GLOBALISATION AND INDIGENOUS CHRISTIANITY: TRANSLOCAL SENTIMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL CHRISTIAN SONGS

Abstract

Indigenous societies have responded to a legacy of missionisation, universalist Christian beliefs and global contemporary Christian music through their own expressions of worship in a myriad of ways. This article considers the role of emotions in Australian Aboriginal expressions of contemporary Christian music amongst Yolngu in the Northern Territory. Moral obligations to kin and land are strategically embodied in Yolngu traditional ritual performance and shape appropriate “performative emotions.” These emotive ideals persist through Christian worship styles and have influenced the composition and performance of Yolngu Christian music. Because Indigenous performances are based on inherent connections between place and personhood, it is argued that translocal sentiments of belonging can be shared amongst Australian Aboriginal communities as well as amongst other Indigenous groups at Christian gatherings. Thus, while Indigenous communities participate emotively in the worldwide Christian arena through contemporary Christian music, they also resonate with one another at the level of translocal sentiments expressed in conceptions of self and personhood that are based in songs about the country.

Key Words:

• performance
• emotions
• Aboriginal Australia
• Christianity
• territory

I am especially grateful to the Yolngu of Galiwin'ku with whom I conducted this research, in particular Nancy Gudaltji, Stephanie Yikaniwuy, Mary Badayarrka, Wuthangi, Maratja and Gapany and the Galiwin'ku church elders and leaders. I also thank Hastings Donnan for his helpful suggestions and comments and the two anonymous Identities readers.

Notes

1. Yolngu is the name used by the Indigenous people of the region to refer to themselves.

2. The “stolen generation” refers to the removal from their families by government agencies and church missions, between 1900 and 1960, of Australian Aboriginal children who were mainly half-caste or of mixed Aboriginal and European descent. The number of children taken was in the region of 100,000, although records are not precise, and the acts of “forcible removal” have since been regarded as violations of human rights.

3. Galiwin'ku is an island lying 6 km off the northeast Arnhem Land coast and has approximately 2,000 Aboriginal residents. While all Yolngu have been exposed to Christianity and the majority would profess some belief in God, the exact number of charismatic Christians is not known. Attendance at services fluctuates, depending on the occasion from around 20–30 at Sunday services in 2006 to 300 or so at larger Christian rallies held in the dry season at homelands across the region.

4. I distinguish between the terms “emotive” and “emotional” to indicate a delicate distinction between the generative and active processes entailed in emotively engaging in ritual or worship, whereas “emotional” refers to inner states that may be thought to result from emotive action.

5. The majority of Yolngu songs tell of plants, animals, birds, trees, and other natural and ecological forms associated with particular places, each harbouring their own ancestral identity that is derived from one of the two halves or moieties of the Yolngu world known as Dhuwa and Yirritja to which all things belong.

6. It is no coincidence that the verb ngoy-dhunngur'yun, to make someone angry, also means to light a fire, for in Arnhem Land bush blazes can become raging infernos.

7. Warner (1958: 280) reports, “When a Yirritja person dies their birrimbirr spirit also returns to the Yirritja moiety land of the dead.”

8. Similarly, the 6.000 hymns of Charles Wesley expanded the theological and lexical ability of eighteenth-century congregations, enabling them to engage with more complex theological ideas (Evans 2002: 36). Faulkner (1996) explains how this explosion in church music saw a revolution in musical leadership and creativity whereby emotion, music, and morality were inextricably bound within each other, with an emphasis on the sensuality of music.

9. The Eisteddfod is a national choral festival based on the Welsh tradition of choral competition. The next visit to the Eisteddfod was by schoolchildren from Shepherdson College, Galiwin'ku in March 1991. They won two of three classes, taking the prize for the best Aboriginal entry.

10. While self-determination policies were meant to empower Yolngu, the sudden withdrawal of the missions meant that the Commonwealth bank was dealing directly with many different community councils. Inadequate training in financial matters meant that Yolngu accounting was inconsistent. More whites were brought in to take over many aspects of housing, education, health, and economics, thereby disempowering Yolngu, who had previously occupied these jobs under mission supervision (see Trudgen 2000).

11. Tonkinson (1982) notes that a group of about 2,000 Aborigines gathered to take part in a Christian rally of readings, teachings, and worship at Mount Margaret in 1982. Songs from the Galiwin'ku Revival were translated into Walbiri, Pitjantjatjara, and other Australian languages.

12. See also Austin-Broos (2003: 312–313), who describes the relationship of liturgical and textual paraphernalia and practices embodied in the term paper “pepe” to Western Arrernte ritual associations.

13. Rallies are regional gatherings of Christian worship by Yolngu from homelands across Arnhem Land.

14. Similarly, speaking of popular music, Hayward (1998: 9) has argued that recordings are the reference point for future performances rather than the score.

15. Liesch (1996: 48) defines the Flowing Praise Service as a charismatic rather than liturgical service entailing five stages of worship derived from the exultations of Psalm 95 that invite worshippers to come to God, engage with worship, exalt God, reflect in adoration upon Him, and spend intimate time with Him. The service invites emotive progression from respect to joy to adoration to love and finally to friendship. One mode extends into the next through the continuity of the music as it changes tempo, rhythm, and style.

16. Gapu marrtjinan/ Barrtja gapu marrangal/ Dhuwali gangal gapu/ Muypanngur lupanggur/ Garrkuluk dhu gapu ngoymi/ Nhanukal gapu marrtji/ Gapu nhangal dhu/ Maralmaral/ Nhiningu yalawiya/ Bawurrla dhuwali nhangu/ Miyawal miny'tji/ Gapu dhuwali lurryal/ bapawal/ Djuwadi gapu/ Muypan yalawiya djalingirr/ Muypan dhuwalinga

17. This tension is also evident within the globalisation of Islam; see Van der Veer (2002), Roy (2000).

Evans, M. 2002. Secularizing the Sacred: The Impact of Geoff Bullock and Hillsong Church on Contemporary Congregational Song in Sydney 1990–1999. Unpublished PhD thesis, Sydney, Macquarie University, December.

White, N. G. Some Observations on the Evangelical Movement at Donydji Outstation. Unpublished paper delivered at a symposium on Contemporary Aboriginal Religious Movements Canberra, Australia: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.