identified as Nama, Korana, San, Griqua, and so on, among others. When the Portuguese visited the southern African coast in the sixteenth century, their mission was to engage in trade in vital supplies with this community. The Portuguese were in fact the first Europeans to write about the music they found among this community. The Dutch, on the other hand, sought to exterminate this community when they first arrived and settled in what was referred to as the Cape Colony in the 1650s. There were ongoing wars of extermination and the seizure of their land and cattle, which was coupled with reducing the Khoesan to indentured labour. The consequences of this history on the cultural lives of this community have been tremendous.

ILAM has been engaged in several music heritage research projects over the years. The heritage project described in this presentation on collaborative archival practices in selected parts of the Eastern and Northern Cape Provinces of South Africa, is a more recent one. The project concerns the Khoesan people, which is considered South Africa’s “first people”. This project seeks to understand how heritage performance serves the reconstruction of a revived Khoesan identity in the twenty-first century. The methodologies of participatory research and collaborative archiving are informed by decolonial practices in ethnomusicology, and a commitment to supporting Khoesan revivalism and community interests. We ask, how may the interest in Khoesan revivalism assist in the development of relationships between a music archive and a community desperately at odds with the arrival of a democratic dispensation in South Africa?

ABSTRACT. Death is a phenomenal enigma which sad emotion can be expressed through songs, chants, poems, recitation et cetera. Dirge is a mournful musical composition for the dead. It is a song of lamentation and weeping showing the affection and feelings of the performer towards the deceased. Dirges can be used to sustain the socio-cultural identity of a people or community. In many cultures, death and music go hand in hand in the sense that music plays very significant role in mourning the dead. Dirge reiterates grief in words and sounds and which can in turn trigger tearful response. This paper is a literary and contextual study and analysis of dirge in Igbo culture and tradition with Ikemefuna as a case study. Ikemefuna is a dirge composed by Sir Sam Ojukwu with the piano accompaniment written by Prof. Dan C. C. Agu. It was adapted from Chinua Achebe’s epoch novel ‘Things Fall Apart’. Nwoye’s mother (the wife of Okonkwo) who also happened to be the foster mother to Ikemefuna(the ill-fated lad) in the novel greatly mourned Ikemefuna who was murdered by Okonkwo (his foster father) and the elders of Umuofia according to the custom of the land. The textual analysis of Ikemefuna showcases the poetic creativity in the expression of sorrow, anguish, and grief.The paper found out that the dirge explored the use of Igbo language, proverbs, idioms, allegory, and poetry in the reminiscence of fate, life and death as socio-cultural nuances of existence. It is therefore recommended that any ingredient that makes a culture thick like dirge (its composition and performance) should be sustained for cultural identity and expression.

ABSTRACT. Abstract：The folk music culture of "Haizhou Paizi Qu", originating from the present-day land of Haizhou, Jiangsu, China,is a representative folk song that combines instrument performance and music performance in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is also a “living fossil” for studying Jiangsu Paizi Qu. As a mysterious tune with exquisite diction, a long history and profound influence, Haizhou Five Modes often take rap brand songs as the carrier, which can be divided into two categories，Major tunes:[Ruan Ping]、[Die Luo]、[Li Diao]、[Po Yang]、[Nan Diao]and [Man Jiang Hong], [Ma Tou Diao], [Huai Diao], [Da Ji Sheng Cao], [Lingling Diao] and nearly a hundred minor tunes. This paper from the perspective of insiders in the field of "theme", takes [Nan Diao] as an example to discuss its historical origins, lyrical structure, and melody structure based on historical data research and melody sorting. It points out that the similarity of its common core with similar melodies is an important factor in its formation, revealing the essential characteristics and artistic value of this tune.

ABSTRACT. The Yi ethnic group is one of the most populous ethnic groups in Southwest China. It is distributed in the southern part of the Hengduan Mountains, the Ailao Mountains, the Wumeng Mountains, and the Jinsha River, the Red River, and the Nanpan River Basin. It is mainly concentrated in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, and other places. The original religious types based on the “ blood ” identity of the Yi people also show a variety of patterns. Based on the thinking of social mutual construction theory in field investigation, based on the “ double perspective ” of ethnomusicology research, this paper takes the diversity totem worship shown in funeral music and dances such as the Yi bronze drum dance and the lion and tiger drum dance as the research object, explores its historical and cultural context from the Funeral Yuewu(樂舞) of different branches of Yi ethnic group, and combs the concrete manifestation of the mutual construction relationship between funeral music and dance and diversity totem worship in ritual practice. The practice of mutual construction between the two shows that there is a common national cultural gene between the Yi ancestors and the view of life in ancient Chinese traditional culture, pointing to the important relationship between the characteristics of social structure and religion in the interaction of etiquette and custom, which is an important manifestation of the symbiosis of multi-ethnic culture.

ABSTRACT. In Taiwan, the colonial activities of Han Chinese as well as temporary Japanese settlers have led to the destruction, alteration, and adaptation of matrilineal social structures and religious worldviews in the context of music performances among certain cultures, resulting in a shift in social roles between the genders. Meanwhile, in recent decades, the Amis, the largest indigenous group in Taiwan, have experienced a rise in their sense of indigeneity and social power through self-identification constructed by each local tribe’s autonomy. This experience has been embedded in the Harvest Festival, Ilisin (also named Kiloma'an or Malalikid in different communities), one of the most critical aspects of Amis music and dance. Ilisin occurs annually and is primarily dominated by male hierarchy, with the coming-of-age tradition involving the integration of villagers. However, due to Ilisin’s masculine ontology and tradition, previous research usually marginalised and overlooked women’s roles in the Ilisin ritual rather than recognising females as vital participants and cultural inheritors. Only a few studies (Yeh 2009; Tsai 2015; Lo 2018) have highlighted women’s agency within the Amis hierarchy and indicated that men and women are both essential to mapping ritual food resources based on local natural environments on the coast or mountainside and creating soundscapes. In this paper, through different case studies of various communities in Falangaw, ‘Etolan, Makrahay, and Ciwkangan, I will explore the changing relationships between the kinship system of an integrated paternal age-set structure of Amis groups, its matrilineal agricultural society, and religious worldviews within the Ilisin music and dance rituals and surrounding ecosystems. I analyse how new adaptations complement Amis’s female/maternal and male/paternal dimensions and impact the performances of intersectional identities. Within these adaptations, we can trace the forming of adaptive cultures, learn how to confront acculturations and form more profound paths towards autonomy in indigeneity.

ABSTRACT. Koreans have mourned for the deceased in the same way for centuries: by holding proper Buddhist rituals which guide the spirits for the next reincarnation. These rituals are conducted by qualified priests whose lifelong dedication involves mastering and preserving Buddhist chant, or beompae, and Buddhist dance, jakbeop, used in these special rituals. Since the introduction of Buddhism from China around the 4th century, these rituals have syncretized various local elements and created a unique amalgamation of Korean traditions while maintaining the fundamental values of Mahayana Buddhism. Even though this ancient tradition has suffered through the political turmoil of modern history and is faced with contemporary difficulties, the tradition has established a firm ground in Korean Buddhism and continues to serve its followers. Furthermore, there are nascent attempts by priests of the younger generation to explore their artistic qualities beyond the ritual use. This paper examines the current state of Buddhist memorial rituals and further speculates on their future in contemporary Korean society. With the evidence I collected through extensive fieldwork, attending the beompae transmission school and conducting interviews with master priests and young apprentices, I aim to show that beompae is undergoing a significant transition essential to its future sustainability.

ABSTRACT. In recent years, the internationalisation of local culture has become a pressing priority for Georgia, as it has for most other post-Soviet countries, driven by both political and economic considerations. The Culture Strategy 2025, introduced in Georgia in 2016, exemplifies this trend. While the internationalisation of Georgian music is a prevalent topic among Georgian musicians and policymakers, it remains largely unexplored in Georgian ethnomusicology. Great Britain is a significant center of Georgian musical activity abroad; thus, I've decided to investigate the internationalisation of Georgian traditional music using the UK as an example. The first known performers of Georgian music in the UK were Soviet Estrada and traditional music artists who were sent to the Western world in the 1960s to 'display [a] rich Soviet culture', in keeping with Soviet political ideology. In today’s very different political climate, the internationalisation of Georgian music is often based on mutual initiatives from both Georgian and British individuals, as well as personal connections. This is mostly evident through British choirs singing Georgian traditional music and musical practices within the UK's Georgian diaspora. Based on my year-long UK fieldwork, the paper explores the current multi-layered existence of Georgian traditional music in the UK, considering its historical trajectory and taking into account various social, economic, and political factors. My main research questions are: 1. Can we perceive the forms of functioning of Georgian traditional music in the UK as an original phenomenon, shaped by locally-specific socio-cultural factors and historical determinants, or should it be seen as one manifestation of a more general model of music internationalisation? 2. On the example of its trajectory in the UK, should we consider the internationalisation of Georgian traditional music as a means of supporting the sustainability and vitality of this musical culture?

ABSTRACT. Megrelians are one of the Georgian ethnic groups, whose language is incomprehensible to other Georgians. They are the descendants of the ancient Colchis. Their related language is spoken by the Lazis, who live mainly in Turkey today. The musical language of Megrelian three-part songs and instrumental music is not much different from other Georgian musical dialects, although it boasts certain specificities: all lovers of Georgian music agree that Megrelian song is “especially melodic” and “lyrical”. If in other Georgian musical dialects song is usually started by middle voice, in Samegrelo (Megrelia) this function is equally assigned to upper voices. In Megrelian articulation, common is “sneaking” from step to step and “moaning” intonations. Comparison of musical and speech intonations of the Megrelians can also be seen fruitful. Megrelian songs occupy one of the priority places in the repertoire of Georgian folk choirs. They are especially popular in women’s ensembles. It is noteworthy, that Laz people, related to the Magrelians, have a similar melodic outline, although their songs are monophonic, which gives reason to think about late polyphonization of Megrelian song - under the influence of Georgian polyphonic layer. It is interesting that Megrelian three-part singing is distinguished by more third parallelism of upper voices and the accompanying function of bass than its bordering Guria, and also: the Rachans and Svans, bordering with the Megrelians, are more characterized by sustained, chordal musical texture than Megrelians. The paper provides other arguments as well . It should also be said that in Georgia today, folk songs, performed on the stage, are the most recognized and legitimate channel for expressing the ethnic identity of the Megrelians.

