German-Indigenous musical flows at Ntaria in the 1960s
Tiger Tjalkalyeri’s rendition of ‘Silent Night’, or what is tradition anyway?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v15i1.16668Keywords:
Arrernte musical culture, Hermannsburg Mission (Australia), musical flows, authenticity, ‘Silent Night’ (Christmas carol), Tiger TjalkalyeriAbstract
This article focuses on aspects of Indigenous musical life in the 1960s at and around Ntaria (formerly Hermannsburg) in Central Australia, and isolates one flow between German missionary sources and the Indigenous musical culture—the Christmas carol ‘Stille Nacht’ (aka ‘Silent Night’), which became ‘Inguwa inturtai’, now also known as ‘Hymn 44’. I explore some of the meanings that are invested in a particularly striking yet ambiguous deployment of that song by Tiger Tjalkalyeri, and argue that, in a setting where white Australians have approached Indigenous music with their own classificatory expectations, an ‘Indigenized’ German Christmas carol could have a strange power. ‘Inguwa inturtai’ could upset and unsettle white Australian attitudes towards the ‘authentic’.
References
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Austin-Broos, Diane. 2009. Arrernte Present Arrernte Past: Invasion, Violence, and Imagination in Indigenous Central Australia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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Bell, Diane. 1998. Ngarrindjeri Wurriwarrin: A World that Is, Was, and Will Be. Melbourne: Spinifex.
Bennett, David. 2005. ‘Postmodern Eclecticism and the World Music Debate: The Politics of the Kronos Quartet’. Context 29/30: 5–15.
Bhabha, Homi. 2004. The Location of Culture, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.
Breen, Marcus, ed. 1989. Our Place—Our Music. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Campfire Concert: Aboriginal Songs Recorded in Palm Valley—Central Australia, with Aborigines of the Hermannsburg Mission c. 1966. Sundowner Coach Tours.
Casey, Bill. 2008. ‘Modernity Denied: The Case of Harold Blair’s 1956 EP, Australian Aboriginal Songs’. In Impact of the Modern: Vernacular Modernities in Australia, 1870s–1960s, ed. Robert Dixon and Veronica Kelly, 52–61. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
Eckstein, Lars. Forthcoming. ‘Of Mimicry and Misery: Cross-Cultural Encounters on Ludwig Leichhardt’s Second Australian Expedition’. Journal of Australian Studies.
Edenborough, Alan. n.d. ‘Cover Notes for Campfire Concert: Aboriginal Songs Recorded in Aboriginal Songs Recorded in Palm Valley—Central Australia, with Aborigines of the Hermannsburg Mission.
Ellis, Catherine J. 1979. ‘Developments in Music Education among Aboriginals in Central and South Australia’. In Australian Aboriginal Music, ed. Jenny Isaacs, 27–40. Sydney: Aboriginal Artists Agency.
—1985. Aboriginal Music: Education for Living. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press.
Galtjintant pepa Kristianirberaka Mbontala [Instruction Book for the Christians on the Wide Timbered Plain]. 1891. Tanunda: Finke River Mission Board.
Gelder, Ken, and Jane M. Jacobs. 1998. Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Hardy, Jane, J. V. S. Megaw and M. Ruth Megaw, eds. 1992. The Heritage of Namatjira: The Watercolourists of Central Australia. Melbourne: Heinemann.
Henson, Barbara. 1992. A Straight-out Man: F.W. Albrecht and Central Australian Aborigines. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Hermannsburg Choir. n.d. Hermannsburg Choir on Tour. Adelaide: DAVAN Recordings.
Hill, Barry. 2002. Broken Song. Sydney: Random House.
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Keen, Ian. 1994. Knowledge and Secrecy in an Aboriginal Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Magowan, Fiona. 2007. ‘Spirit, Place and Power in Arnhem Land Traditional and Christian Music’. In The Soundscapes of Australia: Music, Place, Spirituality, ed. Fiona Richards, 281–96. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Magowan, Fiona, and Karl Neuenfeldt. 2005. ‘Introduction’. In Landscapes of Indigenous Performance, ed. Fiona Magowan and Karl Neuenfeldt, 1–11. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Mitchell, Tony. 1996. Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop and Rap in Europe and Oceania. London: Leicester University Press.
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Pech, Dora. 1996. A Hermannsburg Love Story: Dora’s 1935 Journal, ed. Eric Fiebig and Ruth Fiebig. Fulham: E. R. and R. M. Fiebig.
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Pratt, Mary Louise. 1992. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge.
