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Songs from the Kimberleys

Alice M Moyle

Companion Booklet for a CompaCt DisC

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

First published in 1977 by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies

This booklet represents a reprint of the 1977 version and is available as a free PDF from the AIATSIS website at www.aiatsis.gov.au/asp/cddvd.html. Note that this is a scanned reproduction of the original booklet and the quality of some of the images and music notations is not the same as the original.

Aboriginal Studies Press and AIATSIS gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of Dr Carolyn Lowry OAM and Mr Peter Lowry OAM with digitising this booklet.

ISBN 9781922059444

© Moyle, 1977

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its education purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

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Introduction

The samples presented here have been selected from a collection of tape recordings obtained by the writer in west and east Kimberley districts, in the north of Western Australia in 1968.1 Places visited at that time included Beagle Bay, Broome, Derby, Halls Creek, Kununurra, La Grange (south of Broome), Lombadina, Mowanjum (ten kilometres south-east of Derby) and Wyndham.2

These recorded collections from Western Australia together with others from the Northern Territory (including Arnhem Land) and from Cape York, North Queensland, were obtained during the course of a music survey of over 30 northern localities between the years 1959 and 1969.

Australian Aboriginal music is primarily vocal music. Throughout the continent this music consists of performed songs, unaccompanied or accompanied by sound instruments. Instrumental accompaniments to Aboriginal songs from the Kimberleys, Western Australia, may be sounded by paired sticks beaten together; by paired boomerang clap-sticks (Plate 1); by a rasp or scraped stick (Plate 2); or, by paired sticks and didjeridu. With the exception of the didjeridu (Plate 3) these instruments are sounded by the singers themselves.

Efforts made to record accompanying instruments were not always successful. Few are available and various substitutes are used instead. At some places in the Kimberleys small tins were used in place of paired sticks: a tail shaft of a landrover in place of a hollowed wooden branch (didjeridu); a comb in place of a notched stick or rasp (see Track 4; Track 10).3

1. With acknowledgements to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies for Research fellowship and field funding..2. Beagle Bay, Lombadina and La Grange are Roman Catholic mission stations founded in the years 1890, 1910 and

1954 respectively. Mowanjum was established as a Presbyterian mission station in 1956. Dates of the declaration of the following places as town sites are: Broome (1883); Derby (1882): Halls Creek (1885); Kununurra, in the Ord River District (1885); and Wyndham (1886).

3. Information on sound instruments, their Aboriginal names, geographical distribution and employment in song accompaniment is to be found in Moyle (1974b): see also the disc notes for Aboriginal Sound Instruments (Moyle, 1978a).

Songs from the Kimberleys Moyle

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Leading singers on this CD are men, most of them old men aged between 65 and 80 years. Women are to be heard singing with the men in some of the items (Tracks 5, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 13. Compared with Arnhem Land women, for instance, Aboriginal women in the Kimberleys are noticeably more active in the performing arts. At any public corroboree they are to be seen dancing as well as singing in collaboration with male performers.

Language groups represented by the singers include Bard (Bardi), Djaberdjaber, Garama, Garadjari, Miriwung, Nyigina, Nyulnyul, Ungarinyin, Wadjagin, Worora, Wulad-jangari (Wuladja), Wunambal and Yawur. All performers contributing to this disc were recorded in Kimberley districts, but three of the groups include performers from outside this region: Garama or Murinbata people live in a region on the north-west coast of the Northern Territory at Wadeye (Port Keats); Wadjagin people live near Darwin; most of the Garadjari people live south of Broome at Bidyadanga (La Grange).

The song repertoires of Kimberley men demonstrate that contact is maintained with Aboriginal people at Port Keats, Northern Territory. Many of their songs, particularly the didjeridu-accompanied songs performed at Kununurra and Derby, are attributed to Wadeye song-owners.

plate 1 Dyabi sticks as held by Butcher Joe Nangan from Broome.

Moyle Songs from the Kimberleys

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Items transferred to this CD represent several types of open (non-secret) Aboriginal music, Some of them, such as the Rainmaking items (Track 1), are known only to a few adjacent groups, in this case to the Ungarinyin-, Worora- and Wunambul-speaking groups; others are more widely known and may be encountered at localities hundreds of kilometres apart (cf. Tracks 6 and 7).

The Rainmaking Songs are connected with the Wandjinas, spirits of fertility and rain. Representations of these spirits are to be seen in the rock paintings of the north-west region: large, mouthless figures painted in red and yellow ochre, white clay and black charcoal.4 To preserve their potency these paintings are retouched at intervals, a process referred to in the words of the song on Track 8 (see Song Texts No. 1:7).

The remainder of the items may be divided into dancing and non-dancing categories. To the former belong the nurlu, balgan and gadraynya samples; to the latter, lildjin and dyabi songs. It should be noted that the names of these song types change according to language. Dance or corroboree5 songs accompanied by boomerang clapsticks are called nurlu by Nyulnyul people, elma by Bard people, or djunba by Wunambul, Worora and Ungarinyin people. Non-dancing songs accompanied by boomerang clapsticks are called lildjin by the Nyulnyul, ludin by the Bard and djordi by the Worora. The name of a popular dance series, gadraynya, said to be derived from the English word ‘cartridge’, is equated with djulurr (language Nyangamarda). Dance songs accompanied by paired sticks are called balga by the Wunambul and Ungarinyin and balgan, balganya or djuan-banya by the Worora.

