| Wangga | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Traditional music |
| Cultural origins | Aboriginal Australian |
| Typical instruments | Indigenous Australian instruments |
Wangga (sometimes spelled Wongga) is an Aboriginal Australian genre of traditional music and ceremony which originated in Northern Territory and north Western Australia. Specifically, from South Alligator River south east towards Ngukurr, south to the Katherine and west into the Kimberley. [1] The Yolngu peoples of Arnhem Land created the genre.
In 1938, Australian anthropologist A. P. Elkin described Wangga, "[It] starts as a sudden high note, then descends in regular intervals to a low pitch, after which the songman just beats his sticks to the accompaniment of the didgeridoo. Twenty seconds or more later, the melody is sung as before and so on" and lyrics tend to be syllables. [2] Typically, the songs and dances express themes related to death and regeneration. [3] The songs are performed publicly. The singers compose from their daily lives or while dreaming of a nyuidj (dead spirit). [4]
Summary: Children singing; origin of Murinbata moieties; other myths; subsection system; ceremonial singing and discussion; Daly River wangga singing.
Summary: Murrinhpatha narratives of culture heroes and other important figures; songs accompanying the narratives; Wangga and Lirrga singing; Port Keats mission history; oral history;
Balga, wangga and lirrga songs; song cycles belonging to individuals
Collection includes Guwamu or Murawari songs, Wangga-Yutjuru songs, Margany corroboree song
Basic word lists, verbs, sentences; comparison of light and heavy Kriol; Ngalkbon in comparison with Kriol; myths including emu; children's songs-traditional and non-indigenous; wangga and other traditional songs
Summary: Circumcision ceremony; wangga (wonga) and thanpa (tchamba); Murrinpahpatha song genres Thanpa, Malkarrin and Wurlthirri; Marri Ngarr song genre Lirrga; church and liturgical music in traditional song style; language discussion and stories; Boniface's ordination; Easter and Xmas services; Bathurst and Port Keats choirs; modern and country music; local band concerts; wartime music from commercial recording.
Summary: Wangga ceremony songs, sung by Turkey Creek singers at Mowanjum.
Summary: Walungari, Wurrngannjin and Wangga songs, recorded during filming.
The didgeridoo is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by Aboriginal peoples of northern Australia at least 1,000 years ago, and is now in use around the world, though still most strongly associated with Indigenous Australian music. In the Yolŋu languages of the indigenous people of northeast Arnhem Land the name for the instrument is the yiḏaki, or more recently by some, mandapul. In the Bininj Kunwok language of West Arnhem Land it is known as mako.
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations, music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that.
Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the language groups across Australia in their ceremonies. Aboriginal spirituality includes the Dreamtime, songlines, and Aboriginal oral literature.
The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal beliefs. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by his colleague Baldwin Spencer and thereafter popularised by A. P. Elkin, who, however, later revised his views.
Indigenous music of Australia comprises the music of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, intersecting with their cultural and ceremonial observances, through the millennia of their individual and collective histories to the present day. The traditional forms include many aspects of performance and musical instrumentation that are unique to particular regions or Aboriginal Australian groups; and some elements of musical tradition are common or widespread through much of the Australian continent, and even beyond. The music of the Torres Strait Islanders is related to that of adjacent parts of New Guinea. Music is a vital part of Indigenous Australians' cultural maintenance.
A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land within the animist belief systems of the Aboriginal cultures of Australia which mark the route followed by localised "creator-beings" in the Dreaming. The paths of the songlines are recorded in traditional song cycles, stories, dance, and art, and are often the basis of ceremonies. They are a vital part of Aboriginal culture, connecting people to their land.
Derby is a town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. At the 2016 census, Derby had a population of 3,325 with 47.2% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. Along with Broome and Kununurra, it is one of only three towns in the Kimberley to have a population over 2,000. Located on King Sound, Derby has the highest tides in Australia, with the differential between low and high tide reaching 11.8 metres (39 ft).
Wadeye is a town in Australia's Northern Territory. It was formerly known as Port Keats. At the 2016 census, Wadeye had a population of 2,280. Wadeye is the 6th most populous town, and the largest Indigenous community in the Northern Territory.
The Murrinh-Patha, or Murinbata, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory.
Australian Kriol is an English-based creole language that developed from a pidgin used initially in the region of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, in the early days of European colonisation. Later, it was spoken by groups further west and north. The pidgin died out in most parts of the country, except in the Northern Territory, where the contact between European settlers, Chinese and other Asians and the Aboriginal Australians in the northern regions has maintained a vibrant use of the language, spoken by about 30,000 people. Despite its similarities to English in vocabulary, it has a distinct syntactic structure and grammar and is a language in its own right. It is distinct from Torres Strait Creole.
The Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures (Garma) is Australia's largest Indigenous cultural gathering, taking place over four days each August in northeast Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, Australia. Hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation, Garma is a celebration of the cultural traditions of the Yolngu people, and a major community gathering for the clans and families of the Arnhem Land region. The event showcases traditional miny'tji (art), ancient story-telling, manikay (song), and bunggul (dance). It is held at Gulkula, a significant Gumatj ceremonial site about 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the township of Nhulunbuy, attracts more than 2500 guests each year and is often sold out months in advance.
William Edward Hanley Stanner CMG, often cited as W.E.H. Stanner, was an Australian anthropologist who worked extensively with Indigenous Australians. Stanner had a varied career that also included journalism in the 1930s, military service in World War II, and political advice on colonial policy in Africa and the South Pacific in the post-war period.
Mowanjum is a medium-sized Aboriginal community, located 10 km (6 mi) south east of Derby in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, within the Shire of Derby-West Kimberley. At the 2016 Australian census, Mowanjum had a population of 311.
Ngukurr, formerly Roper River Mission (1908−1968), is a remote Aboriginal community on the banks of the Roper River in southern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.
The Marrithiyal, also written Marithiel, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional territory lay 30 to 50 miles south of the Daly River in the Northern Territory. They were sometimes known derogatively as Berringen, a term used by the Mulluk-Mulluk to refer to "aliens" or "strangers".
The Worrorra, also written Worora, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley area of north-western Australia.
The Marranunggu are an Aboriginal Australian people and language group, of the Northern Territory.
The Wadjiginy, also referred to historically as the Wogait, are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory, specifically from just north of modern-day Darwin. The Wadjiginy are a saltwater people who describe themselves as wagatj 'beach-dwellers' from the Batjamalh word wagatj 'beach'.
Message Sticks Festival, also known for some time as Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival, was an arts festival celebrating the culture of Aboriginal Australians, based at the Sydney Opera House, between 1999 and 2013. It focused on film for several years, but music, theatre and dance were also showcased. The festival was succeeded by Homeground in 2014.
Linda Mary Barwick is an Australian musicologist and professor emerita at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Barwick has focused on researching Australian Indigenous music and the music of immigrant communities. She also works in the field of digital humanities, archiving recordings.