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—n.d. Cover notes for Hermannsburg Choir on Tour.
Radke, Olga. 1967. Hermannsburg Choir Tour Diary. Copy in possession of the author.
Roennfeldt, David. 2012. Email to the author, 25 July.
Rose, Jon. 2007. ‘Listening to History: Some Proposals for Reclaiming the Practice of Music’. Ninth Annual Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address, 3 December, http://www.newmusicnetwork.com.au/PGH/JR07.html (accessed 8 March 2012).
Scherer, Paul A. 1965a. ‘The Aranda Lutheran Hymnal’. Lutheran Herald, 27 February: 58–59; 13 March: 72–73.
—1965b. ‘On Aranda Translations’. Lutheran Student, March: 8–11.
Stanner, W. E. H. 1969. After the Dreaming. Sydney: ABC Books.
Strehlow, T. G. H. 1965. ‘Address given in St Stephen’s Lutheran Church, Wakefield Street, Adelaide, on Sunday Evening, 14th February, 1965’. Lutheran Herald, 13 March: 73–75, 78.
—1978. ‘Central Australian Man-Making Ceremonies’. The Lutheran, 10 April: 10.
Strehlow, John. 2004. ‘Shifting Focus’. In Traditions in the Midst of Change, ed. Michael Cawthorn, 109–19. Alice Springs: Strehlow Research Centre.
Streit-Warburton, Jili. 1995. ‘Craft, Raft and Lifesaver: Aboriginal Women Musicians in the Contemporary Music Industry’. In Sounding Off! Music as Subversion/Resistance/Revolution, ed. R. Sakolsky and F. W. Ho, 307–19. New York: Autonomedia.
Stroh, Wolfgang Martin. 1994. Handbuch New Age Musik. Regensburg: ConBrio Verlagsgesellschaft.
Wilson, Peter Niklas. 1987. ‘Zwischen “Ethno-Pop” und “Weltmusik”’. Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik 148(5): 5–8.
Amadio, Nadine, ed. 1986. Albert Namatjira: The Life and Work of an Australian Painter. Melbourne: Macmillan.
Austin-Broos, Diane. 2009. Arrernte Present Arrernte Past: Invasion, Violence, and Imagination in Indigenous Central Australia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Batty, Joyce D. 1963. Namatjira: Wanderer between Two Worlds. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
Bell, Diane. 1998. Ngarrindjeri Wurriwarrin: A World that Is, Was, and Will Be. Melbourne: Spinifex.
Bennett, David. 2005. ‘Postmodern Eclecticism and the World Music Debate: The Politics of the Kronos Quartet’. Context 29/30: 5–15.
Bhabha, Homi. 2004. The Location of Culture, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.
Breen, Marcus, ed. 1989. Our Place—Our Music. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Campfire Concert: Aboriginal Songs Recorded in Palm Valley—Central Australia, with Aborigines of the Hermannsburg Mission c. 1966. Sundowner Coach Tours.
Casey, Bill. 2008. ‘Modernity Denied: The Case of Harold Blair’s 1956 EP, Australian Aboriginal Songs’. In Impact of the Modern: Vernacular Modernities in Australia, 1870s–1960s, ed. Robert Dixon and Veronica Kelly, 52–61. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
Eckstein, Lars. Forthcoming. ‘Of Mimicry and Misery: Cross-Cultural Encounters on Ludwig Leichhardt’s Second Australian Expedition’. Journal of Australian Studies.
Edenborough, Alan. n.d. ‘Cover Notes for Campfire Concert: Aboriginal Songs Recorded in Aboriginal Songs Recorded in Palm Valley—Central Australia, with Aborigines of the Hermannsburg Mission.
Ellis, Catherine J. 1979. ‘Developments in Music Education among Aboriginals in Central and South Australia’. In Australian Aboriginal Music, ed. Jenny Isaacs, 27–40. Sydney: Aboriginal Artists Agency.
—1985. Aboriginal Music: Education for Living. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press.
Galtjintant pepa Kristianirberaka Mbontala [Instruction Book for the Christians on the Wide Timbered Plain]. 1891. Tanunda: Finke River Mission Board.
Gelder, Ken, and Jane M. Jacobs. 1998. Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and Identity in a Postcolonial Nation. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Hardy, Jane, J. V. S. Megaw and M. Ruth Megaw, eds. 1992. The Heritage of Namatjira: The Watercolourists of Central Australia. Melbourne: Heinemann.
