Signifiers of indigeneity in Australian and New Zealand popular music

Abstract

This paper explores the notion of indigenous cultural identity in Australia and New Zealand by examining how indigenous culture is represented in popular music, specifically, through 'known' signifiers of indigenous culture. This paper argues that these signifiers are limited to specific instrumentation, musical characteristics such as rhythm and melody, and indigenous language. These findings are reached through an examination of the extant literature on indigenous popular music in Australia and New Zealand, and by applying the same methods these studies employ to a comparison of indigenous popular music from these countries. Music from the groups Yothu Yindi (from Australia), and Moana and the Moahunters (from New Zealand) is analysed, demonstrating how signifiers of indigenous culture are perceived to have roots in traditional culture. This paper concludes by presenting an Australasian framework through which signifiers of indigenous identity have been identified and discussed in academic literature, and argues that the limitations of semiotic analysis has restricted the exploration of popular music's capacity to express indigenous identity.

Articulating Aboriginality in multicultural Redfern

“…Music plays an important role in the construction of 'traditional practices' by which musical and dance forms appear as 'traditional' even if they are newly created for tourist purposes (Dunbar- Hall & Gibson, 2004, p. 17). While some Aboriginal composers have been able to occupy spaces in mainstream Australian popular music, the majority of Aboriginal artists remain unheard (Sainsbury, 2019, p. 18), work under specialized labels (such as CAAMA and Koori Radio labels) and are subject to the expectations of mainstream reviewers about what constitutes 'authentic Aboriginal sounds or instruments' (Wilson, 2010). As a consequence, Aboriginal musicians may be rejected by radio stations or music writers if their sound does not fit within Western assumptions about what will be commercially successful (Dunbar- Hall & Gibson, 2004, p. 25) as some Aboriginal musicians assured me happened to them.…”

Kaitiakitanga, Whai Wāhi and Alien Weaponry: indigenous frameworks for understanding language, identity and international success in the case of a Māori metal band

“…587-9) continues this work, similarly analysing Maōri reggae as site for cultural and linguistic resistance. Oli Wilson (2010) expands these discussions beyond lyrics and visuals to include specific musical signifiers. Wilson's focus on the sounds of traditional instruments and of te reo (rather than lexical meanings) shows how these sounds index indigenousness in ways that are meaningful to insiders and recognisable to outsiders.…”

‘Wetin dey happen?’: Wazobia, popular arts, and nationhood

“…It is increasingly an act of willpower and exclusion, a deliberate rupturing of the master narrative that English represents, and an attempt at re-representation and meaning-making that reflects agency within a local economy of signs. The vernacularization of English, which Wilson (2010) calls indigeneity or as Awonusi (2004aAwonusi ( , 2004b calls it in a different but related context 'text multilingualism', through the mixing and switching of codes, encompassing the use of Nigerian Pidgin and the indigenous languages by Nigerian hip-hop performers, is a symbolic marker of the first stage of 'transition', which according to Turner (1966) precedes the liminal phase. It is in the context of popular performance in Nigeria as part of the national rite of passage that signals the move from a colonial to a postcolonial state.…”