ABSTRACT. The state of Oklahoma, formerly known as the Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory before statehood, is home to 39 federally recognized tribes, making it a vibrant center for Indigenous cultures. Powwows, traditional gatherings featuring dance, music, and social interaction, serve as a crucial space for these communities to celebrate their heritage, foster intertribal connections, and express resilience in the face of historical trauma. This paper will explore the history, contemporary significance, and prospects of powwows in Oklahoma. Following forced removal from their ancestral lands, tribes in Oklahoma faced government suppression of their cultural practices. Powwows emerged as a way for tribes to maintain and revive their traditions. This paper investigates the development of the powwow in Oklahoma, exploring its diverse tribal dance and music. Today, powwows are vibrant celebrations that attract participants from across Indian Country. This paper will consider the different powwow traditions practiced in Oklahoma and their significance, examining the contemporary role. Looking towards the future of powwows in Oklahoma, this paper also focuses on the challenges faced by these gatherings, including urbanization, language loss, intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge, and ultimately exploring how powwow communities are adapting to these challenges. The tradition of the powwow and the music as well as the dance of the Plain Indians are intertwined, this investigation was based on fieldwork conducted in the Great Plains state of Oklahoma. This research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of powwows in Oklahoma, not only as cultural events, but as testaments to Indigenous resilience and self-determination.

ABSTRACT. On August 25, 2013, the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts presented the Cantonese Opera Apprenticeships program concert at the University of Hawaiʻi Orvis Auditorium. This significant event showcased the talents of musicians, dancers, actors, and singers from the Honolulu Wo Lok Music Club. It was a part of the State Foundation's Living Heritage Series, which aimed to preserve and promote Cantonese opera in Hawaiʻi. The fact that the State of Hawaiʻi hosted such a high-profile cultural event underscores the importance of Cantonese culture in the state, considering the presence of Chinese and their significant contributions to Hawaiian Chinese society and culture. However, despite occasional complaints from non-Chinese members of society about the noise associated with Cantonese opera, it has emerged as a vital element in the Chinese community in Hawaiʻi and has made valuable contributions to the diverse fabric of Hawaiian society. This paper explores the early history of Cantonese opera and its profound influence on the Chinese community in Hawaiʻi, as well as its impact on the multicultural nature of Hawaiian society. It examines how Cantonese opera has contributed to the formation of Hawaiian society, both within and beyond the Chinese community. Additionally, it assesses how Cantonese opera has played a role in cultural preservation, community cohesion, and intercultural exchange. Contrary to some scholars' arguments that elite cultural forms or genres are the primary vehicles for disseminating diasporic Chinese identity, this paper recognizes the power of grassroots music. It asserts that diasporic Chinese identity often finds expression through grassroots musical genres, and it is the power of sound and performativity that renders identity audible and visual.

ABSTRACT. We still know very little about the musical realities in French Polynesian colonial context in the early 20th century. The emerging media culture represents a form of knowledge not to be overlooked in the investigation of the sonic and musical environment within colonial society, as it may have influenced and mediated artistic practices.

As early as the 1910s, Western filmmakers took an interest in the archipelago for their own artistic, commercial, scientific, and documentary agendas. In the following decades, in Tahiti, a local production emerged, focusing in particular on music and dance. Later, intellectual and architect of the Polynesian cultural revival, Henri Hiro, utilized this medium to celebrate the richness and depth of Māʻohi culture, paving the way to indigenous documentary.

This presentation aims at identifying the presence of living arts in the emerging film production and understanding its impact on Polynesian society. What form of artistic interactions emerged from these shootings, and to what extent did they influence music and dance practices? Who were the main actors in this production, what agendas did they work with, how were these productions disseminated across the Polynesian territory, and to what extent did they benefit the indigenous population?

As an archive of colonial influence, a memory of cultural practices, but also a proactive tool used by indigenous people, film production in French Polynesia is therefore a privileged field of study to understand the impact of colonialism. Questioning the sound, musical, and cultural dimension of cinema in colonial and decolonial processes will allow for a better characterization of its role as an interface between living arts and Polynesian culture on one hand, and colonial society up to the global audience on the other hand.

ABSTRACT. In Southern California, Pacific Islanders’ island reggae music is commercially successful, yet female Pacific Islander artists remain underrepresented compared to their male counterparts. In contrast, outside the music scene, the leadership exhibited by Pacific Islander women has demonstrated the significant Indigenous feminist praxis in the Southern Californian community. Furthermore, many island reggae songs objectify females in romantic stories or associate them with island paradise, the two prominent themes in island reggae. Southern Californian island reggae is a fusion of Hawai‘i’s island reggae music, Oceanic popular music, Jamaican reggae, hip-hop, and R&B, reflecting Pacific Islanders’ experiences on the continent. Thus, island reggae music serves as a form of Indigenous storytelling, and concerts provide a platform for Pacific Islanders to perform their Indigeneity as a form of resistance against marginalization in the diaspora. However, feminist narratives are often missing or exoticized in their Indigenous expressions. Such a situation reflects what Pacific Island feminist scholars note, that European settlers associate Pacific Islander women with primitivism and sexual freedom, and the North American racial norm continues this sexism in the continent (Arvin 2019; Arvin and Teves 2018). Moreover, island reggae’s commercial success relies on live performances, yet Eurocentrism and heteropatriarchy permeate the commercial-institutionalized live music space, which further exacerbates female artists’ marginalization (Holt 2020). I argue that the creation of a decolonial space within this commercially driven scene sometimes inadvertently replicates sexual oppression, thereby reaffirming colonization. Engaging with the literature from Pacific Island feminism and live music studies, this presentation shares the stories of a female artist and a female manager who navigated male-dominated commercial institutions to create space for more feminist voices in the Southern Californian island reggae scene. I highlight an Indigenous feminist praxis that decolonizes gender and race in the creation of self-expression spaces for Pacific Islanders within the diaspora.

ABSTRACT. Kua whakatōpū mai ngā wānanga mō te hunga taitamariki i ngā kaupapa o te hapū hei tuku kōrero, hei whakaako tikanga hoki ki ngā uri whakatupu e pā ana ki te whakapapa, te mahi kai me te whakaora i te taiao.

Nā ngā pahake me te hapū o Ngāti Ruaka i tapaina te rōpū taitamariki nei ki te ingoa o Te Morehu Whenua – he mea whakaū ki te hunga taitamariki ngā hononga ki ngā whenua tūpuna me te taiao, me te tiaki hoki i te mauri o ēnei wāhi motuhake. Ka whai tikanga ēnei akoranga, i te mea, ko te nuinga o ngā taitamariki ka noho ki whenua kē, ā, kāore e taea te ako ngā kōrero o te wānanga ki wāhi kē.

Ko te whakaaturanga nei, ka whakapuaki i ngā kōrero mō te tito waiata mā Te Morehu Whenua. Ka waiatatia, ā, ka whakamāramatia ēnei waiata. Ka hāngai hoki ngā kōrero ki ngā āhuatanga i puta mai ai ēnei waiata, arā, “nā te pō i whakaatu”.

Wānanga (traditional learning forums) focused on teaching youth has led to the consolidation of hapū (sub-tribe) projects that seek to share knowledge intergenerationally on tikanga (culturally and contextually appropriate practices) associated with whakapapa (genealogical connections), kai (food) gathering and environmental restoration.

Te Morehu Whenua – the name bestowed upon this group of youth by their pahake (elders) and Ngāti Ruaka hapū – reminds participants of their connection to their remnant ancestral lands and environs, and their inherent responsibilities to these special places and spaces. This is particularly important, given the majority of participants live away from their ancestral lands, and knowledge imparted through wānanga is not generally accessible.

This single paper/performance presentation draws on experiences associated with composing waiata (songs) for Te Morehu Whenua. These waiata will be performed and explained, with reference to the circumstances that led to the creation of waiata, inspired by ancestral knowledge.

ABSTRACT. This paper/performance will present a 20-minute work representing the development of a recent collaboration between Jerome Kavanagh (taonga puoro) and Michael Norris (live electronics). Norris’s development of an improvisation system of granular synthesis and spectral sustain enables the creation of immersive soundscapes deriving purely from the live acoustic sound provided by the taonga puoro musician. In this creative domain, the role of hau (breath) and the intrinsic traces of the materiality of taonga puoro (predominantly formed from wood, bone and stone) are amplified and energised, forming an almost ’symphonic’ layering of sonic residua. The work will be workshopped and developed in the second half of 2024, using the frameworks developed in previous collaborations such as ‘Oro rua rangi ki te whenua’. A discussion of the process of co-creation will follow the performance.

ABSTRACT. Deokheung-ri (덕흥리、德兴里、德興里) mural tomb was located at the south hillside of the mountain near Deokheung-ri. It belongs to the Gangseo District of Nampo City. The Deokheung-ri Tomb is in the west of the North Korean national capital, Pyongyang City, about 20 kilometers away. The tomb has two chambers connected by a passage. According to the ink inscriptions on the tomb's ceiling, it was known as being created in 408 CE, which is also the death year of the owner, “Zhen”(镇). All the walls and ceilings are decorated with colorful paintings, with the main topics of figures and cultural customs. Musical scenes, including Chuxingtu (出行图, Marching) and Zouyuetu (奏乐图, Musical instruments playing), are found both in the murals of the front chamber and the main chamber. The musical instruments used include Dàgǔ (大鼓), Táogǔ (鼗鼓), Hàojiǎo (号角), Ruǎnxián (阮咸), Héngdí (横笛) and so on.

