Kirsty Gillespie

Stepping stones across the Lihir Islands: Developing cultural heritage management in the context of a gold mining operation

Large-scale resource extraction projects often create obstacles for the protection, maintenance, and inheritance of indigenous cultural heritage. In this article we detail some of the challenges and opportunities arising from our collaborative partnership with the community of the Lihir Islands in Papua New Guinea, which is seeking to establish, inform, and resource a formal cultural heritage management program in the context of a large-scale gold-mining operation. The general approach to this collaborative venture involves the application of a specific development tool, the Stepping Stones for Cultural Heritage program. This consultative process is innovative in both Melanesia and the context of resource extraction, but also more generally within the field of cultural heritage. We describe the outcomes of this process and some of the initial pilot projects, one of which was based on the recording of traditional Lihirian songs. We also argue that while the mine places greater pressure upon Lihirian cultural heritage, it also presents Lihirians with the opportunity to realize a vision of their cultural future that is beyond the reach of many other indigenous communities.

Ethnomusicology and the Mining Industry: A Case Study from Lihir, Papua New Guinea

This article presents an ethnomusicologist’s engagement with The University of Queensland’s Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (Sustainable Minerals Institute), Newcrest Mining Limited, and the people of Lihir, Papua New Guinea, whose lands are currently being mined for gold. In an age where large-scale resource development has become essential to many economies within Australasia, this article considers how multiple stakeholders with differing agendas can recognize and prioritize intangible cultural heritage for the people on whose lands mining takes place. It is also an example of applied ethnomusicology working at the interface between industry and community.

Protecting our shadow: repatriating ancestral recordings to the Lihir Islands, Papua New Guinea

I first visited the Lihir Island Group in New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea, in September 2007. As I prepared that year for my last trip to the Highlands region for my doctoral research, I felt the need to experience more of the many diverse cultures that make up the country. I determined to travel to the coast, which was to me the antithesis of the Highlands, after completing my doctoral fieldwork. As luck would have it, some of my extended family had just moved to the Lihir Islands in July of that year; the opportunity to spend some time at the other end of the country, amongst island culture, suddenly presented itself.

A Distinctive Voice in the Antipodes: Essays in Honour of Stephen A. Wild

This volume of essays honours the life and work of Stephen A. Wild, one of Australia’s leading ethnomusicologists. Born in Western Australia, Wild studied at Indiana University in the USA before returning to Australia to pursue a lifelong career with Indigenous Australian music. As researcher, teacher, and administrator, Wild’s work has impacted generations of scholars around the world, leading him to be described as ‘a great facilitator and a scholar who serves humanity through music’ by Andree Grau, Professor of the Anthropology of Dance at University of Roehampton, London. Focusing on the music of Aboriginal Australia and the Pacific Islands, and the concerns of archiving and academia, the essays within are authored by peers, colleagues, and former students of Wild. Most of the authors are members of the Study Group on Music and Dance of Oceania of the International Council for Traditional Music, an organisation that has also played an important role in Wild’s life and development as a scholar of international standing. Ranging in scope from the musicological to the anthropological—from technical musical analyses to observations of the sociocultural context of music—these essays reflect not only on the varied and cross-disciplinary nature of Wild’s work, but on the many facets of ethnomusicology today.This chapter is a story about reconciliation. It is a story about the vision one person had for a music research organisation to be courageous and enter into discussion about disciplinary collusion in a coloniality of being. It is a story of what happened to begin to turn the colonial tide. On 28 May 2000, a milestone was reached in the process of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Hundreds upon thousands of Australians walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge and other significant landmarks around the country in a groundswell of support for improving relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. This gesture of support for Indigenous reconciliation put in place the impetus for institutional change, and placed renewed attention on the need for researchers and research organisations to reconsider the ways in which they engage in research with Indigenous Australian peoples.[Extract] Stephen Aubrey Wild was born in January 1941 in Fremantle, the maritime heart of Perth in Western Australia. His mother remembered hearing the five o’clock steam siren of the Fremantle docks from her maternity bed in hospital when Stephen was born. This might explain his wanderlust in the earlier part of adult life. Second among four siblings, Stephen grew up in the Perth suburb of Swanbourne. His love of music began as a child, both at home and at church. Music featured prominently in the Wild family. Grandfather Wild was choir master and church organist in a Melbourne Methodist church before his migration to Perth. Stephen’s father played the harmonica, and two of Stephen’s siblings also played the piano.The Study Group on Music of Oceania was proposed at the 1977 World Conference, held in Honolulu, and formally established two years later with Ricardo D. Trimillos as the first Chair (1979–83). Barbara Smith (1983–2001), Stephen A. Wild (2001–05), Raymond Ammann(2005–09), Denis Crowdy (2009–13), Kirsty Gillespie (2013–15),and Brian Diettrich (2015–17) have been Rics successors. The Study Group on Music and Dance of Oceania (SGMDO), as it is presently named, has held nine symposia in Australia (four times), Japan, Palau, USA, Papua New Guinea, and Guam. It sponsors panels and holds business meetings at ICTM World Conferences, issues publications, and has discussions of relevant issues whenever a number of its members are able to meet informally.