4. Wandjina paintings were first discovered in 1838 by the explorer George Grey (see Grey, 1841).5. In Kimberley regions, Aborigines pronounce this word as ‘cobba cobba’. Corroboree appears to be an anglicised

version of carib-berie, a word meaning ‘dance’, which belonged to an Aboriginal language once spoken in New South Wales. It was first reported by Captain John Hunter (An Historical Journal of Events at Sydney and at Sea, 1787-1793), see Bach (ed.).

plate 2 Dyabi sticks as held by Butcher Joe Nangan from Broome.

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There are balganya dance songs belonging to either moiety, or ceremonial half, of the community. Some Worora excerpts on this disc are led by a singer of the Brolga or Red Paint moiety (e.g. Track 5); others by a singer of the Turkey of White Paint moiety (e.g. Track 7). In balgan performances the painted dancers carry large ‘dancing boards’ or webbed emblems. These are decorated and coloured according to the moiety they represent.

Dance songs (balgan, nurlu, elma, etc.) are said to be ‘found’ in a dream. Such songs are believed to be communicated to the ‘finders’ by spirits. Lildjin or ludin songs are of mundane, not spiritual, origin and are said to be ‘like cowboy songs’. Songs of this latter kind are not found while dreaming, but ‘made with the brain’. If one were to attempt a sacred/secular classification of Aboriginal songs along these lines, it would seem that lildjin (ludin) songs, because of their origin, would belong to the secular category.

Some aspects of the early history of north-western Australia are retained in the words of many Kimberley songs. For example, events experienced by Aboriginal peoples during the second World War are subjects of some of the lildjin songs (see Track 9). A ludin song not reproduced on this CD refers to a Man-o’-War sighted off the north-western coast during the first World War. Incidents connected with the pearling industry of the coastal township, Broome, are referred to in the dyabi song, Shell Divers (Track 14); and in one of the items in the gadraynya series the dancers mime the movements of passengers on the deck of the Koombana, a steamship which was lost in a hurricane off Port Hedland in 1912.

A tri-partite (aba) structure, resulting from repetitions of two alternating sections, characterises a number of Kimberley songs, including the boomerang-accompanied lildjin and gadraynya songs. On the other hand, nurlu and balgan items consist of repetitions throughout the duration of each song item of the same sequence of songwords. This latter ‘continuous’ structure is typical not only of dance songs from the Kimberleys, but of many types of Aboriginal songs from Central and Western Desert areas.

The song texts provided with these notes may assist listeners in following the songs on the CD.6 They were collected mainly as an aid to the music notation of metrical patterns. Those

6. Most of the song texts presented in these notes were transcribed by the writer in phonetics from spoken versions. These were recorded with an auxiliary tape recorder. The speaker, who in most cases was the previously recorded singer, spoke into the microphone as he heard the words in a progressive playback (one short section after another) of his earlier song performance.

plate 3 Camp scene, singing with didjeridu accompaniment, Kununurra.


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bearing the initials N.K. have been written and translated by the linguist Nora Kerr, who was working in Broome at the time and to whom grateful acknowledgement is made here. Song Text 5 was obtained in Derby with the kind assistance of H.C. Coate.

In the following notes, the singer’s language, but not necessarily the language in which the particular song is sung, is in brackets after the specified vocal component, e.g. One male voice (Wunambul). The names of performers who contributed to the disc will be found in the Tape Catalogue details on page 18.

As a rule the recordings were made out-of-doors. Dancing was in progress during the singing of the items on Tracks 5, 7-8, 11, and 13. Two of the recordings were made indoors, one because of rain (Track 3), the other to avoid noises outside (Track 10).

No claim is made here to have presented samples of every type of song performed by members of Aboriginal groups contacted in the north of Western Australia in 1968. For instance, there are no children’s songs on this disc. Comparatively few songs by children were recorded in northern localities during the above-mentioned music survey.7

Items not selected for transfer to this CD include those on which Aboriginal listening restrictions are placed (e.g. some women’s djarada items; and those connected with religious cults and male initiation, that is, garangara and ululung items).

Other factors governing the choice of extracts from the writer’s Kimberley collection of field recordings were (i) their overall playing time in relation to the total duration of the CD; and (ii) a minimal presence of unwanted sounds such as coughs, dog barks, and the noise of passing vehicles.

The recordings transferred to this disc were obtained with a Nagra 111 and a Beyer 100 microphone.

7. Young singers from Mowanjum (Derby) and Halls Creek recorded by the writer are to be heard on a vinyl disc entitled Songs by Young Aborigines. See Berndt and Phillips (eds.), 1973.

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Notes on the recordings

track 1 (song texts 1 (i-vii))

Rainmaking songs (7 items)Mowanjum (Derby) — outside. One male voice (Wunambul). Paired sticks.