Comparing the musical themes discovered in the Deokheung-ri tomb, they are pretty different from murals of Goguryeo (고구려, 高句丽) tombs found in the north of China but similar to mural painting style in the Han and Wei Dynasties in other Chinese places. As one of the most important regimes in the history of northeastern Asia, Goguryeo was established from the northeast of China in 37 BCE as a local regime first, and then it became powerful and expanded geographically to the Korean Peninsula. Goguryeo changed its capital to Pyongyang (平壤, near Pyongyang city nowadays) in 427 CE until it was destroyed in 668 CE. Therefore, the musical murals of the Deokheung-ri tomb embody the result of multi-culture interaction, including the original cultural background of the owner and the local Lelang (乐浪) cultural characteristics in the North Korean Peninsula at that time. These musical scenes differ from other musical information from ancient texts and Goguryeo tombs in China. Observing mural tombs after the middle of the 5th Century in the Korean Peninsula, the specific theme Chuxingtu with musical players emerged increasingly. It can be considered as the certificate of the Goguryeo’s musical custom changing after its political success. Musical players and different kinds of instruments from Chuxingtu and Zouyuetu in Deokheung-ri tomb precisely show one of the origins and the developing routes of this change.

ABSTRACT. Zhuang Dongjing music is a kind of folk music art activity that is based on religious belief in the inhabited areas of the Zhuang ethnic group in Wenshan, China. It is a historical, cultural heritage with profound tradition. It is highly valued by the Zhuang people in funerals, temple fairs, and other folk sacrificial ceremonies, making the Zhuang Dongjing music an essential part of the Zhuang people's artistic and cultural traditions and daily life. As the successors of the Zhuang Dongjing culture, the Zhuang musicians enjoy prestigious status in the Zhuang society and play a vital role in the ceremony. In the playing and singing of Dongjing music, women 's bodies and filth are taboos for Zhuang Dongjing musicians. The essence of these taboos symbolizes the principle of social classification and participates in the order construction of Zhuang rural society, and a variety of filth, including the body, provides a symbolic source for the production of "differential order" in Zhuang society. Starting from the filth taboos of Zhuang Dongjing musicians, this paper aims to study the Zhuang Dongjing music performance ceremony in Wenshan from the perspectives of the filth theory of Western anthropology and the theory of "difference order" in China. Through specific cases, it reveals how the taboo view of Zhuang Dongjing musicians shapes the social and ethical order and impacts it, providing a different observation point for the study of the construction of the Zhuang rural order.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the strategic and distinctive features of the "Night of Jeonju & Heritage Story" event, which enriches the cultural experience of the participants by integrating both tangible and intangible elements in Hanok Maŭl (Traditional House Village) in Jeonju, Korea. Unlike typical local festivals primarily targeting visitors for economic gain through geographical promotions or cultural performances, this event stands out by offering participants the opportunity not only to physically immerse themselves among historical buildings but also to emotionally engage with narratives created by surrounding cultural producers.

Through participant observation, this study delves into the transformation of historical sites into living museums, revealing how the event facilitates the exploration of traditional culture through eight distinct themes: music, storytelling, products, strolling, drawing, nightscape, food, and overnight stays, all curated by cultural producers. Notably, Korean traditional music, gugak, plays a pivotal role, offering audiences firsthand experiences while presenting not only music but also narratives that deepen cultural immersion.

Furthermore, participants engage with the layered histories embedded within Jeonju’s cultural heritages through music, storytelling, and immersive experiences, contributing to an ongoing dialogue on tradition. The Night of Jeonju & Heritage Story event serves as a bridge between tradition and its transformation, fostering dynamic reinterpretations and representations under the concepts of place selling and invented tradition.

Thus, I argue that the innovative strategy employed in creating this cultural space redefines Hanok Maŭl from a commercialized tourist destination into an appealing nostalgic venue, contributing to the promotion of traditional culture as an invented tradition through a contemporary lens. Moreover, it aligns with the efforts of local musicians to establish their identities as cultural producers while showcasing traditional music to visitors.

ABSTRACT. Notions of colonization and decolonization are pervading many fields of academic inquiry. One aspect that has remained less explored is that of intercultural influence on music notation, in which successive methods of music notation trace patterns of cultural, economic, and political power resulting in influence, sharing, adoption, competition, and sometimes resistance. Specifically, these patterns are revealed through distinctions between “vernacular” and “westernized,” amateur and professional, and local and international usage in music practices. These usages are braided into a currently practiced complex hybridity, highlighted by recent decolonizing efforts (Beng 2023; Ostashewski 2023; Diamond 2023). Through an auto-ethnographic participant observer analysis as a Chinese orchestra member and researcher, this paper explores how these patterns manifest themselves in diasporic Chinese orchestras in Toronto. Awareness of these patterns can provide a wider perspective and historical context for musical practices in diasporic settings, and provide insights to guide such practices into the future.

ABSTRACT. The purposeful free singing of African forest people feels mycelial; voices are at once interactive and independent, mushrooming into everchanging splendor. Biologist Merlin Sheldrake suggests that fungal “mycelium is polyphony in bodily form” (2020: 54). He briefly juxtaposes recordings he heard of BaAka women in Central Africa who gather mushrooms while they sing, with the underground mycelial networks Sheldrake knows well. This match, this metaphor, rings entirely true to my decades with BaAka singing, dancing, and everyday life (e.g. Kisliuk 1998 and subsequently). I spawn this correspondence further, beginning to weave these kindred processes into a substrate of fertile mutuality. Drawing on my longstanding research in Central Africa, and my newest field research into the vibrant scene of North American mycophiles, community scientists, and mycologists, I propose that a way to understand these interrelated domains is through one another—a mycelial polyphony—that could shine a broader light on grounded practices. I dip into ways that local and indigenous understandings of natural, social, scientific, and expressive processes overlap; aiming to “feelingfully, critically position” these phenomena (Kisliuk 2023:194). I want to suggest what the fungal world and the BaAka musical world—and by extension related improvisatory practices—can teach us about flourishing survival on our planet. The fungal/musical metaphor compels a transmodal approach—aural and oral, embodied, collectivized pathways to understanding—suiting the enormous task of planetary restoration that confronts us. In keeping with these themes, this presentation offers a participatory workshop in BaAka singing and dancing, including an explanatory outline of the related fungal domain. These areas on the surface seem unconnected, while in fact they are processually and conceptually interconnected on multiple levels. If we allow, these interconnections can offer a critically expressive, activist scholarship going forward.

ABSTRACT. Performance Abstract The Essence of Chord Progressions in Maskandi Guitar Music Program Content: Music and Workshop

This abstract investigates the significance of these minimalist chord structures in shaping the unique sound and emotional resonance of Maskandi guitar compositions. Maskandi guitar music, which comes from South Africa's Zulu culture, has a special way of tuning guitars that changes how they sound. In this style, we adjust the first (E) string so it sounds like the fourth string (D), making a half (C) major chord. This tuning gives Maskandi music its unique sound. When playing Maskandi, musicians carefully choose which strings to play rather than strumming chords; they employ a deliberate string-picking technique where each string corresponds to a specific vowel sound within a word to make each word sound clear. This way of playing adds different sounds and feelings to the music. By delving into the historical and cultural contexts of Maskandi music, as well as analyzing the musical techniques employed by its practitioners. Through interviews with renowned Maskandi musicians and analysis of representative musical pieces, this research seeks to uncover the underlying principles governing chord selection and progression in Maskandi guitar playing. Furthermore, it explores the implications of simplicity in chord usage for the expressive potential and accessibility of Maskandi music, both within its traditional sphere and in contemporary contexts. Through interviews with respected Maskandi artists and analysis of key songs, like "Izinkomo Zikababa Zinhle," composed by myself, which consists of only two chords, this research seeks to reveal the guiding principles behind chord selection and progression in Maskandi guitar music.

ABSTRACT. In 2024 the University of Arizona received a designation as an age-friendly university, a global effort to incentivize institutions of higher education to use their resources to help promote the growth of age-friendly communities and to serve the needs of older adults. While these designations are usually initiated from within scholars and clinicians in the health sciences and especially for fields like gerontology and geriatrics or centers on aging, I argue that these designations offer an opportunity for scholars in the arts to create intercultural forms of cultural programming that can help build and strengthen intergenerational communities and advocate ways that the arts can play an integral role in reimagining community health. In this paper I will discuss two age-friendly music initiatives I designed and ran at the University of Arizona in 2023 and 2024 that leveraged North and South American participatory folk music genres as vehicles for building community and fostering intergenerational relationships through community music practices. One of these drew on the North American tradition of the Community Sing, and the other the Latin American practice of the Peña, or informal folk music gathering. In particular I will discuss the development and implementation of these projects as examples of applied arts research in action.

ABSTRACT. The role community music plays in providing alternative means for arts education to unfold in Mozambique is a topic which has received limited scholarly attention. Although community music experienced in distinct formats and styles across the country has been the motor in Mozambique’s key historical moments, its role beyond the political space/spectrum has not been studied with depth. Traditional/popular music in post-colonial Mozambique, in particular under socialism, is explored as a medium through which the notion of nation-building is packaged and diffused. Still, Mozambique’s education system did not contemplate the inclusion of arts education. This paper intends to reflect on the role community music, mediated by community-based institutions, has played in providing context for arts education to take place in Maputo city and its peripheries. Specifically, it will explore the trajectory of ‘Novos Raios’, an important hub for the arts education of disadvantaged communities at Unidade-7 township, Maputo city. Founded by key figures within the Chopi music practice community found in the same township, besides serving the transmission and preservation of Chopi musical practices, Novos Raios’s work has transcended the Chopi community to reach beyond the ethnic spectrum in the community. This paper argues that the experiences of independence in 1975 and the civil war between 1977-1992 had given way for people to migrate from rural to urban settings, with suburban Maputo becoming the preferred destination. It is in suburban areas where communities of practice and sharing of music are established in Maputo. Framed as a qualitative study and underpinned by theories around socio-musical practice, community music, this paper will discuss how communities of practice of traditional music have reinvented themselves to provide context for arts education to unfold in suburban Maputo particularly in the transition period from socialism to neoliberalism. Data will draw from participant, bibliographic and audiovisual sources. This study aims to contribute knowledge about experiences of arts education mediated through community music in post-independence Mozambique.

