Stories of reconciliation: Building cross-cultural collaborations between Indigenous musicians and undergraduate music students in Tennant Creek

Abstract

In this paper I look at what happens when a university music classroom is exchanged for a remote Indigenous community. I explore what happens when pedagogical practices are decolonised and placed into the hands of Indigenous Elders and musicians, and reveal the sorts of musical interactions that transpire when students and Indigenous musicians are given the opportunity to spend time together and collaborate. In order to do this, I describe a cross-cultural project I facilitated between Indigenous musicians at the Winanjji-kari Music Centre in Tennant Creek and undergraduate music students from Brisbane. In the paper, I bring these interactions to life for the reader through my own personal observations, and the words and experiences of my students and our collaborators. I construct a narrative that explores the centrality of relationship building, issues of colonial guilt, the construction of Otherness, and the impact that this kind of cross-cultural engagement can have on the ways in which undergraduate music students understand and connect with Indigenous cultural practices.