Rainmaking songs in western Kimberley are associated with ancestral spirits known collectively as Wandjina (Wondjuna). Numerous paintings of these large, mouthless figures are to be seen on rocks and in caves in north-western regions. The rock paintings are retouched by Aboriginal artists to ensure that rain continues to fall in season and that adequate supplies of edible species are maintained. Each individual artist retouches the paintings in his mother’s mother’s country. In each of the song items in this band, the last, half-spoken word gadja emphasizes this kinship link between artist and territory. The Wunambul singer’s translation of this last word was ‘Granny’.8

In this song series, items 1-2 refer to rain falling on coast and on plain; items 3-4 to paintings of a bird, dillybag and spearheads rubbed off the surface of the rock by the rain; items 5-6 to rain running between two hills, the mist rising like smoke.

The final item reproduced here refers to the re-painting of a Wandjina figure’s arm: first the upper arm is retouched, then the hand, finger joints and nails.

The singing ranges through an octave. The mode of descent may be described as ‘pentatonic’. Metrical patterns change with the number of syllables, tones of longer duration marking the termination of each. Stick beats play a dominant part in these Rainmaking items.9

8. Love (1930:10) gives the words of a Worora Rainmaking song which concludes with jijai, jijai, drrrrr. Jijai is interpreted as ‘the child’s pet word for father’; and the final sound drrrrr as ‘the croak of a frog, an example, he says, of sympathetic magic or of ‘inducing rain by giving the sound of a frog that croaks when rain falls’. The following words of the Medicine man’s Rain song, as given by Lommel (1952:44) closely resemble those given here (p.24) for the last item in the Rain-making series (Track 1): Dschedscha kadscha merenbeni bunga madangi nganga ulili gudma ra reia bunga madangi.

9. Crawford (1968:37) writes: ‘I have not seen rituals which derive from Wandjinas. This is not because these do not exist, but because they are not performed any more. Even the songs, as I heard them, were not performed in the traditional manner, for they were accompanied by clicking-sticks, whereas I have been told that in a traditional performance the singer beats a single stick against a baler shell and, at the same time, a clay model of a Wandjina is placed in another baler shell which is full of water, so that, as the songs are sung, the clay turns into mud and the figure disintegrates.’


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track 2

Djiiri DjirriMowanjum (Derby) — outside. One male voice (Wadjagin). Paired sticks, didjeridu.

At the commencement of the item on this track a rhythmic cue is given by singer to didjeridu player. He is to be heard enunciating the syllables didu-didu: didu-didu:. The didjeridu player immediately responds by establishing the requested rhythm. He maintains it throughout the item.

The singer belongs to the Wadjagin group near Darwin. He had learned the song at Wadeye farther south. Djirri djirri singing has been heard at Wyndham, east Kimberley, and at Bamyili, south Arnhem Land (sung by Djawanj and Majali men). Though similar to dance songs known in the region as wongga, the song in this band was classed by the singer not as a dance song, but as ‘a language one’ (Garama language). No further information was obtained about the meaning of the song words apart from the singer’s assertion that djirri djirri songs could be about ‘a bird, a woman, anything’.

The vocal part in this item is divided into five sections; and, as in wongga songs, the instrumental accompaniment continues during the break between each. As in many wongga performances, stick beats occur here on the first two beats of each three-beat pattern; and the final section consists of repetitions of the syllable di.

track 3

Waggin’s NurluDerby Reserve — indoors. Group of male voices (Bardi). Boomerang clapsticks.

Nurlu (nolo, nooloo) is the name used by Aboriginal peoples in western and north-western Kimberley districts for open or public songs and dances, which are performed to the accompaniment of boomerang clapsticks.10 Among the Bardi(Bard) people at Lombadina and on Sunday Island, off the north coast off Dampier Land, nurlu performances are called elma (see Pearl Shell below, Track 10 (iii)).

Numerous nurlu items are remembered by older singers in this region. Most of these songs are associated with specific territories or ‘countries’.11 Reference is made in Waggin’s nurlu to a hill on Sunday Island named maragindjunu. Such songs, ‘dreamed’ or ‘found’, are usually identified by the finder’s name. The three singers who performed these items for the recording did so after they had obtained permission from an older man, Rubi, the custodian of Waggin’s nurlu at that time (1968).

A feature of nurlu singing is the repetition without pause, throughout each song item, of the same ‘syllable string’. It will be noted that there is no definite break between items 2 and 3 (at the conclusion of item 2 one singer can be heard saying: ‘Go on! Keep going!’).

Each item consists of descents in pitch extending over a range of approximately a ‘ninth’. Items 1 and 2 each contain contrasting types of boomerang beating.12 The final item appears to have been cut short.

10. These are curved wooden blades struck or rattled together in accompaniment to singing. See CD Aboriginal Sound Instruments (Moyle, 1978a)..11. For example, nurlu from Paddy Djaguwin’s country, op. cit. Track 4..12. See CD notes, Aboriginal Sound Instruments (Moyle, 1978a) where, for convenience, different types of boomerang

beating have been called ‘tremolo’ or rattled beats

‘singles’

‘doubles’

and

‘separated doubles’

.


