University of Queensland associate lecturer Elizabeth Mackinlay has recorded the songs of a remote Aboriginal community in the first major ethnomusicology study the Yanuywa people of Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Ms Mackinlay of the University's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit spent more than six months with in Borroloola, 1000km south-east of Darwin, recording almost 90 different stories of the one song type, called a-nguyulnguyal.
'The songs are all highly emotional songs and orally composed,' she said. 'They document history, personal tragedies, everyday life and humorous events.
'At the time of white settlement there were between 200 and 250 different tribes within indigenous Australia, each with its own musical identity and focus.
'Today, younger people don't know the songs as well as older people, particularly women, and social problems in the community have had a negative effect on their musical traditions.'
Recently three Yanuywa women visited the University of Queensland St Lucia campus to share their songs and dance with students.
About 15 students of Women's Music and Dance in Indigenous Australia, a subject which Ms Mackinlay teaches, participated in a workshop with the latest visitors, Jemima Miller, Annie Isaac and Thelma Douglas.
In recent years, indigenous women from central Australia have visited students at the University of Queensland.
'It's important for students to learn about Aboriginal culture first-hand because the experts are the Aboriginal people themselves,' Ms Mackinlay said.
The Aboriginal women, who also gave a performance for the wider University community, said they enjoyed the interaction with students.
'It's been really good to dance at the University because (through our music) we share our culture,' Mrs Douglas said.
'Culture is still alive with Aboriginal people even though other people might think our people have forgotten. We're still doing the same dances and songs.'
The three women grew up in Borroloola, learning dance and song from their elders. They now teach songs and dance to Borroloola indigenous children.
The women had to gain permission from tribal elders before they could dance for people outside their community. Since then, the women, with other members of their community, have performed throughout Australia.
At the University, they performed the Nedadigji - a song and dance about the mermaid women.
The decades-old Nedadigji is one of Yanyuwa people's most important dances. It tells the story of Jemima's aunt who shared the song and dance of the mermaid women after they came to her in a dream.
Ms Mackinlay said ancestral visits to the living through dreams was common among indigenous communities across Australia.
For more information, contact Ms Mackinlay (telelphone 07 3365 6712).