Henson, Barbara. 1992. A Straight-out Man: F.W. Albrecht and Central Australian Aborigines. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Hermannsburg Choir. n.d. Hermannsburg Choir on Tour. Adelaide: DAVAN Recordings.
Hill, Barry. 2002. Broken Song. Sydney: Random House.
—2004. ‘Strehlow’s Poetic Unities: His Poem Called “Journey to Horseshoe Bend”’. In Traditions in the Midst of Change, ed. Michael Cawthorn, 30–35. Alice Springs: Strehlow Research Centre.
Jones, Philip. 2007. Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers. Adelaide: Wakefield Press.
Keen, Ian. 1994. Knowledge and Secrecy in an Aboriginal Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kleinert, Sylvia. 2000. ‘Namatjira, Albert (Elea) (1902–1959)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/namatjira-albert-elea-11217/text19999 (accessed 26 November 2013).
Kohn, Rachel. 2003. ‘Desert Cantata’. Spirit of Things, ABC Radio, broadcast 8 June.
Magowan, Fiona. 2007. ‘Spirit, Place and Power in Arnhem Land Traditional and Christian Music’. In The Soundscapes of Australia: Music, Place, Spirituality, ed. Fiona Richards, 281–96. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Magowan, Fiona, and Karl Neuenfeldt. 2005. ‘Introduction’. In Landscapes of Indigenous Performance, ed. Fiona Magowan and Karl Neuenfeldt, 1–11. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Mitchell, Tony. 1996. Popular Music and Local Identity: Rock, Pop and Rap in Europe and Oceania. London: Leicester University Press.
Ottosson, Ase. 2010. ‘Aboriginal Music and Passion: Interculturality and Difference in Australian Desert Towns’. Ethnos 75(3): 275–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2010.503899
Pech, Dora. 1996. A Hermannsburg Love Story: Dora’s 1935 Journal, ed. Eric Fiebig and Ruth Fiebig. Fulham: E. R. and R. M. Fiebig.
Petrick, Jose. 2007. Kuprilya Springs: Hermannsburg & Other Things. Alice Springs: J. Petrick.
Pratt, Mary Louise. 1992. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge.
Radke, Doug. 1967. ‘Hermannsburg Tour in Retrospect’. The Lutheran, 20 November: 9.
—n.d. Cover notes for Hermannsburg Choir on Tour.
Radke, Olga. 1967. Hermannsburg Choir Tour Diary. Copy in possession of the author.
Roennfeldt, David. 2012. Email to the author, 25 July.
Rose, Jon. 2007. ‘Listening to History: Some Proposals for Reclaiming the Practice of Music’. Ninth Annual Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address, 3 December, http://www.newmusicnetwork.com.au/PGH/JR07.html (accessed 8 March 2012).
Scherer, Paul A. 1965a. ‘The Aranda Lutheran Hymnal’. Lutheran Herald, 27 February: 58–59; 13 March: 72–73.
—1965b. ‘On Aranda Translations’. Lutheran Student, March: 8–11.
Stanner, W. E. H. 1969. After the Dreaming. Sydney: ABC Books.
Strehlow, T. G. H. 1965. ‘Address given in St Stephen’s Lutheran Church, Wakefield Street, Adelaide, on Sunday Evening, 14th February, 1965’. Lutheran Herald, 13 March: 73–75, 78.
—1978. ‘Central Australian Man-Making Ceremonies’. The Lutheran, 10 April: 10.
Strehlow, John. 2004. ‘Shifting Focus’. In Traditions in the Midst of Change, ed. Michael Cawthorn, 109–19. Alice Springs: Strehlow Research Centre.
Streit-Warburton, Jili. 1995. ‘Craft, Raft and Lifesaver: Aboriginal Women Musicians in the Contemporary Music Industry’. In Sounding Off! Music as Subversion/Resistance/Revolution, ed. R. Sakolsky and F. W. Ho, 307–19. New York: Autonomedia.
Stroh, Wolfgang Martin. 1994. Handbuch New Age Musik. Regensburg: ConBrio Verlagsgesellschaft.
Wilson, Peter Niklas. 1987. ‘Zwischen “Ethno-Pop” und “Weltmusik”’. Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik 148(5): 5–8.
Published
2015-03-09
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Hurley, A. W. (2015). German-Indigenous musical flows at Ntaria in the 1960s: Tiger Tjalkalyeri’s rendition of ‘Silent Night’, or what is tradition anyway?. Perfect Beat, 15(1), 7-21. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v15i1.16668