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track 4 (song texts 2 (i-iii))

Guluwada songs(i) Bullock; (ii) Tea; (iii) Transport to Derby.Wyndham — outside. One male voice (Wuladja). Paired sticks (replaced here by tins).

Guluwada songs are also called ‘love songs’.13 They are performed without dancing, full attention being given to words and meanings. As in the didjeridu-accompanied ‘gossip songs’ of north-western Arnhem Land, there may be hidden guluwada meanings known only to a few.14

Songs of this kind have been heard in many places in the Kimberleys including Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing and Derby. The main singers of guluwada songs are said to belong to the Ungarinyin language group in the west Kimberley region. According to a man in Halls Creek, guluwada songs — not to be confused with ilbindji or ‘love-magic’ songs — may be sung either by men or by women. Such songs, this singer said, make a man ‘feel sorry in his heart’.

Guluwada songs are usually accompanied by paired sticks.

track 5 (song texts 3 (i-ii))

Balganya (Brolga — 2 items)Mowanjum — outside with dancing (public performance)Male and female voices (male leader: Worora). Paired sticks (by two male singers).Hand against lap (by seated female singers).15

Songs about the Australian crane, or ‘Native Companion’ as the Brolga bird is sometimes called, are sung throughout northern Australia and by many different Aboriginal groups. Musical styles vary according to the region to which the Brolga songs belong. These particular Balganya items, known to Worora and Wunambal singers in west Kimberley districts, refer to the Brolga’s smooth gliding descents, to places where they land, and to the leaves on which they feed. The songs belong to the ‘Red Paint’ moiety of the Worora group.

13. See Kaberry (1939:93) and her reference to kuluwa:do.14. ‘Gossip song’ was the term first used by R.M. Berndt, when writing down the words for these songs (see Berndt and Berndt, 1951:211-40).15. The wrist of one hand is held by the other and the lap, more specifically the hollow between the seated women’s

thighs, is slapped by the palm of the held hand.


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Male balgan dancers carry large decorated emblems, which may be heavy painted boards resting on their shoulders (Plate 4). They move about the dance ground at a slow, stately pace, which matches the tempo of the percussive sounds produced by the women singers. It will be noted that the stick beating by male singers is double the rate of the lap-slapping by female singers.

A feature of balganya (balgan) dancing is the sudden stoppage, or ‘arrest’, of the percussive accompaniment, during which time the dancers suddenly become immobile. As soon as the accompaniment recommences, dancing resumes. In these two items ‘arrests’ occur regularly and at similar places in the melodic descents.

plate 4 Dancing board used in balgan performances at Mowanjum (Derby).


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track 6 (song text 4)

Balgan from DerbyKununurra — outside. One male voice (Miriwung). Paired sticks.

The Miriwung singer’s performance heard in this band met with the approval of the song owner when the recording was played to him in Derby a few weeks later. The Kununurra singer’s pronunciation of the song words was, in fact, highly commended.

Stick-beating in this item follows the same pattern as in the Derby performance (Track 7). It will be noted that the stick beats are in ‘doubles’ during the second and fourth descents and that there is no beating at all during the first and third vocal descents.

As the singer listened to a playback of his own performance he was asked to give spoken versions of the song words. These were registered on an auxiliary tape recorder and have been reproduced here.


‘Totem dance’Mowanjum — outside with dancing (public performance).Group of male and female voices. (Male leader: Worora). Paired sticks. Hand against lap.

The item on this track will be recognised as the balgan item from Derby (Track 6). The main differences here are in pitch level (approximately a fifth above the previous item) and the addition of women’s voices and accompaniments. Women’s lap-slapping (in ‘singles’) is combined with the men’s stickbeating (in ‘doubles’).

After the women have joined in the singing at the end of the fourth vocal descent, the male leader calls to them to finish off the item by themselves. Song terminations by women, after the men have stopped singing, are customary in many dance songs performed in the Kimberleys. The procedure is known as ‘tracking’ (bijowa — to track, Worora). An ‘arrest’ will be noted in the percussive accompaniment during the third vocal descent.

The singer on this track readily enunciates the words of his own song. These may be compared with the text and interpretations given below for Track 6.


Djanba (3 items)Kununurra — outside with dancing.Group of male and female voices (male leader: Garama). Paired sticks. Hand against lap.Handclapping.

Songs and associated dances (Plates 5 and 6) were performed at Kununurra on the banks of the Ord River, during the annual race meeting in August 1968. Over a hundred Aboriginal men, women and children were present.


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plate 6 Dance scene, djanba corroboree, Kununurra.

plate 5 Dancing scene, djanba corroboree, Kununurra.


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The djanba series, consisting of 30 items in all, was said to be new.16 It had been found at Wadeye by one of the singers, and was described as being ‘like wongga’ (a popular dance-song type in the north-west, accompanied by didjeridu) or ‘like Rock-and-Roll’.

Item structure is unusually complex. Unaccompanied sections for male voices alone commence each of the three items. Dancers’ calls are to be heard in addition to the singing.

