Notes Toward a Critical Indigenous Ethnomusicology

Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 5:00pm CDT

Regenstein Master Class Room

Amy Ku’uleialoha Stillman, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Musicology & American Culture, University of Michigan 

What can an Indigenized ethnomusicology contribute to knowledge production, musical knowledge, and knowledge about musical practice by, about, and especially for [in the service of] Indigenous people? My title raises two questions:

1) Starting from a general perspective of asking how soundscapes and sonic intimacies are experienced by Indigenous people, and to bring this within an explicitly ethnomusicological framework, how are musical soundscapes and musical sonic intimacies experienced by Indigenous peoples?

2) How are musical soundscapes and musical sonic intimacies archived in Indigenous bodies?

My tactic, here, is to work outward from my own positionality as a Native Hawaiian woman raised in a Hawaiian household and shaped by decades of research on Hawaiian music and dance performance. I propose to outline my thoughts by strolling down a path of discovery. I invite you to join me as we gather bits and pieces along the way, so that we might work together toward a view of an ethnomusicological practice that is resonant with Indigenous ways of being in the world.