ABSTRACT. As a member of a successful ensemble that adapts Shanxi folk songs to the clarinet quintet format, it is crucial to share my story, which has become an integral part of the discourse surrounding Chinese music history. This study investigates the adaptation and widespread dissemination of Shanxi folk songs into clarinet quintet repertoire by a clarinetist and a quintet comprised of university clarinet instructors. It delves into their successful experiences and challenges encountered during the process of dissemination within diverse communities, facilitated by collaboration with the international artistic community. Guided by activity theory and employing autoethnographic methodology grounded in the researcher's personal experiences, supplemented by analysis of media reports and relevant documents, this research reveals the pivotal role of expansive international networks and the backdrop of Chinese cultural revitalization in facilitating successful music dissemination. Inclusivity, diversity, and interdisciplinary engagement emerge as crucial factors contributing to the success of music dissemination. However, challenges such as performance evaluations within Chinese universities and interpersonal dynamics also emerged. This study underscores the role of autoethnography in comprehending individual experiences and advocating broader social and cultural assertions. The findings hold significant implications for music educators, performers, and cultural policymakers, aiding them in promoting and safeguarding indigenous traditions in a globalized context, and fostering music dissemination through community engagement and corresponding national cultural strategies.

ABSTRACT. As curriculum content in any music classroom is limited in scope, the necessity to choose where to focus is also inevitable; some perspectives must be prioritized and in making such choices, there are certain underlying “assumptions and prescriptions of acceptability and livability: literally musical lives worth living” in which musical performance practice is modeled and interpreted in the classroom (Gould 2009, 60). This presentation, "Breaking Barriers: Embodying Queer and Non-Binary Spaces of Practice within Music Education", examines how queer students are positioned within performance practice in the music classroom. Extending beyond inclusion of queer and non-binary students, this study explores how music curriculum designs a “queer phenomenology” of performance practice (Ahmed 2006). Oftentimes, queer positioning of curriculum is seen as an alteration of an original practice. I use my own experience as a queer, non-binary music educator to design a laboratory for queer-positioned practice. This presentation reports on lesson plan case studies for a 'multicultural' general music and choral classroom, alongside an extracurricular choral ensemble. Classes are documented through journaling and field-noting, and drawing on student responses to the classroom experience. Student reflections are directed towards relationships between their self-practice and the curriculum, hoping to challenge “the norms that give shape to organizational spaces and processes” that are often curated within music education curriculum (Vitry 2020, 1). I use my positioning within a queer phenomenology to reflect on organizational tendencies I implement into my curricular design and the values they hold. Through my curriculum, I argue that methods such as anti-moralization of the voice, slowness, and musical embodiment destabilize normative aesthetics of music and mobilize students' bodies as potential agents of creativity within the classroom.

ABSTRACT. The documentation of music from various world cultures was one of the primary endeavours promoted by the historical figures of comparative musicology between the late 19th century and the early decades of the 20th. The practice of recording music in the field was driven by the central aim of analysing, comparing, and explaining the 'origins' and 'evolution' of music. Concurrently, it also served to preserve the sound and, to some extent, contribute to safeguarding the memory of cultural and musical diversity. However, as ethnomusicologists shifted their focus to the study of music as a human activity, fieldwork gained new importance. This shift was evident both in terms of approaching music-making and in terms of the researcher's impact and engagement in the social causes of the cultures studied. Access to studies and recordings of the past also facilitated understanding changes in discourse over time and the relationships between this discourse, knowledge, institutions, and power. The purpose of this round table is to discuss the role, tasks, and ethical issues of contemporary ethnomusicology in the preservation, safeguarding, restitution, and creative reactivation of musical repertoires, practices, and instruments that have experienced abandonment, are approaching extinction, or have become extinct in fact. As starting points for the discussion, we will propose five case studies in Portugal, Angola and Mozambique, in which the interplay between fieldwork and sound documents from the past prompts a reconsideration of the ethnomusicologist's role in safeguarding music. These five cases will trigger discussions about key processes, such as the challenges faced by ethnomusicologists in preserving endangered musical practices considered heritage by the communities (Jorge Castro Ribeiro), questions regarding the restitution of sounds that have disappeared in contemporary times from their communities of origin (Orlando Fernão), the creative reactivation of repertoires lost from collective memory (Ana Clément), and efforts towards the preservation and recovery of musical instruments that are (or were) on the verge of extinction (Rui Marques and Lucas de Campos).

ABSTRACT. Indigenous performance practices are both highly localised and globally distributed and connected. Addressing the challenge of sustaining, reclaiming, and recreating these valuable song and dance practices, knowledge holders and practitioners have taken innovative approaches, staging ceremony in a variety of contexts including concerts and festivals (Bracknell 2023), adopting new musical genres to express stories and themes with ancestral genesis (Corn 2014 and Campbell 2023), and ‘sampling’ ceremony (Dowsett 2021).

This panel addresses the conference theme of Indigenous people’s music and dance and ‘the ways in which holistic worldviews and lifeways are interconnected and interdisciplinary, as well as the interface between the cultures and performing arts of Indigenous Peoples and the wider world.’ Responding to the invitation to engage deeply with Indigenous ways of knowing and being, presenters will share Indigenous methods, perspectives, and pedagogies from northern, central and southeastern Australia. Case studies include collaborative research by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and practitioners on manyardi public ceremony of western Arnhem Land, Warlpiri women’s yawulyu, and Mayi song and dance from New South Wales.

The panel will address the following questions: How does music and dance enact ongoing connections between people and places? How does song and dance connect people back to ancestors and place when they travel or are displaced? What role has song and dance played both historically and in the present in expressing sovereignty and citizenship of the world? How are dialogic approaches to archival sources of music and dance informing efforts to revitalise and maintain local song practices? And what is the role of music and dance in shaping intra- and inter-cultural exchange and cross-cultural encounter?

Paper 1: Activating Country when performing for others – Staging Warlpiri women’s ceremonial song performance

Ceremonial songs performed by Warlpiri women who live in the Central Australian Tanami desert region, link individuals to places and ancestral stories – connections that are rejuvenated each time the songs and their associated dances and painted body designs are performed. The last 50 years have seen dramatic shifts to performance purposes and contexts, yet ceremonial singing remains central to Warlpiri cultural identity as it nurtures the most fundamental connections that individuals have to their Country. This illustrates that ceremonial song performance is dynamic and that each new performance instance involves the active refiguring and negotiation of Warlpiri people’s important links to places.

Dussart (2004) has shown distinct shifts in performance purpose throughout the 1980s and 1990s in which previous exchange of ceremonial songs with other Indigenous Central Australian groups instead began to be performed in a more presentational style, and to non-Indigenous outsiders. More recently, Curran and Dussart (2023) have shown how Warlpiri women are nowadays actively setting up new opportunities to nurture their ceremonial songs in community focused contexts as well as seeking out opportunities to perform more broadly across Australia and the world.

In this presentation we discuss a number of recent performance instances and consider what it means for Warlpiri women to activate their localised connections to particular places in often distant locations. We ask what connections are forged from these powerful assertions of place-based identity to broad intercultural audiences? Whilst sometimes there is an opportunity to share the surrounding stories and interpersonal connections intrinsic to these songs, many times audiences are largely appreciating a theatrical spectacle with little understanding of their cultural power and productive purposes. We examine some of the ways in which Warlpiri singers and dancers are consciously re-shaping these performances to engage with audiences in a different way whilst undertaking this important cultural work.

Paper 2: When is it appropriate to mix different Indigenous languages together in song and dance and how may this support Indigenous language and song revitalisation in NSW, Australia?

It is evident from historical sound file archives that Mayi, Mayin, Mari, Koori and Guri language speakers, who are Indigenous people from NSW, Australia, sung songs in a mix of different languages (Buchanan 1968; Wallace 1970; King 1981; Donaldson 1984) and this is also evident in other Indigenous communities across Australia today (Turpin et al 2019; Marett and Barwick 2003). However, this can be a topic of contention in Indigenous language revitalisation where communities attempt to honour and respect their distinct languages with integrity. Additionally, there is conflicting historical records that native Indigenous language speakers from NSW did not support the mixing of languages (Giacon and Sim 1998). But language revitalisation may be strengthened when neighbouring languages can support one another by sharing their language knowledge and song and dance is often the medium by which language knowledge is shared.

This presentation will be delivered from a Mayi language and song practitioner and researcher who will be addressing the following questions: When is it appropriate to mix our languages together when making songs? At what point in our language revitalisation journey, should we mix our languages together when making songs? This will be explored through language and song records of Mayi, Mayin, Mari, Koori and Guri from NSW, Australia, as well as records of practice from Indigenous communities in Australia, where their languages are strongly spoken today.

Paper 3: Manyardi and iwarruj: continuity and innovation in the Inyjalarrku mermaid ceremony from northern Australia

The theme of maintaining traditions of music and dance through continuity, innovation, adaptation and intergenerational dialogue, has been key in studies of Indigenous Australian music and dance and music sustainability (Grant 2012:38). Recent scholarship includes Bracknell (e.g. 2014, 2022), Troy (Troy and Barwick 2020), Hodgetts (2020) and Bennett (2020), emphasising dialogic and relational understandings of recordings and text sources to revive and reclaim local methodologies, epistemologies and aesthetics connected to the song practices of Nyungar, Ngarigu, Ngiyampaa/Wiradjuri, and Dja Dja Wurrung/Yorta Yorta performance respectively.

In this presentation, three presenters representing three generations of the Inyjalarrku ‘mermaid’ ceremony living in Warruwi community, Goulburn Island—will discuss continuity and innovation of songs that have been dreamt across three generations of warra arrapujpa (songmen). Together with a non-Indigenous/Balanda ethnomusicologist, they demonstrate how these songs—belonging to a public-dance-song genre from western Arnhem Land called manyardi—have shaped cross-cultural encounters, including international and national tours of manyardi with the Adelaide Quintet in the 1960s and 1970s by Inyjalarrku arrapujpa George Winunguj, to public performances in recent decades for tourists at festival settings in Australia and abroad.

