Rethinking Safeguarding: Objections and Responses to Protecting and Promoting Endangered Musical Heritage

Abstract

The widespread threat to certain kinds of music genres (particularly those of indigenous and minority peoples) resulting from major socio-economic and political shifts in recent decades has stimulated a call for applied ethnomusicological engagement with safeguarding. Discourse from the field of language maintenance, however, underscores a number of significant ethical, ideological and pragmatic concerns generated by efforts to safeguard intangible cultural heritage. For ethnomusicologists, these concerns warrant careful consideration. In this paper, I position four primary charges against safeguarding from the language maintenance literature in relation to safeguarding music cultures, thereby hoping to invite new reflections on the challenges we face and the stances we might adopt when helping communities that are trying to protect and promote their endangered musical heritage.

Keywords:

• Endangered Music
• Sustainability
• Applied Ethnomusicology
• Musical Diversity
• Intangible Cultural Heritage
• Safeguarding

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank my anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful suggestions on an earlier version of this article.

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Notes on contributors

Catherine Grant

Catherine Grant is a PhD candidate and Senior Research Assistant at Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Griffith University. She has served on the national executive of the Musicological Society of Australia. Her research aligns with the five-year Australian Research Council-funded project Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: Towards an Ecology of Musical Diversity (2009–13)