In: Sound Alliances: lndigenous Peoples Cultural Politics and Popular Music in the Contemporary Pacific P. Hayward (ed.) Cassell Academic Press 1998
"There is a fear of losing one's culture because of the white man's influence. So what we've tried to do with Yothu Yindi is creating something about [Aborigines] taking pride in their identity, taking pride in their music, taking pride in their dance, taking pride in their rituals, taking pride in their secret sacred ceremonies. All those aspects of reality one should take seriously, [which] shouldn't be considered as if trivial."
(Mandawuy Yunupingu, interview with the author 1996)
Introduction
In June 1995 the Australian Aboriginal music group Yothu Yindi went on- line globally over the Internet with the following message Welcome to Yothu Yindi on the web. Download a message from Mandawuy Yunupingu - 1992 Australian of the Year - on the significance of the worldwide web in preserving the 40,000-year-old Yolngu wisdom and culture for future generations. We invite you to explore ‘the Yolngu music, art and stories in our site: (http://www.yothuyindi.com)l
Distinctive features of the World Wide Website are the chance to learn about the Yolngu Aborigines of north-eastern -Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and to hear Yothu Yindi's music. However, the Web site offers more than entertainment. It also provides education about the culture and land that is vital to Yolngu identity, and how Yothu Yindi's music can provide a point of contact, a 'both ways' perspective, to empower Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.
By providing an Aboriginal voice on the Internet, Yothu Yindi is weaving World Wide Webs of significance, not only, about their particular brand of syncretic music, but also more generally about Yolngu and other Aboriginal societies and cultures.-' Their use of the Internet is noteworthy for several reasons. First, with over 500 visitors a week it affords access to a potentially large commercial audience for its music, as well as a potentially influential constituency for its extra-musical objectives. Second, it shows how contemporary artistic expression has helped move Aboriginal agendas and aspirations out of traditional cultural practice and into cyberspace, the global cultural economy, and the universal pop aesthetic.
At the time Yothu Yindi went on-line, manager Alan James noted: 'we believe it is fitting that Yothu Yindi, a band dedicated to Improving communication among peoples and cultures, is using the latest technological advancements to share its message with the world' (promotional fax, July 1995). The Internet is only part of their multimedia use of modern technology to promote Yolngu connections to land, its ownership and spiritual and physical resources, and to promote inter- cultural co-operation. They also use recordings, print and video in a concerted and coordinated campaign to disseminate their message as widely and to as many stakeholders as possible.
This chapter examines Yothu Yindi on several interwoven levels of cultural production and discourse: as a sociocultural and musical phenomenon as an example of how indigenous popular music informs the social construction of the soundscape and humanscape of Australia; and as a case study of how their career and strategies might provide insights into similar situations elsewhere. I argue that in the all-important 'business of culture' Yothu Yindi remains successful although in commercial and critical terms, they may have peaked in popularity. I also argue that Yolngu and Aboriginal cultural vitality is a much more valid gauge of success than either the whims of international media, audiences and industries, or the caprices of academic infatuation.
This chapter complements the observations of Hayward and Nicol in the previous chapters. They deal more directly with debates that accompanied the group's rise to prominence at a particular confluence of (local, national and international) sociocultural and political events, which provided a favourable climate for their agendas and aspirations, and the emergence of the transnational popular music genre of world music, which provided a commercial and aesthetic outlet for their music. Hayward's and Nicol's chapters - and this study, for that matter - are examples of the provisional and contested nature of Yothu Yindi, who mean different things to different people at different times. They will continue to do so because they have become a metonym, located at the interstice of popular music, technology and contemporary indigeneity. Yothu Yindi is a cogent example of the multiple, interwoven and vital roles of popular music in shaping individual, group and national identity.
In addition to providing an up-date on academic debates that were prominent in 1992-4,' this chapter focuses more specifically on some of the small, but cumulatively crucial details of cultural production and discourse. Consequently, I describe and discuss how Yothu Yindi operates simultaneously as a product and a process through the multiple use of media. Yothu Yindi is a product in the international music market and on the Internet and a process in the evolution of Yolngu, pan-Aboriginal and mainstream' Australian societies and cultures. The quotations at the beginning of each section demonstrate this simultaneity. Yothu Yindi as a product
The struggle [previously] was to find ways of explaining our laws and beliefs to white Australia in an attempt to retain all that is important and sacred in Yolngu life - our land. That struggle ... is what you hear in Yothu Yindi's songs... In our songs we have found a way to help people hear us today. (Yunupingu 1994: 4)
Through a combination of hard work and good luck Yothu Yindi has reached a level of success unequalled by any other Aboriginal music group to date. They have won numerous Industry, songwriting and humanitarian awards and have toured internationally in North and South America, Oceania, Asia, Europe and Africa. However, as indigenous music groups and their sounds (and sentiments) move away from their origins they can be reshaped and reinterpreted until their self-representations (Langton, 1993) may end up bearing little resemblance to their original intentions (Feld, 1994).' This is a not uncommon outcome when the local engages with the national and the transnational. There is ultimately no control over reception, but there is some control at the levels of product and production, some agency, albeit mediated.