As a new generation of Inyjalarrku ceremony leaders emerge, this presentation will reflect on Arrarrkpi (Indigenous) understanding of iwarruj (the art of self-discipline) and its role maintaining diverse and endangered song practices in small communities such as Warruwi. The presentation will address the questions: how does the history of sharing and adapting manyardi inform Arrarrkpi efforts in the present to maintain good relations with one another and Balanda (Europeans)? How do songmen adapt manyardi to new musical genres? And what can warrurrumpik (women’s) perspectives on dancing manyardi tell us about maintaining multimodal practices such as manyardi and passing on Arrarrkpi (Indigenous) knowledge and ngaralk (language)?

ABSTRACT. “I learned that almost every genre of music comes from people of African descent…” (Observation of a high school student following a workshop in African drumming, music, and culture at the Center for Sound Communities).

These words from a high school student speak to the tremendous interest and need to learn about Afro-centric cultures and how widely their epistemic roots have reached within global societies. Dislocations of persons of African descent have been followed by their relocations in worldwide contexts and communities. Schools have become sites of growth and entanglements as students, through Afro-centric learning resources and arts media, are collaborating to produce new pathways and spaces of expression.

Our round table session will discuss artistic responses created by several students located on Turtle Island, who engaged in learning about Afro-centric history, society, and culture across areas of the school curriculum. Additionally, we will dialogue about arts-infused learning resources developed by panel members and describe the process we used to plan and facilitate a meaningful learning experience for teachers where we sought to provide concrete strategies and tools for creating interdisciplinary Afro-centric learning experiences. Included on our panel is a social studies educator and interdisciplinary school team leader, a dance educator, and the creators of the resources used for the African music workshop. The panel will be chaired by a music education scholar and will also feature the voices of two high school students.

In the spirit of post-coloniality, decolonization, truth, and reconciliation, it is our position that more Afro-centric work needs to happen across all levels of education through interdisciplinary, institution-community collaborations, and re-envisionings of current curricula. By including the voices of many different stakeholders in this conversation, we hope to demystify these kinds of rewarding collaborative process for others who would like to facilitate similar interdisciplinary experiences.

ABSTRACT. This panel brings together researchers from dance, ethnomusicology, and arts pedagogy to present a multidisciplinary approach to exploring "food" through performance, scholarship, and sound. The first paper presents a Portuguese case study investigating the link between fado music and food consumption, exemplifying a valuable research methodology for gastromusicology. This approach demonstrates how research can illuminate the intricate relationship between food and music within specific cultural contexts. The second paper presents a practice-led investigation – a podcast titled "Eat With Your Ears" – that challenges the dominant modes of food exploration. It shifts the focus from visuality and fast consumption to delve instead into how the sonic dimension stirs imaginative engagement and cultural resonance. The movement investigation discussed in the third paper focuses on the presence or absence of food in relation to dance repertoires, exploring how socio-cultural norms and power structures are inscribed upon and expressed through the female body. By examining food as a source of artistic inspiration, a site for embodying social structures, and a vessel for cultural memory, these diverse approaches enrich our understanding of the multifaceted nature of food in society. This panel promises to spark thought-provoking conversations and open new avenues for exploring the complex and ever-evolving relationship between food and human experience. And, it will make you hungry.

Unveiling the Sounds of the Table: A Gastromusicological Case Study of Fado and Food in Portugal

This paper draws on the author’s gastromusicological research into the relationship between Portuguese cuisine and fado music, using this as a starting point to critically reflect on the burgeoning field of gastromusicology. The fado case study will begin with a discussion of the historical and sociocultural threads that bind these cultural expressions. This examination will consider how themes of shared history, social class, and Portugal's maritime past are reflected in both fado and cuisine. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which fado and food are represented, both separately and together, to various audiences and in different contexts. Secondly, the presentation will shift its focus to reflect on the methodological approach and challenges encountered during this specific gastromusicological research project. By examining the effectiveness of the chosen methodologies and potential limitations, this introspective element aims to contribute valuable insights for future scholars exploring the interplay between food and music across diverse cultures. Ultimately, this two-part presentation, through the lens of the Portuguese case study, seeks to illuminate the multifaceted potential of gastromusicology while offering valuable learnings that can be applied and contribute to the broader development of the discipline.

Eat With Your Ears: A Practice-Led Investigation of Experiencing Food Through Sound

In a landscape saturated with enthusiastic blogging and video content on culinary matters, sound, often referred to as the "forgotten flavour sense", is typically explored in research related to commercial applications such as food marketing, restaurant design, and influencing food choices. This includes studies on "sonic seasonings" and "taste congruent soundtracks".

This practice-led paper explores the artful possibilities of the podcast form by presenting the design early listener experience of a podcast that explores a new way of experiencing food within the context of Singapore food culture. Shifting away from the typical focus on speed, visuals, and constant availability, the podcast delves into the slow, the sonic, the imaginative, and the cultural to fully explore the meaning of eating with your ears.

In a cultural moment dominated by visual expressions, “Eat With Your Ears” aims to experiment with the senses, memories, and conversations that sound can evoke in the context of food culture.

Bites & Beats: Reclaiming female agency through movement and culinary arts

In this paper, we discuss how an interdisciplinary performance that brings together traditional bharatanatyam, contemporary dance and culinary arts claims food preparation as a space of female agency. We explore how food can empower the female performing body and reframe the audience’s body as a site of discovery. One important reason this turn towards food is untraditional and even radical is that in dance performance/ bharatanatyam repertoire there is very little mention of food. Rather it is a site of domestication and disciplining of the female body. Our performance seeks to challenge this norm by using food preparation as a means of foregrounding the act of choosing.

Central to our exploration is the recognition of the sensuality inherent in food. Food engages all our senses – touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell – evoking a rich tapestry of experiences and emotions. It is a rasa - the cornerstone of Indian aesthetics where the emotional capacity is shared across dancer and audience. Embedded within a re-interpretation of Mahabharata episodes featuring Draupadi and food, we foreground how culinary elements – including food narratives, ingredients, and processes of food making – inform new choreography on female agency while still keeping to the core of rasa. Through different media and presentation styles, we aim to engage with “the body” to capture the sensual allure of food and its profound connection to female identity and empowerment.

ABSTRACT. In an intersection of science, humanities and indigenous knowledge, this groundbreaking interdisciplinary, co-designed research project celebrated the vibrancy and resilience of one of Aotearoa’s indigenous cultures: Moriori. Hou rongo means ‘giving effect to peace,’ referring to the centrality of Nunuku’s law to Moriori culture, an ancient covenant handed down through the generations forbidding warfare and killing; manawa means ‘heart, pride, status,’ relating to the project’s cultural revivalist aims. In work showcased in a public exhibition held at Tūhura Otago Museum in September-October 2024 (along with its associated online content), we represented the multisensory ways in which Moriori experience, understand and connect with their home, Rēkohu.

In this session, we focus on the role sound played in this exhibition in terms of shaping people’s experience and understanding of Rēkohu’s environment. This was achieved, for example, though workshops where members of the public were able to play 3D print replicas of two Moriori flutes; through interactives and ‘scanables’ with auditory components; and through a sound design that incorporated Moriori rongo (sound, sonic vibration, music) – including music written and performed by Moriori musician Ajay Peni.

A journal article written in 2006 by music scholar Mark Evans was poignantly titled ‘The silent echoes of Chatham Island.’ Far from having been silenced, however, the echoes of Moriori music do reverberate today, throughout Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) and beyond. In supporting and playing a role in ongoing Moriori community music revitalisation efforts, this project contributes in a real and meaningful way to advancing Moriori musical knowledges and practices.

ABSTRACT. This roundtable discusses multifaceted aspects of music, dance, and advocacy work within the context of Malaysia, a culturally diverse country with multiple socio-political nuances. Music and dance have long served as integral components of Malaysian identity, reflecting its heritage representative of diverse ethnicities, religions, and traditions. The presentations examine specific case studies of advocacy efforts across a spectrum of social, political, and institutional issues.

Presenter #1 discusses approaches to integrating interactive content collected during fieldwork for the Tun Sakaran Museum, advocating for the rich cultural heritage of Bajau communities and the development of a marginalized institution in Semporna, Sabah (East Malaysia). Presenter #2 reflects on the challenges in navigating culturally responsive methodology, especially in maintaining a balance between her role as a facilitator and wielding authority. She also attempts to understand and encourage indigenous pedagogy while advocating for the transmission of traditional music among the Orang Asli (orang: people, asli: original) children, an indigenous community. Presenter #3 presents reflections drawn from fieldwork that query her positionality and challenges faced when conducting and advocating for queer research in Malaysia, where the understanding of gender and sexualit(ies) is often entangled in socio-cultural and political structures informed by state-determined values. Presenter #4 discusses archiving the collection of the late Professor Dato’ Dr. Ghulam-Sawar Yousoff, whose materials document collaborations between members of Kelantan’s Siamese, Malay, and Chinese communities to continue art forms like ‘nora, mak yong, and wayang kulit despite religious and political challenges. Reflecting on experiences of teaching indigenous children to play in a rock band, Presenter #5 discusses approaches to developing more inclusive formal music education models in Malaysia, which primarily revolve around Western art music pedagogy, and are thus inherently discriminating towards, and discouraging practices and musical values that do not adhere to those pedagogic models.

This roundtable sheds light on the challenges and opportunities inherent in performing arts advocacy in Malaysia. It explores the complexities of navigating governmental policies, cultural sensitivities, and inclusivity. Lastly, it underscores the importance of cross-cultural dialogue, grassroots movements, and partnerships between academics, artists, activists, and policymakers.