In the concluding section to item 3 the rhythmical relationship between voices and sound instruments is relatively clear. The tonal series is not unlike a major scale with a sharp ‘fourth’. Women’s voices are to be clearly heard in the second item, ‘tracking’ after those of the men (see Track 7, above).


Lildjin songs(i) Soldiers marching; (ii) Dogs chasing kangaroo; (iii) Air raid.Beagle Bay — outside.One male voice (Djaberdjaber). One female voice (Nyulnyul). Boomerang clapsticks.

Lildjin songs are owned and composed by individuals belonging to Nyulnyul and Djaberdjaber-speaking groups in west Kimberley. Bard-speaking people refer to the same class of songs as ludin (see Track 10). Songs of this kind are performed to the accompaniment of boomerang clapsticks. They are mainly about topical events and frequently cause amusement among Aboriginal listeners. Lildjin (ludin) songs are not ‘found in dream’ but, as their singers say, they are ‘made with the brain’.17

The owner-singer of the three lildjin songs in this band was over eighty years of age at the time of recording (1968) (Plate 7). He relied on a younger woman (her voice is clearly audible) to prompt him.

The first and third songs in this band refer to events which took place during the second World War. The marching soldiers were the ‘Koepangers’, a name given by the Aborigines to Timorese people living in Broome. During the war Timorese men served in the Australian army. The song makes reference to girls standing along the route, watching the men as they marched past.

The second song is about a kangaroo being chased into the sea by dogs. He loses his wind and knows he cannot survive. As he drowns he thinks of his country, djanyubela. He cries for his country (bubela, gudbela — poor fellow, good fellow) and is comforted by the thought that eventually police will shoot the dogs. A modified form of the English word, ‘rifle’, appears in the second section of the song.

Air Raid is about the bombing of Broome during the Second World War. An Aboriginal version of the word ‘Japanese’ (djaebuni) occurs in the first line of the song text.

Longer in duration than nurlu or balgan dance song items, these non-dancing lildjin songs are usually sung in three sections, the first two repeated, with a return to the first at the end (aabba).18

This three-fold structure was emphasised by a singer at Lombadina who held up one, two, then three fingers as he sang each section of a ludin (lildjin) song. The range of pitch in these lildjin songs is wide. In ‘Soldiers Marching’ it exceeds the octave. The third item, ‘Air Raid’, is distinguished by rising levels of pitch. Boomerang ‘tremolos’ are to be heard at the ends of some of the sections.

16. While listening to a playback some men at Kununurra maintained that the second of the items reproduced here was an ‘old one’. Item 3 was described as ‘proper Port Keats djanba’. Djanba is not to be confused with djunba the word used for open dances accompanied by boomerang clapsticks in parts of west Kimberley.

17. Bates (n.d.:99) has described them as ‘improvised songs’.18. In the first and third songs in this band, the singer does not return to the ‘a’ section at the end.


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Ludin and Elma songs(i) Ludin: Two Old Lizards; (ii) Ludin: Tide at Pender Bay; (iii) Elma: Pearl Shell.Lombadina — outside.One male voice.19 Boomerang clapsticks (items i and ii only).

(i) The first ludin song in this second band, called ‘Two Old Lizards’ or ‘Old People Walking Around’, was made by the veteran Djaberdjaber singer, Remi Balgalai, whose voice is to be heard in Track 9. The song is about an old male lizard waiting for the female to come down from the top of a post. Two closely similar interpretations in English of each line of song words were obtained, first from the Bard singer at Lombadina, then from Balgalai himself, who listened some weeks later at Beagle Bay to a play-back of this recording (Song Texts 8 (i)).

The pitch range exceeds an octave and the durational patterning of the syllables resembles that of other songs made by Balgalai, especially ‘Soldiers Marching’ and ‘Air Raid’ (Track 9: (i) and (iii) above).

19. Two singers contribute. Items (i) and (iii) are sung by the same man (Nyulnyul/Bard).

plate 7 Lildjin song maker Remi Balgalai at Beagle Bay with grandson.


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Boomerang clapstick ‘tremolos’, or rattled effects, mark the repetitions of the two main sections called here ‘a’ and ‘b’ An octave ascent in the melody is a terminating feature which will not escape notice. It is more usual for Australian Aboriginal singing to terminate on the lowest of the pitches employed.

(ii) This second ludin item was attributed to a Bard-speaking song-maker, Mabala, also known as Rob Roy. Pender Bay, on the north-west coast of Dampier Land was identified as the song-maker’s home country. The words of the song, composed during a visit to Beagle Bay, refer to the movements of the tide.

Brief boomerang tremolos are heard at the end of this song which, like the previous item, is based on the characteristic lildjin/ludin structure (aabba).

The pitch range is nearer to a ‘sixth’; and there is an intervallic progression of a falling ‘major third’ (approx.) followed by a ‘semitone’ (approx.). A progression of this kind has been previously noted in a song series from north-eastern Arnhem Land.20 It could not be considered typical, however, neither of songs from the Kimberleys nor of songs from the Northern Territory.