Stephen A. Wild: a distinctive voice in the antipodes

This volume of essays honours the life and work of Stephen A. Wild, one of Australia’s leading ethnomusicologists. Born in Western Australia, Wild studied at Indiana University in the USA before returning to Australia to pursue a lifelong career with Indigenous Australian music. As researcher, teacher, and administrator, Wild’s work has impacted generations of scholars around the world, leading him to be described as ‘a great facilitator and a scholar who serves humanity through music’ by Andree Grau, Professor of the Anthropology of Dance at University of Roehampton, London. Focusing on the music of Aboriginal Australia and the Pacific Islands, and the concerns of archiving and academia, the essays within are authored by peers, colleagues, and former students of Wild. Most of the authors are members of the Study Group on Music and Dance of Oceania of the International Council for Traditional Music, an organisation that has also played an important role in Wild’s life and development as a scholar of international standing. Ranging in scope from the musicological to the anthropological—from technical musical analyses to observations of the sociocultural context of music—these essays reflect not only on the varied and cross-disciplinary nature of Wild’s work, but on the many facets of ethnomusicology today.This chapter is a story about reconciliation. It is a story about the vision one person had for a music research organisation to be courageous and enter into discussion about disciplinary collusion in a coloniality of being. It is a story of what happened to begin to turn the colonial tide. On 28 May 2000, a milestone was reached in the process of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Hundreds upon thousands of Australians walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge and other significant landmarks around the country in a groundswell of support for improving relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. This gesture of support for Indigenous reconciliation put in place the impetus for institutional change, and placed renewed attention on the need for researchers and research organisations to reconsider the ways in which they engage in research with Indigenous Australian peoples.[Extract] Stephen Aubrey Wild was born in January 1941 in Fremantle, the maritime heart of Perth in Western Australia. His mother remembered hearing the five o’clock steam siren of the Fremantle docks from her maternity bed in hospital when Stephen was born. This might explain his wanderlust in the earlier part of adult life. Second among four siblings, Stephen grew up in the Perth suburb of Swanbourne. His love of music began as a child, both at home and at church. Music featured prominently in the Wild family. Grandfather Wild was choir master and church organist in a Melbourne Methodist church before his migration to Perth. Stephen’s father played the harmonica, and two of Stephen’s siblings also played the piano.The Study Group on Music of Oceania was proposed at the 1977 World Conference, held in Honolulu, and formally established two years later with Ricardo D. Trimillos as the first Chair (1979–83). Barbara Smith (1983–2001), Stephen A. Wild (2001–05), Raymond Ammann(2005–09), Denis Crowdy (2009–13), Kirsty Gillespie (2013–15),and Brian Diettrich (2015–17) have been Rics successors. The Study Group on Music and Dance of Oceania (SGMDO), as it is presently named, has held nine symposia in Australia (four times), Japan, Palau, USA, Papua New Guinea, and Guam. It sponsors panels and holds business meetings at ICTM World Conferences, issues publications, and has discussions of relevant issues whenever a number of its members are able to meet informally.