ABSTRACT. This research investigates the cultural assimilation processes surrounding the Klong Puje drum, a traditional musical instrument among the Tai Yuan and Tai Yai or Shan communities who migrated from Shan State, Myanmar, to Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. Utilizing ethnographic methods within Ethnomusicology, the study conducts interviews with key informants, including drum makers, master drummers, monks, and community members. By focusing on a long drum used by both ethnic groups; the Klong Puje (Tai Yuan) and the Klong Khon Yao (Tai Yai). The research analyzes the distinctive musical characteristics and socio-cultural dimensions of drumming practices among the Tai Yuan community in Chiang Mai. Finding reveal a dynamic transformation of regional musical forms influenced by external cultural factors, resulting in societal adaptations and the emergence of new musical expressions aligned with local socio-cultural contexts. The significance of the Klong Puje drum within Lanna society, particularly in Chiang Mai Province, is understood by its role in Buddhist ceremonial activities. The introduction of the long drum from Tai Yuan culture has impacted the Klong Puje drum ensemble in Chiang Mai, giving rise to new drumming rhythmic patterns, musical forms, physical attributes of the instrument, and revaluing traditional practices with new elements. This transformation has societal implications and contributes to changes in the Tai Yuan soundscape of Chiang Mai.

ABSTRACT. The Japanese composer – Toru Takemitsu saw music in terms of two categories: one being portable and the other being non-portable. He defined portable being as music that could be performed anywhere in the world while the latter a type of music that was difficult to be performed outside of its indigenous location (Takemitsu 2008: 23). Since this concept was developed in the late 1960s, the accuracy of this view can be challenged in today’s perspectives, especially in terms of the advancing communication technologies that catalyst for decentralising the world (see Herder 2001: 2, Rinsema 2017: 9). Moreover, certain types of musicians including percussionists like myself may easily point out that this concept ignores the issues of transporting loud, large and heavy instruments often used in Western art music such as timpani and marimba. Those musicians may also face issues with hiring or owning these instruments as well as finding a place to rehearse (Imanishi 2022: 112). The latter was a common issue that some musicians experienced in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a solution, many musicians found alternative ways of practising music – I was no exception to this (explored in Nusseck and Spahn 2021). I decided to learn Casey Cangelosi’s Meditation No. 1 for solo snare. This minimalist setting suited my situation as I only had little space to practice at home. The piece has a range of timbres and sophisticated colours expressed through unusual techniques (e.g. flicking in the air), providing theatrical elements.

In this presentation, I first discuss such compositions as examples of ‘portable Western art music’ and their musical potential as a single instrument. Second, I perform the aforementioned piece and my original composition for solo snare drum. I then welcome the opportunity to discuss pros and cons of such compositions.

ABSTRACT. Over twenty years since its publication, John Mowitt’s enigmatic book Percussion (2002) continues to stand alone for its experimental investigations of rhythm and drumming, broadly conceived. Employing three ‘divisions’ of analysis (musicological, psychoanalytical, and sociological), the text reveals the tactile, sensory, and material dimensions of percussion, all of which address “the embodied subject” (20). At times far-reaching and conceptually disorienting, Mowitt demonstrates how a broad and generous view of percussive phenomena can produce new and exciting directions in critical and cultural theory (defined as ‘the percussive field’), foregrounding the unique position of drumming practitioners and educators as key contributors to its nascent theoretical discourse. While Mowitt’s recognition of percussion as a distinct (and corporeal) mode of engaging with the world is one that artist-practitioners can surely identify with, musicologists and drummer-scholars alike have yet to collectively respond to the text’s invitation for a ‘field’ of percussive theory to emerge. As such, this presentation will explore Mowitt’s multivalent concept of the percussive field as a collaborative space for theoretical discourse, articulated through the lens of research-creation (Loveless 2019; Stévance and Lacasse 2017). Drawing upon my own auto-theoretical project taikoboy99—which figures the drum kit as a distinct ‘worlding’ technology (Anderson and Harrison 2010)—this paper will provide analytical prompts for practitioners who are engaged in drumming and percussion research, as well as outline recent developments on the materialities of sound—including Voice (Eidsheim 2015), Timbre (Fink, Latour, and Wallmark 2018), and Sensory Studies (Harris 2018)—that can help reinvigorate Mowitt’s call for percussive theory today.

ABSTRACT. Embodiment allows us to understand dance through our corporeal body. The process allows us to slowly embody dance through the rehearsal process, and later, deliver it through a dance performance. According to Edward C. Warburton (2011), an adequate account of dance experience requires more than a specification of cause; it requires a description of the content that is common to all experiences of dance and that distinguishes one experience from another. Our dancing body can experience and embody different dances, but with different dynamism. This presentation aims to reflect the bodily process of embodiment of my solo piece, Ajat Indu Menua Pakan, presented as part of my final year project. This dance is a traditional Sarawak (located in east Malaysia) ethnic solo dance rearranged by Andrew Igai Jamu and Mohd. Hafzal Aziz. This version focused on the female style of Ajat Indu from the Pakan area. I used practice as research (PaR) as my primary methodological approach which highlights the collection of data through practices in the dance studio. Data was also collected through semi-structured interviews with choreographers. This process allowed me to understand what it means to embody the dance of the Iban women and how to “stay connected” with the original form through deeper appreciation of the culture, enabled by a fieldwork trip to Sarawak.

ABSTRACT. This paper intends to examine the making of “Quatrains of Hope”, a choreography by Andrew Igai Jamu and Mohd. Hafzal Aziz, derived from the ethnographic research. This piece made its debut at UMotion 2022, a final year graduation performance by dance students from the Dance Department, Faculty of Creative Arts, Universiti Malaya. The choreographers were inspired by the poetic verses of the Dayak Iban’s “Pantun Meri Ngirup” (quatrains of the drink offering), traditionally sung while presenting rice wine (tuak) during the Gawai eve celebration. Central to the exploration was the intricate process of tuak brewing, symbolizing the community’s hopes and aspirations. There are few challenges in the making of this choreography, such as on how to translate the poetic verses and brewing process into movement, exploring the nuances of flavour and balance that characterize a well-crafted tuak, and culminating in the revered “ai pengayu”, the drink of longevity. The choreographic process of “Quatrains of Hope” utilizes the methods of “experiencing”, “analyzing”, “interpreting”, and “transmitting” through ethnographic research. These methods have helped the choreographers to convey the idea of bringing the tradition from the confines of the longhouse onto the expansive proscenium stage in a contemporary dance form. This paper examines how the choreographers incorporated the four methods in developing motives by infusing ethnographic and indigenous materials into this choreography. On the other hand, this paper also emphasizes the importance of conducting ethnographic research for choreographers who anticipate utilizing indigenous materials into their choreographies and potential of such choreography in Malaysian contemporary dance scene.

ABSTRACT. This paper will focus on the use of film archives in a dance and performing arts database (BDD Terpsicore). More specifically, excerpts of “African dances” in Portuguese documentaries from the Portuguese Film Archive collection. Being the first images of Africans dancing that were shown to Portuguese audiences and were made by Portuguese filmmakers during the dictatorship, they reveal an expectable colonial look. They were shot in the Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe in the late 20s and 30s, but also for instance in the Portuguese Industrial Exhibition in Lisbon in 1932, where a Guinea village was recreated.

We will be able to see how the camera shows different types of bodies and dances, and how the dancers connect with the camera, because as we know from the intertitles most of the dances were performed to be filmed. There is a focus on the exotic and the different (for example, close-ups of body parts), but we will also see how the camera shows the articulation between the dancers and the audience, which in some cases also participate in the performances. There is a sense of novelty both from the part of who behind and who is in front of the camera.

What do these images reveal and what do they conceal? What can we conclude about the way dance is filmed? How is “African dance” represented? Is there an exclusive colonial gaze or there is something else? How do we address all these issues when we put an entry in a dance and performing arts database?

In a contemporary world in which the inequalities between races are still unfortunately very much in place, it is important to see what these first moving images about the meeting of people from different races can tell us.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this presentation is to analyze walking in the landscape as a way of listening to the entanglements of perception and sensing, that is, as a way of making the landscape resonate in the body and with the body. In addition, I will critically address walking and dancing as ways of intensifying relations between human and non-human bodies, that is, as forms of ecological activism. To do so I refer to the anthropological studies by Alfred Gell, who analyzed the relationship between dancing and walking in the fieldwork he carried out among the Umeda People in New Guinea. Firstly, he understood that the action of walking was intrinsically linked to the relationship between bare feet and the conditions of the terrain. The Umeda usually walked over dense jungle, with many obstacles in the form of exposed roots, thorns, rocks, etc. Secondly, Gell observed that among the Umeda there was no clear boundary between dance and non-dance. Hence, walking would be a consciously graceful action that seemed to continually refer to dance without actually becoming it, and dance always seemed to resort to mere locomotion. In the presentation, I will argue that this relationship consists of a mutual resonance. Therefore, I will discuss the concept of resonance as a theoretical tool that allows us to think about intimacy with the landscape. The premise for this theoretical approach was established by Veit Erlmann (Reason and Resonance. A History of Modern Aurality. 2010) who argued that resonance is not only the basic functioning mechanism of the human ear, but also a relational model for generating knowledge. I will be discussing these concepts evoking different walking experiences in different geographies, in different periods.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores hula as relocated and localized in Fukushima, Japan, and considers its relation to the local cultural identity. The hula in Fukushima dates to 1966 when a resort facility named Jōban Hawaiian Center (hereafter JHC) was opened in Iwaki. The city had long prospered from the coal industry, but with the shift of energy to oil by the mid-20th century, it began to suffer from recession. As a challenge to revive the city, JHC was built as a facility utilizing the hot spring water abundant in the area. Advertised as “Hawai‘i in Northeastern Japan,” it featured a big hot water pool surrounded by coconut trees and entertainment by hula dancers. It achieved great success. 　The local girls were trained by professionals to become hula girls staged at JHC. Most other employees were also locals who used to work in the coal mining industry. JHC’s success has thus become part of the local pride. 50 years after its opening, the facility (renamed Spa Resort Hawaiians (SRH) in 1990) was struck by the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake. The hula girls resumed dancing before the facility’s restoration, touring shelters and throughout Japan to encourage people and show strong will for recovery. Although hula was originally appropriated for commercial purposes, it now symbolizes the strength of Fukushima and represents its cultural identity as exemplified by the local catchphrases such as “The Birthplace of Hula in Japan” and “The Holy Place of Hula Girls.” 　Although the success stories of JHC and SRH have been featured in various economic and industrial journals, how hula has become a part of people’s identity in Fukushima has not received scholarly attention. This paper examines this question from the viewpoint of cultural localization, cultural industry, and the roles of performing arts in disasters.