(iii) This dance song item is known to Bard-speaking Aborigines north of Dampier Land and on Sunday Island. It is sung here, without the normal boomerang clapstick accompaniment, and in order to demonstrate the melodic flow of the same string of song syllables. The singer attempts to emphasise this feature with his remark: ‘Keep going, now!’

In contrast to lildjin/ludin singing which is based on repetitions of two main sections, each one containing a different set of song words of several lines each, this ‘Pearl Shell’ item consists of only two short, distinguishable ‘lines’, or textual units; each unit is enunciated twice (aabb) and the full ‘syllable string’ repeated in toto (aabb, aabb, aabb, etc.) for as long as the dance item lasts. This elma sample belongs to the same type of singing as nurlu, djunba (‘corroboree’), balgan and numerous central and western desert songs.

Elma songs are ‘dreamed’ by their owners, not ‘made with the brain’ as are the lildjin/ludin songs on this disc.


Song from Anna Plains (2 items)Broome — outside with dancing (public performance)Male and female voices (male leaders: Yawurr). Boomerang clapsticks.

Band 3 contains two song items from a short series of four and it will be noted that the words in each item are the same. The series was performed in accompaniment to dancing during an evening of corroborees (‘cobba-cobbas’) arranged for general entertainment by Aboriginal residents in Broome.

The ‘Song from Anna Plains’ belongs to a place called Winba and had come to Broome from the ‘Warrmala’ or desert people. It is also known as ‘nyindyi-nyindyi’, or ‘Second or New Gadraynya’ (cf. Track 12 below).21

It was said that these song-and-dance items had first passed through Broome some five years previously (circa 1963). They had since been transmitted to another group farther to the north at Myroodah Station. In Broome (1968), there appeared to be no restriction on the re-singing of songs after they had been formally transmitted to another place.

The deliberate transmission of open (non-secret) songs and dances is customary in northern parts of Western Australia. One hears more about this type of musical activity in the Kimberleys than in Arnhem Land, for instance, where a large proportion of songs and dances remain with their owning clans or patrilineal groups. At Broome the transmitting process is called djambar (language Yawurr).22 Learners must sit in silence; later they may join in, or ‘sing along’ with the

20. In Shiels, (ed.) 1963:307.21. For a comparable performance see the CD, Moyle 1978a.22. Moyle 1974:xii.


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song carriers. Dances and songs are not necessarily transmitted at the same time. In 1968 in Wyndham, the writer contacted a group who had received a balgan song series from Derby, but they had been waiting, presumably for many months, to take delivery of the associated dances.

The melodic contours in the two items transferred to this band are similar. They consist of five or more steep descents through a similar series of pitches. The two text units, which together form the oft-repeated ‘syllable-string’ are, in this case, differentiated by only one syllable (dyay). It will be noted that the first word in the written song text (gulardala), is frequently omitted during the break between the end of one vocal descent and the beginning of the next.

Tremolos occur in the boomerang clapstick accompaniment in the latter part of each song item; also in termination.

The theme of the associated dance was expressed as follows: ‘Bush Warrrmala (i.e. desert tribesmen) follow kangaroo tracks with their nyindyi-nyindyi.’23

When performance commenced, women dancers came skipping on to the dance ground leading the men in a circle. All had nyindyi-nyindyi sticks which they pointed towards the ground. The women retreated towards the back of the dance ground on the right; the men advanced towards the fires on the left.

During the dance series there were comic actions by one male dancer (Paddy Djaguwin), who carried a stick noticeably shorter than the rest.

All dancers came to a halt during the boomerang clapstick tremolos sounded by the singers at the end of each song item.


Gadraynya (3 items)Broome — outside.Male voices Yawur, Garadjari, Nyigina). Boomerang clapsticks.

Like the song from Anna Plains, gadraynya (also known as djilur, djuluru) is a travelling song which has moved from south to north in Western Australia. Its place of origin is Ethel Creek (Yarrie Station). Aboriginal people from Broome say it belongs to Nyangumarda people. One old Yawur man (Paddy Djaguwin), who remembered events during the First World War, equated the word gadraynya with the English word ‘cartridge’.

In Broome, in 1968, some weeks after this recording was made, gadraynya was performed in public by Aboriginal men and women. In one dance scene the men and women entered the dance ground carrying fire sticks. These were waved in all directions, causing sparks to fly.

Gadraynya dance items are usually of longer duration than nurlu or balgan items. The songs consist of several repetitions of each of two text units. These alternate, the first always appearing in conclusion. In structure gadraynya items resemble to some extent the lildjin/ludin form. At the same time, one is reminded that the series is not of Kimberley origin; during performance Broome singers adopt the peculiar expiratory style characteristic of western desert singing.

The voice of one of the singers, Paddy Djuguwin, is to be heard in this band explaining that the first two items (same song words) refer to the township, Broome. After the second item he goes on to say that gadraynya was in Broome for four days, implying that the series had to be fully learned within that time.

23. Sticks ornamented by tight curls, or shavings, of wood.


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track 13 (song texts 11 ii v))

Butcher Joe’s Nurlu: Ganany (5 items)Broome — outside with dancing (public performance).Male and female voices (male leader: Nyigina. Boomerang clapsticks. Hand against lap.)

