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Since the beginning of time, music has been a way of communicating observations of and experiences about the world. For Indigenous Peoples who have lived within their traditional territories for generations, music is a repository of ecological knowledge, with songs embedding ancestors\u2019 knowledge, teachings and wisdom.<\/p>\n
The music carries the word of the ancestors across time, transmitting key knowledge from deep in our sacred memory. Academics are just beginning to see the deep significance of these songs and the knowledge they carry and some are working with Indigenous collaborators to unlock their teachings.<\/p>\n
At the same time, non-Indigenous researchers and the general public are becoming aware of the historic and current loss of songs. Indigenous communities are also grappling with what this means. The loss of songs was brought on by\u00a0brought on by<\/a>\u00a0colonization,\u00a0forced enrollment<\/a>\u00a0in residential schools<\/a>\u00a0and the passing of the last of the traditionally trained knowledge holders and song keepers.<\/p>\n A recent special issue of the\u00a0Journal of Ethnobiology<\/a><\/em>\u00a0celebrates the power of traditional songs as storehouses of traditional ecological knowledge.<\/p>\n Nine articles are rich accounts of Indigenous Peoples\u2019 time-honoured music-making traditions. These range from\u00a0women\u2019s songs relating to wild seeds in Australia<\/a>, to\u00a0improvisational singing traditions in Siberia<\/a>, to the\u00a0use of turtle shell rattles<\/a>\u00a0across the United States and the\u00a0hunting songs of Amazonian hunter-gatherers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Although traditional music is threatened by past government-sanctioned actions and laws, with much already lost, Indigenous Peoples globally continue to use music in sacred and ritual contexts and celebrate their traditional songs.<\/p>\n The lyrics in traditional songs are themselves imbued with meaning and history. Traditional songs often encode and model the proper, respectful way for humans, non-humans and the natural and supernatural realms to interact and intersect.<\/p>\n A Tsimane\u2019 woman in Bolivian Amazonia playing a handmade wooden violin. Violins came to the Tsimane\u2019 through contact with missionaries. Today, some Tsimane\u2019 play the violin while singing traditional songs, illustrating the adaptive nature of Indigenous music. (\u00c1lvaro Fern\u00e1ndez-Llamazares), Author provided<\/p><\/div>\n For instance,\u00a0among the Temiar singers of the Malaysian rainforest<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 who often receive their songs in dreams from deceased people and who believe all living beings are capable of having \u201cpersonhood\u201d \u2014 dream-songs help mediate peoples\u2019 relationships with these other beings.<\/p>\n In many Indigenous cultures, songs recount detailed biocultural knowledge that sits in specific places and thus can also document rights to, and responsibilities for, traditional territories.<\/p>\n The special issue was inspired by\u00a0Kwaxsistalla Wathl\u2019thla Clan Chief Adam Dick<\/a>. Kwaxsistalla Wathl\u2019thla was a trained Clan Chief, held four\u00a0pa\u2019sa<\/em>\u00a0chieftain seats, and among many other roles, was the keeper of hundreds of songs about the Kwakwaka\u2019wakw people, their traditional territory in coastal British Columbia, and\u00a0all aspects of their lives and their ritual world<\/a>.<\/p>\n In his role as\u00a0ninogaad<\/em>\u00a0(culturally trained specialist), Kwaxsistalla Wathl\u2019thla was the last culturally trained potlatch speaker. The cultural practice of potlatching is a central organizing structure of northern Northwest Coast peoples.<\/p>\nTime-honoured global traditions<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Inspired by potlatch speaker<\/strong><\/h4>\n