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18 - African Musics in Australia

from Part III - Diversities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2024

By
Bonnie B. McConnell  and
Lamine Sonko
Edited by
Amanda Harris  and
Clint Bracknell
Amanda Harris
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Clint Bracknell
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia
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Summary

African musical practices in Australia are highly diverse and multifaceted. This chapter examines the work of a Senegalese Australian artist across contexts ranging from a new multimedia arts initiative, music festivals, community events and schools. Drawing on evidence from ethnographic research as well as performer and educator experiences, it shows that music provides an important space through which to explore the complexities of diasporic experience in Australia and to engage in self-representation countering dominant negative portrayals of Africans in Australian media and political discourse. Through music, African Australian artists negotiate ideas about cultural specificity and universality, maintaining connections to African cultural practices while forging new connections and forms of creativity in contemporary Australia.

Keywords

African musicAfrican diasporaAfrican Australiansmulticulturalismmusic and identity
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Music in Australia , pp. 280 - 298
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Alter, A., ‘National Spaces and Global Imagination: “Ethiopian Sounds” around the World and in Australia’, Musicology Australia, 39(1) (2017), 15–28, https://doi.org/10.1080/08145857.2017.1332972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dieckmann, S., ‘Addressing Tribalism in Displacement: Self-Directed Musical Activities in Blacktown’s South Sudanese Community’ in Vũ, K. T. and de Quadros, A. (eds.), My Body Was Left on the Street (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 225–38.Google Scholar
Egan, B., African American Entertainers in Australia and New Zealand: A History, 1788–1941 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2019).Google Scholar
Joseph, D., ‘Promoting the Teaching and Learning of South African Music’, Australian Journal of Music Education, 1 (2011), 42–56.Google Scholar
Marsh, K., ‘“The Beat Will Make You Be Courage”: The Role of a Secondary School Music Program in Supporting Young Refugees and Newly Arrived Immigrants in Australia’, Research Studies in Music Education, 34(2) (2012), 93–111, https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X12466138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, K., Ingram, C. and Dieckmann, S., ‘Bridging Musical Worlds: Musical Collaboration between Student Musician-Educators and South Sudanese Australian Youth’ in H. Westerlund, S. Karlsen and Partti, (eds.), Visions for Intercultural Music Teacher Education (Cham: Springer, 2020) pp. 115–34.Google Scholar
McConnell, B., ‘African Popular Music, Race, and Diasporic Heritage in Australia’ in Hoad, C., Stahl, G. and Wilson, O. (eds.), Mixing Pop and Politics: Political Dimensions of Popular Music in the 21st Century (New York: Routledge, 2022), pp. 38–49.Google Scholar
McConnell, B., ‘Afropolitan Projects: Music, Representation, and the Politics of Belonging in Australia’, Popular Music and Society, 42(2) (2019), 131–49, https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2017.1413618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sonn, C. and Agung-Igusti, R., ‘African-Diaspora in Australia Narrating Stories of Belonging through Community Theatre: Enacting Decolonial Aesthetics toward Epistemic Justice’ in Inzunza, A., Olivares Espinoza, B., Monreal Álvares, V., et al., Diálogos Contemporáneos en Psicología Comunitaria: Escenarios, Problemas y Aprendizajes (Santiago: University of Chile, 2020), pp. 44–70.Google Scholar

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