ABSTRACT. This research delves into the complexities and challenges inherent in the construction of identity within the South Asian diaspora, with a critical focus on the embodied practices of North Indian Kathak dance and its contemporary counterpart. Grounded in the discourse of critical theories and historiography, it follows upon theoretical concepts and empirical tools developed by Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu. The body in this research is considered as the main instrument of inscribing tradition and appropriating it with all corporeal connections. The study examines how Kathak performers navigate the intersections of tradition, transition, agency, and multiple performative bodies. By interrogating power dynamics, cultural appropriation, and the commodification of tradition, it looks into the contested terrain of segregated, hierarchical embodied spaces, and identity formation in the puzzling web of belongings, exclusions, dispossessions, and privileges. It also makes and attempt to unpack the ways in which Kathak serves as both a site of resistance and assimilation, highlighting the tensions and contradictions of decontextualized praxis. The study is based on material from ethnographic fieldworks conducted for various periods throughout 2017 and 2020 in various Kathak communities in central northern India and my own experiences as Kathak student and practitioner in Delhi from 2003 till 2010. It also looks at diasporic spaces through my continues practice of Kathak, traveling between India and other locations and, under the recent circumstances, online. It will include the data from upcoming fieldwork in UK. The study uses the perspective of double positionality of practitioner and researcher and also of insider and outsider. Through the observation of the lived experiences of Kathak practitioners in South Asia and within its diaspora, this research offers insights into the ways in which embodied practices shape identity formation and cultural belonging, while also highlighting the challenges of straddling multiple cultural and disciplinary boundaries. This research is a part of the project, funded from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No S-PD-24-100.

ABSTRACT. “Musical revival” has long been used to describe the cultural act of traditional music renewal in Ethnomusicology. This paper proposes a new term, “musical survival,” to capture a distinct phenomenon: the birth of new music from the ashes of cultural trauma, serving as a means of transformation. “Musical survival” diverges from “musical revival” in that it arises not in times of peace and cultural continuity, but as a response to cultural upheaval, often leading to significant changes that can give rise to entirely new musical forms. The study builds upon Tamara Livingston’s factors for musical revival to delineate the unique elements of “musical survival.” Using definition of cultural trauma I'll contrast “musical survival” with “musical revival” based on their origins—whether traumatic, adaptive, or different cultural trends. The pivotal discovery is that “musical survival” acts as a lifeline for cultural origins, enduring and transforming in response to adversity, sometimes to the extent of creating a whole new genre. Recognizing “musical survival” enriches our understanding of the interplay between music and culture, suggesting different remembrance modalities for varying causes. This novel term opens avenues for further research to categorize survivals by trauma type and to develop theoretical frameworks aiding cultural activists in nurturing post-traumatized societies. The paper posits that embracing “musical survival” can deepen insights into cultural resilience and the regenerative power of music. This article underscores the significance of distinguishing between musical revival and survival particularly in societies undergoing pain and loss. By introducing “musical survival,” the paper invites a reevaluation of how music is perceived and utilized as a tool for societal healing and cultural continuity. It calls for a broader recognition of music’s role in the aftermath of trauma, advocating for a nuanced understanding that goes beyond preservation to encompass the evolution and rebirth of musical heritage.

ABSTRACT. In the summers of 1916 and 1917, the young folk music researcher Armas Otto Väisänen travelled through the remote regions of Border Karelia and Olonets Karelia. He came back with astonishing details about an almost vanished instrumental improvisation that had lived within the ancient runosong culture. Contrary to Väisänen's expectations, the revival of the tradition in Finland began in the 1980s, starting with an article by Heikki Laitinen (1980) and the systematic work of the Finnish Folk Music Institute. Based on Väisänen's collections combined with information from previous centuries and other researchers, the Karelian kantele improvisation and its aesthetics, called "long aesthetics", became one of the subjects of the Folk Music Department, which was established at the Sibelius Academy in 1983. Over the past 40 years, the tradition has also been taught in music schools and workshops throughout Finland, with modern innovations in both the instrument and the playing techniques, as well as combining the tradition with modern musical genres. This raises the question of whether there is any real connection between modern representations and the original aural tradition. The difference between the illiterate hunter-fishers of the Karelian backwoods, with their animistic beliefs and rituals, and modern, educated musicians, with their predominantly Western musical ideas, is enormous. Are our attempts to revive the ancient tradition just a staging or, at worst, an abuse of the original culture (Robinson 2020)? I argue, that by thoroughly studying the original musical tradition with all its elements, and then experiencing the music by making it ourselves, we still have the opportunity to connect with the past and gain knowledge that would otherwise be out of reach. As an example of this practice-based research, I will illustrate a concert in which the audience created the music based on the aesthetics of this ancient tradition.

ABSTRACT. At the end of 2019, an interdisciplinary and international research team was created with the aim of conducting research on the different types of porros that can be found today in Colombia. Led by Juan Sebastian Ochoa (Universidad de Antioquia), the Colombian team, subsidized by Minciencias, was made up of 8 co-researchers from several Colombian universities and institutions in Medellin, Cartagena, Bogota and Monteria. The Quebec team, led by Ons Barnat (University of Quebec in Montreal) joined the Colombian team in 2020 to participate in the transcription phase of the porros pieces which would give birth to the recording of 3 discs of porros (traditional porros, rearranged porros in guitar-voice format, and electronic porros). In addition, the Quebec team, funded by the FRQSC, was able to carry out 2 virtual reality experiences, filmed in San Pelayo in 2022 during their first research fieldwork after the pandemic, as well as a virtual instrument (a virtual gaita which was sampled in the anechoic chamber of the Music Department of UQAM), as well as a 35-minute film, entitled "El Porro es Rey", which features 5 co-researchers of the project. In addition to having allowed the creation of several types of outcomes (book, discs, virtual reality experiences, film and virtual instrument), this international-based and collaborative research-creation project was able to use an extremely promising methodology for all types of ethnomusicological research seeking to move away from the “scholarly ethnic recordings” which have marked the discipline since its beginnings.

ABSTRACT. Remarkable observations have already been made about the semantics of circle in Armenian dance literature. Starting with Armenian ethnomusicologist Srbuhi Lisitsyan, it has been noticed that the idea of the eternal cycle of life lies in round dances, which is manifested in the interpretations of the direction of such dances and the semantics of movements. In our report, based on the already existing studies, we will try to draw some parallels between the Armenian folk round dances and games and some of their expressions in ritual folklore. Game and dance are closely intertwined. This is evidenced by the fact that the Armenian people called dancing khaghal (to play) and dancing songs – khagh (a game). This close connection is expressed especially in the case of ritual dances and games, where the connection is both external and internal, semantic. The perception of the circle as a cycle of time is more than evident in the wedding ritual, where the circular Gyovend dance is one of the most popular. In the case of a wedding, by the logic of the ritual, it plays the role of magical security, completes the community and indicates the beginning of a new time. The symbolism of the spinning wheel of time is more evident in the Armenian wedding Dance with candles. It completes the image of the starry sky, having the great luminaries in the center: the sun-groom and the moon-bride.

ABSTRACT. This paper introduces for the first time the subject of the dances from the Ionian Islands of Greece and, in particular, their relationship, along with the cases of multipart music, with the phenomenon of international tourism that affects this archipelago. In order to study the ways in which sound and movement intertwine in the proposed case study, it will be assumed that the repertoires of vocal music practised today in the Ionian Islands are characterised by the employment of a traditional polyphony, or rather a practice of multipart singing (Ahmedaja, Haid 2008; Ahmedaja 2011, 2017; Macchiarella 2012, 2016, 2017). Among these repertoires, widespread in Corfu, Kefalonia and Zakynthos, are kandàdhes, i.e. songs performed together with traditional dances, accompanied by musical instruments (usually guitar and mandolin, sometimes also the accordion); the rest of the repertoire of chordal singing is strictly performed ‘a cappella’. One of the focuses of this paper is to explore the effects of tourism on traditional music and dance and, conversely, to examine the role of the latter in tourism, which are ingredients tending to develop a strong national cultural identity, presenting it to tourists through the use of ‘authentic’ music and dances (Kaeppler and Lewin 1986: 211). One of the typical dances of the Heptanese is the syrtos known as kerkyraïkò (i.e. of Corfu), in binary time (2/4), which differs from the syrtòs kalamatianòs, widespread in the rest of Greece, characterised instead by an asymmetrical rhythm (7/8). In the course of a fieldwork conducted on these islands, the importance of the traditional costumes adopted (e.g. for wedding dances) emerged, with features that, together with the music and dances of the inland villages of the Ionian Islands, refer to the concepts of ‘authenticity’, ‘self-representation’, ‘identity’, and ‘self-preservation’. These will also be argued from the consideration of the participatory performances (Turino 2008), as well as collaborative, community-engaged, and community-led strategies found on these islands.

ABSTRACT. Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale will offer a 90-minute workshop on research techniques focusing on bibliography, historiography, online databases, and other research tools relevant to ethnographers and practitioners in ethnomusicology and dance studies, especially graduate students and early-career scholars. Depending on participants' interests, the workshop may include discussions on navigating databases and online resources, reference works, and locating and working with sources in ethnomusicology and other disciplines, as well as conducting initial research in languages other than English. The topic of writing abstracts may also be covered. Through short presentations of participants' research projects, guided discussion, and breakout groups, the workshop will provide a setting for engaging in global dialogue and for sharing and expanding critical debate on current research in ethnomusicology and dance studies while strengthening the knowledge of solid research techniques. The workshop will be led by Tina Frühauf and Zdravko Blažeković. Those wishing to participate should send an abstract summarizing their research interests and a short bio by 1 December 2024 via: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mmN1mD_tEhK_S8Rd-MPMxt1R1UUXMzqUsbozmaDWAbc/edit

ABSTRACT. Since the 1950s, the guqin, an ancient Chinese musical instrument, has undergone a significant cultural shift. Originally associated with literati traditions, it has integrated into music academies, national orchestras, and Western concert halls. This transformation has influenced performance styles, education methods, and instrument production, emphasizing popular trends and aesthetic preferences. Contrary to dominant Western musical influences, a small number of musicologists and musicians now explore into traditional Chinese music concepts and contexts in their performances. This shift adds new humanistic dimensions to guqin music culture within China’s contemporary cultural revival.