Festschrift background and contents

This volume of essays honours the life and work of Stephen A. Wild, one of Australia’s leading ethnomusicologists. Born in Western Australia, Wild studied at Indiana University in the USA before returning to Australia to pursue a lifelong career with Indigenous Australian music. As researcher, teacher, and administrator, Wild’s work has impacted generations of scholars around the world, leading him to be described as ‘a great facilitator and a scholar who serves humanity through music’ by Andree Grau, Professor of the Anthropology of Dance at University of Roehampton, London. Focusing on the music of Aboriginal Australia and the Pacific Islands, and the concerns of archiving and academia, the essays within are authored by peers, colleagues, and former students of Wild. Most of the authors are members of the Study Group on Music and Dance of Oceania of the International Council for Traditional Music, an organisation that has also played an important role in Wild’s life and development as a scholar of international standing. Ranging in scope from the musicological to the anthropological—from technical musical analyses to observations of the sociocultural context of music—these essays reflect not only on the varied and cross-disciplinary nature of Wild’s work, but on the many facets of ethnomusicology today.This chapter is a story about reconciliation. It is a story about the vision one person had for a music research organisation to be courageous and enter into discussion about disciplinary collusion in a coloniality of being. It is a story of what happened to begin to turn the colonial tide. On 28 May 2000, a milestone was reached in the process of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Hundreds upon thousands of Australians walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge and other significant landmarks around the country in a groundswell of support for improving relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. This gesture of support for Indigenous reconciliation put in place the impetus for institutional change, and placed renewed attention on the need for researchers and research organisations to reconsider the ways in which they engage in research with Indigenous Australian peoples.[Extract] Stephen Aubrey Wild was born in January 1941 in Fremantle, the maritime heart of Perth in Western Australia. His mother remembered hearing the five o’clock steam siren of the Fremantle docks from her maternity bed in hospital when Stephen was born. This might explain his wanderlust in the earlier part of adult life. Second among four siblings, Stephen grew up in the Perth suburb of Swanbourne. His love of music began as a child, both at home and at church. Music featured prominently in the Wild family. Grandfather Wild was choir master and church organist in a Melbourne Methodist church before his migration to Perth. Stephen’s father played the harmonica, and two of Stephen’s siblings also played the piano.The Study Group on Music of Oceania was proposed at the 1977 World Conference, held in Honolulu, and formally established two years later with Ricardo D. Trimillos as the first Chair (1979–83). Barbara Smith (1983–2001), Stephen A. Wild (2001–05), Raymond Ammann(2005–09), Denis Crowdy (2009–13), Kirsty Gillespie (2013–15),and Brian Diettrich (2015–17) have been Rics successors. The Study Group on Music and Dance of Oceania (SGMDO), as it is presently named, has held nine symposia in Australia (four times), Japan, Palau, USA, Papua New Guinea, and Guam. It sponsors panels and holds business meetings at ICTM World Conferences, issues publications, and has discussions of relevant issues whenever a number of its members are able to meet informally.

Book review of "Tracing the Melanesian Person: emotions and relationships in Lihir" by S.R. Hemer, Adelaide, SA, University of Adelaide Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-922064-44-8

[Extract] The Lihir Islands in Papua New Guinea are not a new subject of anthropology, nor are anthropologists new to Lihir. The islands have been written about for over a century with an increasing number of studies undertaken, academic and otherwise, in the period leading up to the opening of the gold mine in the mid-1990s, and a number of studies thereafter examining the effects of mining on the lives of the people of Lihir. The islands have been richly described by a number of people; this ethnography by Susan Hemer, however, is a welcome addition to this literature for its insight into the lives of the people of Mahur Island, the northern-most island in the Lihir Island Group, and for its contribution to the literature on Melanesian personhood and the anthropology of emotion.

‘We will not sit down’: exploring agency through Christian music at Lake Kopiago, Papua New Guinea

[Extract] It is commonly perceived that the introduction of Christianity into the lives of the people of Papua New Guinea and the wider Pacific has had a negative impact on ancestral culture and music-making. This view is held by both those inside and outside the country and the region, by those in academia as well as in the broader community. While it is widely true that many missions were active in dissuading the performance of some ancestral musical styles, encounters between missionaries and the people is far more complex. Papua New Guineans have themselves acted as agents in adopting and reshaping the new musical forms that were used to convey Christian teachings. This paper considers the transmission of one Christian song form into the Highlands of Papua New Guinea in the 1970s, and which now forms the basis of many songs composed in local languages, both within the church and outside of it. I based my observations on fieldwork conducted over the period of 2004-2007 in and around Lake Kopiago in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, which is home to the Duna (or Yuna) language group.

Tracing the Melanesian person: emotions and relationships in Lihir, by Susan R. Hemer

[Extract] The Lihir Islands in Papua New Guinea are not a new subject of anthropology, nor are anthropologists new to Lihir. The islands have been written about for over a century with an increasing number of studies undertaken, academic and otherwise, in the period leading up to the opening of the gold mine in the mid-1990s, and a number of studies thereafter examining the effects of mining on the lives of the people of Lihir. The islands have been richly described by a number of people; this ethnography by Susan Hemer, however, is a welcome addition to this literature for its insight into the lives of the people of Mahur Island, the northern-most island in the Lihir Island Group, and for its contribution to the literature on Melanesian personhood and the anthropology of emotion.

Tracing the Melanesian Person: Emotions and Relationships in Lihir

[Extract] The Lihir Islands in Papua New Guinea are not a new subject of anthropology, nor are anthropologists new to Lihir. The islands have been written about for over a century with an increasing number of studies undertaken, academic and otherwise, in the period leading up to the opening of the gold mine in the mid-1990s, and a number of studies thereafter examining the effects of mining on the lives of the people of Lihir. The islands have been richly described by a number of people; this ethnography by Susan Hemer, however, is a welcome addition to this literature for its insight into the lives of the people of Mahur Island, the northern-most island in the Lihir Island Group, and for its contribution to the literature on Melanesian personhood and the anthropology of emotion.