From T.I.1 to Tasmania: Australian Indigenous Popular Music in the Curriculum

This article promotes Australian Indigenous popular music not only as a valid and useful educational repertoire but as an essential component of Australian music curricula. It examines some of the fundamental issues raised when utilising Indigenous art forms within the Western post-colonial structure on which Australian government educational policy and methodologies are based. It explores the intrinsic nature of the 'contemporisation' of Australian Indigenous music with particular reference to the idea of fusion with Western popular music styles. Through case studies of Torres Strait Island and popular music cultures, it proposes that teaching and learning strategies be developed organically from characteristics inherent within specific musical and cultural structures.