A Forgiveness Song: The Emergence of an Ethical Framework Informing Australian Composers’ Interactions with the Music of Indigenous Peoples
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Composers of art music in Australia have a history of appropriating Indigenous musical material with the aim of creating a distinctly Australian musical idiom. This attempt at manufacturing a sense of cultural identity has been done over many decades without any regard for the religious and social significance of the musical material in question. In addition to being insensitive to the cultural sensibilities of Indigenous Australians, these appropriations have often been characterised as a form of advocacy for Indigenous culture. The paternalistic mind-set represented by such characterisations has been one obstacle in the on-going process of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Through an examination of several significant pieces of Australian art music, this chapter explores how non-Indigenous Australian musicians are gradually changing their practice with regard to the musical materials of various Indigenous Australian peoples. By considering composers’ changing use of Indigenous music, the critical reception of such works, and the scholarly discourse that surrounds such interactions, this chapter posits that, increasingly, Australian composers are preferring collaboration over appropriation as not only a means of forgiveness and reconciliation between peoples, but also as a de rigueur ethical practice.