title: Yarrabil Girrebbah Singing Indigenous Language Alive
Creators: name: Kruger, Candace
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Indigenous Language
subject: Yarrabil Girrebbah
subject: Aboriginal community

description: Yarrabil Girrebbah Singing Indigenous Language Alive answers the call to yarrabil girrebbah (sing awake) Yugambeh language songs of the Gold Coast, Logan and Scenic Rim regions of South-East Queensland, Australia. The response is a narrative of Gannga.lehla, Muwa.lehla, Baribunma.lehla Thinking, Gathering and Dreaming, a Songwoman’s journey for Kombumerri/Ngugi of Yugambeh/Quandamooka, Goori [Aboriginal] woman Candace Kruger. This doctoral investigation is underpinned by the following research question: How can Aboriginal methodologies challenge ethnomusicological understandings of Aboriginal music? To address this question, the dissertation comprises three components: •an exegesis documenting the Songwoman’s journey, •print publications of Yugambeh Yarrabil Gaureiman (song and narrative), and •audio and/or visual recordings of Yugambeh Yarrabil Gaureiman. The exegetical and creative components of the research are underpinned by three methodologies, all designed as critical components of the research process and discussed within the three chapters of the thesis. Chapter 1: Gannga.lehla thinking presents the Ngubu Yarrabil Tomorrow’s Song methodology. Designed by the Songwoman in consultation with Elders, this chapter presents the relational ontology of our land, language and knowledge systems as our own worldview, and endeavours to privilege the voices of our Elders for mobo jarjum (tomorrow’s children). Ngubu Yarrabil acknowledges that the Songwoman’s inquiry is critically important, both culturally and academically, as it aims to protect, maintain and revive living culture. The Songwoman’s journey is more than repatriation: it is creation. It is singing the land alive. Chapter 2: Muwa.lehla Gathering presents the Yarrabilginngunn (Songwoman’s) methodology. Underpinned by five fundamental principles: Spirituality, Place, Knowledge, Transmission and Legacy, the Yarrabilginngunn methodology aims to iv protect, maintain and revive living culture. Furthermore, on a wider level, this methodological approach can be used to assist other Aboriginal people to determine and control their own epistemological trajectory. Chapter 3: Baribunma.lehla Dreaming presents the Yarrabil Song Framework. This Framework is an alternate methodological approach to analysing and interpreting Aboriginal music. Here it is argued that Aboriginal music should no longer be considered a genre; rather, ethnomusicologists should consider Aboriginal music as a tool. In this approach, Aboriginal music is viewed as a way to hold and carry knowledge, consequently opening the listener’s mind to the presence of jagun (land) and the narratives of the jagun that are embedded within the tool that carries them. Engaging with the exegetical component of the research requires the reader to immerse themselves concurrently in the accompanying creative works. A Thesis Guide is included, which explains how the reader can approach the exegesis and creative works to maximise understanding. One of the creative works that will be viewed is the Morning Star and Evening Star, a Yugambeh songline situated as the 2021 Australian Music Examinations Board Online Orchestra Piece. Yarrabil Girrebbah Singing Indigenous Language Alive illustrates one way in which an Aboriginal community, in South-East Queensland is reconstructing Aboriginal knowledges for sustainability and legacy outcomes. Moreover, the Songwoman demonstrates how the performativity of living culture can be articulated as a modernity of Aboriginal music.