Butcher Joe Nangan is the singer and owner of the nurlu series represented here. In the full ganany series, which contains twenty or more items, there are references to his mother and attempts made to discover the cause of her death.

The first item in this track is about ghosts or spirits near the grave. This item, usually repeated several times, occurs before the dancing commences and is called lirrga.24

The following items (Nos. 2-5) are in lighter vein. The reference here is to the muddy bindan plains. Most of the dance concerns one man, who wanders about looking for a dry place to sit. Finally he stands up and turns to make his exit from the dance ground. The laughter heard towards the end of this band is from a delighted audience, which can now see the muddy smears on the dancer’s buttocks.

track 14 (song texts 12 (i-ii))

Dyabi songs: (i) Aeroplane; (ii) Shell Divers.Broome — outside.One male voice (Garadjari)25. Rasp (substitute).

Aeroplane, a song made by Charlie Dyibalgara, refers to an episode during the early history of Broome. The song-maker is watching a canvas bi-plane in flight.

Shell Divers, attributed to a Garadjari song-maker, Sandy Wigarangu, was described as an old dyabi song about ‘naked native divers who got hit by the paddle if they got no shell’.

Dyabi sticks (Plate 2) were not available when these songs were recorded and a hair comb was scraped instead, to produce the rasping accompaniment peculiar to songs of this kind.

24. Lirrga song items, performed with paired sticks and didjeridu accompaniment, may also occur prior to a series of wongga (dance) items.

25. Each song is performed by a different singer (see Tape catalogue details for singer’s names).


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tape catalogue details of source tapes held by the aiatsisaudiovisual archive

The listing below shows the archive tape numbers (eg., LA2692b) from audio collections MOYLE_A07 and MOYLE_A10 and from the special edited collection of 5” reels created from original field tapes (eg., AM185b:III-V) in audio collection MOYLE_A21.

track 1 (LA2692b, 3:55ff, 1-6, 8. AM185B:III-V) Singer: Bill Anda Nungulmarra (Wunambal).

track 2 (LA2692b, 13:20, 1. AM185B:VI) Singer: Arthur Toby Langgin (Wadjagin); Didjeridu: Nelson Barangga (Worora).

track 3 (LA2692b, 16:15ff, 1-2. AM185B:VII-VlII) Singers: Billy Ahchoo Umbali, Stambidji Kargi, Tommy Kargi (Bardi).

track 4 (LA2697b, 3:15ff, 5-7. AM197A:VI-VII) Singer: Robert Roberts Andjalmara (Wuladjangari).

track 5 (LA2678b, 33:05ff, 4-5. AM183A: Vl-VlI) Singer: Sam Wulagudya (Worora).

track 6 (LA2699a, 1:17,2. AM200A: V) Singer and speaker: Wadi Boyoy (Miriwung).

track 7 (LA2692a, 4:08, 3. AM184B:IV; LA2678a, 46:15ff) Leading singer; speaker: Wadi Ngyerdu (Worora).

track 8 (LA2700a, 0:18ff, 1, 5-6. AM203A:I, IV-V) Leading singers: Dusty Alpha, Pannikin Manbi, Peter Gugadi (Garama).

track 9 (LA2677a, 3:40, 3. AM180A:VI) (LA2677a, 51:50, 5. AM181A.I) (LA2677a, 0:22ff, 1-2. AM180A:V) Singers: Remi Balgalai (Djaberdjaber) with Susie Anadj (Nyulnyul).

track 10 (LA2675a, 7:40, 6. AM176B:III) Singer: George Warrb (Nyulnyul/Bard). (LA2675a, 15:45, 11. AM176B:VIII) Singer: Locky Binsali (Bard). (LA2675a, 27:55, 5. AM177A:III) Singer: George Warrb (Nyulnyul/Bard).

track 11 (LA2693a, 22:45ff, 18-19. AM187A:IV-V) Leading singers: Harry Pickett, Jimmy James (Yawur).

track 12 (LA2672a, 13:20ff, 15-17. AM170B:V-VII) Singers: Pedro Urandi, Jimmy James, Jack Edgar, Paddy Djaguwin, Tommy Edgar, Butcher Joe Nangan (Yawur, Garadjari, Nyigina).

track 13 (LA2693a, 8:20ff, 7-11. AM186B.IX, AM187A:l, II) Leading singer: Butcher Joe Nangan (Nyigina).

track 14 (LA2678a, 11:00, 5. AM181B:II) Singer: Paddy Rowe Djaguwan (Garadjari). (LA2678a, 18:55, 11. AM181B:IV) Singer: Tommy Edgar (Garadjari).

Please note that the references to side and track refers to the original vinyl discs. These have now been digitised. The following table shows the correspondening CD tracks and the text numbers.