This paper explores several cases of cross-sensory music practice, such as the guqin and the soundscape, the guqin and visualization, from the perspectives of me being both player and ethnomusicologist. The discussed cases include: - My collaborative work with calligraphy and painting titled YiZiYiYin 一字一音, ( 2017). - My holographic sound live performance “Return to the Sounds of Nature” 重返天籁 at Guangzhou’s Sound Museum (2018). - Additional, my student’s project “MoSHen”, Cheng-xuyang(墨生，程雨阳) that fused the body with the visualization of sound waves by applying guqin music to a sonic sensor (2018). - My improvisation work “XiSheng” (2023).

Using the examples provided above, this paper analyses the distinctions between ancient Chinese musical concepts such as shen 声, yin音, and yue乐, and the Western notions of “music” or “sound”. It also examines the contrast between Chinese concepts like yin and yang阴阳, qinq情气, and Western concepts of “emotion” and “mood”. Additionally, it explores the concept of he和in Chinese music, distinct from Western ideas of “tonality” and “harmony”, among others. Through this research, an emerging contemporary cultural landscape for the ancient art of guqin will be illuminated.

ABSTRACT. Dongtou JiaoLeiGu (A type of foot drumming in which the left foot is added to the rapid and powerful rolls of the hands to create different acoustic effects) is a folk traditional percussion music of Dongtou District, Wenzhou, which adopts the unique "hands with feet" percussion technique when performing. However, there is no systematic and in-depth research on JiaoLeiGu in the academic circle at present. Dongtou's rich cultural diversity has continuously influenced the evolution of JiaoLeiGu from instrumental music to a blend of dance and music, shaping its vital role in the local cultural landscape since the early 20th century. On the basis of the Ethnomusicology, and through the author's long-term in-depth practice of field work and Bi-musicality, the paper linked JiaoLeiGu's musical form and distinctive performing posture to the area's diverse cultural traits. The performers use rapid and powerful rolls of the hands during the performance, and at various times, they add their left heel to the drum surface to follow the different movements of their hands. By pressing the heel in different positions and with varying strength, they suppress the vibration of the drum. This, combined with the rapid and powerful rolls of the hands, can adjust the strength, pitch, and tempo of the sound. The sound effects created mimic the sound of waves, reflecting the local maritime and Min-Ou culture and its ecological characteristics.The paper examines the correlation between body posture and cultural expression through an analysis of body postures and musical sounds in Dongtou JiaoLeiGu performances. It investigates the synchronization of performers' body postures and sounds, shedding light on the relationship between posture and cultural expression. Additionally, the paper combines performance postures with audiovisual technology, applying them in a visualized manner to research and analyze Dongtou JiaoLeiGu performances.

ABSTRACT. "Pan-gu Dance" (Pán-gǔ Wǔ) is an ancient dance form popular in the Han Dynasty of China, known for its stepping on the “plate”(pan) and “drum”(gu). At present, this type of dance only preserved in Documentary records, cultural relic images and material artifacts. Among the decorative representations discovered in tombs from the Eastern Han Dynasty in Shaanxi Province, the carriers engraved with visual images of Pan-gu Dance mainly include two types: “The Stone Gravings”(Huà-xiàng-shí) and “The tomb Frescoes”(mù-shì-bì-huà). The specific excavations were respectively in Suide County, Mizhi County, Shenmu County, Zizhou County, Jingbian County, and Dingbian County within the city's boundaries. This article takes a total of 20 Pan-gu Dance representations from the Eastern Han Dynasty unearthed in Shaanxi Province as the main research object, analyzing their classification of dance postures, performance combinations, and the utilization of props. At the same time, through comparative analysis of individual cases, the essay attempts to discuss the regional cultural symbolism of Pan-gu Dance representations with Shaanxi regional characteristics.

ABSTRACT. In the current context of economic, natural, and political crises, a considerable flow of people moves from their birthplace looking for a better life. Regular and irregular migrants are somehow expulsed from their homelands (Agier 2008) and suffer for this separation. Regardless of the potential benefits associated with migration, such as increased income, power or pleasure, the migratory process itself almost always involves insecurity of some kind and duration. Fortunately, culture, and music in particular, can travel with them, inscribed in their bodies and in their memories and help them in relocating. Musicmaking and music listening, indeed, are essential tools to express cultural, social and religious identity both for individuals and groups. The study of musical attitudes, tastes and practices (and their progressive reshaping over time) in migratory contexts, can help us understand how easy or difficult it is for migrants to find a balance between assimilation, coexistence (with other groups) and the maintenance of distinctive cultural traits that can make their national origin still meaningful and worth remembering recreated (Baily and Collyer 2006; Ranmarine 2007; Glick Schiller and Meinhof 2011; Kiwan and Meinhof 2011; Toynbee and Dueck 2011, Stokes 2020, Shramm 2022). In this scenario technologies more and more play a strong role. Social media such as Facebook and Youtube (Macchiarella 2017), technologies of recording, and electronic instruments, offer a variety of possibilities of inhabiting and expressing culture, to build belongings and entanglements. Ethnomusicological and ethnocoreological fieldwork research have to take into account how and why this media impact the investigated realities (Facci 2007). This is what we are exploring through a participatory action research with economic migrants and asylum seekers in north-central Italy since ten years now. In our panel we will give an insight of our research about the role technologies play in migratory musical performances.

Paper 1 - Music, technology and migration in the context of Cremona

The traumas of separation and the difficult circumstances of survival in a new and possibly hostile environment can produce a need to use music and dance as a means of identification and a stronger relationship with one's own music. This means a countless diversity of genres of music, especially nowadays, when concepts of traditional music, musics linked to a place and/or an ethnic group are challenged by globalization and mobility. The lengthy journeys undertaken by migrants from their place of origin to their final destination facilitate not only the formation of new social connections but also the access to new musical markets. This often results in the expansion of their musical repertoires. However, the resettlement context often challenges the performance of their musical traditions, and the condition of migration often impedes the usual channels through which traditions are transmitted from one generation to the next. In the research my team is conducting in north-central Italy we voluntarily worked with all available communities of foreign residents, as well as with asylum seekers housed in the reception centres that permitted us access. We did not select a nation, an ethnic group, or a specific place of origin. This approach prevented us from falling into ethnicist or nationalist essentialisation of musical cultures. At the same time, it enabled us to compare different situations and identify factors that influence one's relationship with music. In my presentation I will provide a general overview of the findings from our research regarding the use of technologies in different communities and related contexts. Both refugees and foreign Both refugees, who are in precarious situations and have recently arrived, as well as foreign residents, who have been resettled for a long time and have achieved economic and family stability, make a strong use of technologies to ‘stay tuned’ with their homeland and/or to perform their music and dance.

Paper 2 - The Impact of Electronic Arrangers in the migratory context of Cremona

Due to the limited availability of musical instruments and professional musicians, migrant musicians have had to adapt to different instrumentation. This paper, based on specific case studies, explores the use of digital keyboards and electronic arrangers in some migrant communities. The specific definition of “arranger”, a keyboard musical instrument, emphasises that the instrument contains a range of automatic accompaniments known as styles or rhythms. Arrangers are multitimbral instruments that enable musicians to perform adding other instruments, such as drums, bass, guitar, pipe organs, brass, or strings. Musicians can also easy select different rhythmic patterns that can be varied in speed and combined with chordal self-arrangements. Furthermore, the instrument’s compact size makes it easy to transport, reducing costs and manpower. The extensive use of preset rhythmic bases has led to a natural homogenisation of the rhythmic aspect of traditional music of different origins, influencing the specificity of the musical performances (De Souza, 2017). These assertions can be verified through a rhythmic analysis, transcribing the rhythmic patterns used in different traditions, and by comparing them, looking for similarities and differences. My study focuses on two liturgical and one secular context of migration to Cremona (Northern Italy). In particular, I will examine the use of arrangers in the Ivorian and Romanian communities (in sacred contexts) and in the Albanian community (in secular contexts). The same musical instrument, alien to all three traditions, becomes fundamental and protagonist in a current musical reappropriation. The communities embrace this adapted form of musical performance as evidence of their adaptability and necessity in a context different from their original one. The incorporation of new musical elements into performance, which are more akin to those found in mainstream Western music, appears to be well-received and readily assimilated (Lavengood, 2020).

Paper 3 - YouTube, Digital Heritage and Participation in a Romanian Community in Cremona

The Ansamblul Trăistuța is a cultural association that was established in Cremona in 2019 by Romanian migrants. Its objective is to perpetuate traditions from their country of origin and to transmit them to second generations (Dawalibi 2022). This is achieved by organising events in which they perform singing, dancing and reciting traditional poems and skits. Most of the repertoire is created using digital sources, including YouTube, Facebook, and EtnoTV. Members of the group select songs - mostly of muzică populară – which they perform with a similar vocal style and copying the choreography. This allows the Ansamblul Trăistuța members to gradually enhance their abilities and re-enact their performances in different contexts. Another significant mode of improving their performances is to participate in various presentational contexts. These include festivals, flash mobs, and cultural events promoted by "cultural facilitators" (Graves 2005) in Northern Italy. Lacking musicians who can play live, they sing and dance to pre-recorded tracks that they download online, or they request from musicians in Romania. It is notable that they compensate for the lack of musical professionalism by having a detailed knowledge regarding traditional dance steps, dresses, and rituals. Ansamblul Trăistuța also films every performance and publishes it on the web. Until 2022 on Facebook, now on the association’s YouTube channel. They have created what could be defined as a participatory archive, also encouraging public participation to their events thanks to the visibility achieved through the web. It could be affirmed that YouTube operates on three levels. Firstly, it serves as a powerful source of cultural products, despite the potential for homogenisation of already stereotyped music. Secondly, it offers a valuable opportunity for migrant communities to powerfully engage with new cultural environments and, in the final stage, to insert their own cultural products in a new stream of digital heritagization.