BFE Member on Fieldtrip to Australia

Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg has just returned from a field trip to Australia in September 2009, to the Lutheran Australian Indigenous community of Hopevale where she repatriated two archival recordings as part of a project supported by the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE) and their Gerry Farrell Travelling Scholarship 2009. The repatriation of the 1966 field recordings led Hopevalian elders to re-introduce the linguistic and musical material into their local musical practices and e-teaching materials which are being developed using specialised, culturally appropriate software. The musical materials in particular were well received as the songs recorded in 1966 had not been performed for quite some time as a result of previous missionary intervention. Elders felt that this historical musical material was an important part of their heritage which needs to be reclaimed.