CD track song text no. old side and band abbreviated title no. texts 1 1 Side 1 Band 1 Rainmaking songs 7 4 2 Side 1 Band 4 Guluwada 3 5 3 Side 1 Band 5 Balganya 2 6 4 Side 1 Band 6 Balgan from Derby 1 7 5 Side 1 Band 7 Totem Dance 1 8 6 Side 1 Band 8 Djanba 3 9 7 Side 2 Band 1 Lildjin 310 8 Side 2 Band 2 Ludin and Elma 211 9 Side 2 Band 3 Song from Anna Plains 112 10 Side 2 Band 4 Gadraynya 313 11 Side 2 Band 5 Butcher Joe’s nurlu 314 12 Side 2 Band 6 Dyabi 2


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Bibliography

Bach, J. (ed.) 1968 An historical journal of events at Sydney and at sea, 1787-1792, by Captain John Hunter, Commander H.M.S. Sirius (originally published 1793). Sydney, Melbourne, London. Angus and Robertson Ltd.

Bates, D. (n.d.) Typescript. XI la Dances and songs 122 pp. Barr Smith Library, The University of Adelaide, South Australia.

Berndt, R.M. and C.H. 1951 Sexual behaviour in western Arnhem Land. Viking Fund Inc., New York.

Berndt, R.M. and E.S. Phillips (eds) 1973 The Australian Aboriginal heritage, An introduction through the arts, (incl. two LP discs and 25 colour transparencies). Ure Smith, Sydney.

Brandenstein, C.G. von 1969 Tabi songs of the Aborigines. Hemisphere 13 (11):28-31. Brandenstein, C.G. von and A.P. Thomas 1974 Taruru, Aboriginal song poetry from the Pilbara.

Rigby, Adelaide. Capell, A. 1938-9 Mythology in Northern Kimberley, North-west Australia. Oceania 9 (4):

382-402. Crawford, I.M. 1968 The art of the Wandjina. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne. Elkin, A.P. 1930 Rock-paintings of north-west Australia. Oceania, 1 (3):257-279. —— 1933 Totemism in north-western Australia (the Kimberley Division). Part II. Oceania, 3

(4): 435-481. —— 1936 Initiation in the Bard Tribe, north-west Australia. J. Proc. R. Soc. N.S.W. 69,

190-208. —— 1948 Grey’s northern Kimberley cave-paintings refound. Oceania, 19 (1): 1-15. Grey, G. 1841 Journals of two expeditions of discovery in north-west and Western Australia. Vol.

1, London, T. and W. Boone. Hunter, Captain John see Bach, J. (ed.) above. Kaberry, P.M. 1939 Aboriginal women: sacred and profane. Routledge, London. Lommel, A. 1952 Die Unambal: ein Stamm in nordwest-Australien. Hamburg: Monographien

zur Volk- erkunde. Love, J.R.B. 1930 Rock paintings of the Worrora and their mythological interpretation, Journal

of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 16, 1-24. —— 1936 Stone-Age bushmen of today. Blackie and Son Ltd., London. Moyle, A.M. 1974a Songs from the Northern Territory, Companion Record Booklet, Revised

edition. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra. —— 1974b North Australian music. A taxonomic approach to the study of Aboriginal song

performances. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Monash University, Victoria. Sheils, H. (ed.) 1963 Australian Aboriginal Studies. A symposium of papers presented at the

1961 Research Conference, O.U.P. Worms, E.A. 1952 Djamar and his relation to other culture heroes. Anthropos 47, 539-560.”

1957 The poetry of the Yaoro and Bad, north-western Australia. Annali Lateranensi, 21, 213-229.


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Discography

Moyle, A.M. 1964 Songs from the Northern Territory. Canberra, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.

—— 1978a Aboriginal sound instruments. Canberra, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. —— 1978b Songs from north Queensland. Canberra, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. O’Grady, G.N. and A. 1964 Songs of Aboriginal Australia and Torres Strait. FE 4102 (with notes

by G.N. O’Grady and A.M. Moyle). Ethnomusicological Series Archives of Folk and Primitive Music, Indiana University (G. List, ed.). New York, Ethnic Folkways Library.


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further reading on kimberley music

Keogh, R. 1990 Nurlu songs of the west Kimberleys. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Sydney University.—— 1995 Process models for the analysis of Nurlu songs from the western Kimberleys. In

Barwick, L. et. al., eds. The essence of singing and the substance of song; recent responses to the Aboriginal performing arts and other essays in honour of Catherine Ellis. Sydney; University of Sydney.

Mowaljarlai, D. 2000 The origins of dance and song in the Ngarinyin world /David Mowaljari in conversation with Anthony James Redmond. Kleinert, S., M. Neale, and R. Bancroft, eds. The Oxford companion to Aboriginal art and culture. Melbourne :Oxford University Press, p.346 -348.

Treloyn, S. 2007 Flesh with country: juxtaposition and minimal contrast in the construction and melodic treatment of jadmi song texts. Australian Aboriginal Studies no.2 (2007), p.90-99.

—— 2009 Half way: appreciating the poetics of northern Kimberley song. Musicology Australia Vol. 31 (2009), p. 41-62.

—— 2006 Songs that pull : jadmi junba from the Kimberley region of northwest Australia. Thesis (Ph. D.) Dept. of Music, Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney, 2006.

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