Sound Recordings
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Nimmo, Harry
setName: label: See more items in
content: H. Arlo Nimmo papers
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 16 Sound tape reels (5 in.)
label: Extent
content: 3 Sound cassettes
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1965-1967
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2009-17, Series 6
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound tape reels
label: Type
content: Sound cassettes
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The reel to reel recordings are of songs, chants, stories, and music recorded by Nimmo in the western Tawi-Tawi Islands and the community of Sitangkai among the Bajau people from September 1965 through April 1967. Most of the recordings are songs of the boat-dwelling Bajau, but there are also samples of the music of the shore-dwelling Sama and Tausug, some of which were recorded by his research assistant Tarabasa Idji in his home village of Karundung, Sanga-Sanga, Tawi-Tawi.

The recordings were made on a flashlight battery-powered, reel-to-reel Sony tape recorder. Due to the limited number of tapes in his possession, Nimmo sometimes taped over existing recordings after they were translated. Numbers for each reel were assigned by Nimmo.

Also in this series are recorded inteviews with Gerry Rixhon, a former priest of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI).  Rixhon was stationed in Tawi-Tawi and Jolo from 1953-1974.  He left the order in 1976. According to Nimmo, "the interviews are about the history of the Oblates order in the Sulu Islands, especially the Tawi-Tawi Islands and their establishment of the Notre Dame school system. Rixhon also relates many of his observations and personal experiences with local people when he lived in the islands".

Information about the contents of the reels and cassettes was taken from Nimmo's own Index to the recordings.