Yothu Yindi has released four albums: Homeland Movement (1989), Tribal Voice (1991, Freedom (1993) and Birrkuta-Wild Honey (1996). From the beginning of their recording career, their albums have tried to integrate Yolngu and western musics and to develop a syncretic form of their own. A Yolngu music form which appears on some Yothu Yindi recordings is Diatpangarri. Knopoff describes it as 'a song form that developed at Yirrkala during the Mission era (late 1930s through early 1970s)' (1997: 66), and adds that 'in contrast to the religious, ceremonial nature of clan songs, diatpangarri songs are purely recreational in nature' (ibid.). Djatpangarri songs deal with commonplace or current phenomena, and can imply personal relations between individuals through reference to the names of particular secondary kinship groups (malk) that the individuals belong to' (ibid.). The western music forms used by Yothu Yindi on their albums range across the spectrum of contemporary styles: folk, rock, country, rock, heavy metal, dance and ambient. This reflects the eclecticism found in many indigenous peoples' popular music tastes and exhibited on many indigenous recordings. It is valuable to examine closely the cultural production and discourse of the albums themselves. They are central to the public face of Yothu Yindi and reflect the evolution of their music, sound, visual style and marketing strategies. They also reinforce extra-musical objectives. The first album, Homeland Movement (in cassette format), features one full side each of (predominantly) western- and Yolngu-influenced music. The songs on side one are recorded in standard pop-rock style with minimal production. They are predominantly sung in English, although the themes are Yolngu, such as in the song 'Homeland Movement' which deals with Yolngu people returning to ancestral areas from settlements to which they had been forcibly moved. Most of these songs have been subsequently re- recorded with fuller production. The songs on side two are mostly traditional, feature clapsticks and didjeridoo accompaniment, and are sung in Yolngu. Thematicallv, they deal with the natural environment and Yolngu relationships to it. On Homeland Movement the integration of the two main music influences is limited, and somewhat stilted at times, but indicates future directions.
The second album, Tribal Voice, shows increasing musical sophistication and integration. This reflects the use of high-quality recording technology, an experienced producer in Mark Moffatt, and the addition of musicians such as Ricki Fataar (Beach Boys, Bonny Raitt) and Tim Finn (Crowded House). The songs are once again sung in English and Yolngu Matha but the musical integration is smoother. The Yolngu and western songs are no longer separated from each other but are sequenced or integrated together in a coherent whole. Sonically, the clapsticks and didieridoo are consolidated within the pop-rhythm section to establish the pulse of many of the songs (see Neuenfeldt, 1993). Tribal Voice also features two versions of the song 'Treaty' (see previous chapters and Lawe-Davies, 1993). There are several anthemic songs, such as 'Tribal Voice' and 'My Kind of Life' which explicitly celebrate indigeneity and promote cultural vitality.
The third album, Freedom, continues in the same fashion as Tribal Voice but is more diverse given the input of four producers ( Ian Faith, Bill Laswell, Lamar Lowder, Robert Musso); the use of different studios and guest musicians; and song co-writers such as David Bridie (Not Drowning, Waving), Ian Faith, Andrew Farriss (INXS) and Neil Finn (Crowded House). Anthemic songs such as 'Timeless Land', 'World of Innocence', 'Freedom', 'World Turning' and 'Our Generation' once again celebrate indigeneitv but in a more global sense than just Arnhem Land or Australia. A noteworthy stylistic refinement is displayed in 'Gapu' ('Tidal Mix') , which augments a traditional-style vocal with sound effects and an elaborate and rhythmic arrangement to create the hypnotic ambiance of the ocean water coming in and creating the full tide then going out again' (Freedom liner notes).'
The latest album, Birrkuta-Wild Honev, further extends Yothu Yindi's musical syncretism. It features a core of long-term musicians and singers Jodie Cockatoo Creed, Stuart Kellaway, Milkayngu Mununggurr and Galarrwuy, Gurrumul, Makuma and Mandawuy Yunupingu) augmented by the musical and songwriting input of keyboardist/guitarist Andrew Farriss (INXS) and the production of Lamar Lowder. Of special note is the contribution of the Papua New Guinean members of the group, Baruka Tau-Matagu and Ben Hakalits, who are accomplished arrangers, writers and multi-instrumentalists. Aside from playing western instruments they also contribute kundu drum and woodwinds. This new influence is most apparent on the chant-like 'Spirit of Peace' which begins with a traditional-style Papua New Guinean flute passage. On Birrkuta- Wild Honey the Yolngu and western songs are mixed together, with a variety of lead singers and songwriters. Overall, there are less anthemic songs, more rhythmic variety, and a sense of allowing core members of the group to take on a variety of musical and songwriting roles.
Just as Yothu Yindi's musical style has become progressively more integrated and sophisticated, so too has their visual style and iconography.' These are integral to the group's overall presentation as a product. Their album packaging has won awards for design excellence and features original paintings and high-quality photography. Liner notes go beyond the usual acknowledgment of song copyright and performance/ songwriting credits. The cultural politics of arts funding is acknowledged by noting organizations that have assisted the recording projects (e.g. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; The Department of Employment, Education and Training; and The Aboriginal Arts Board).
Importantly, liner notes also include specific and essential Yolngu cultural information. For example, indicating the clan affiliation of Yolngu songs, providing a brief précis in English for songs in Yolngu Matha, and crediting Galarrwuy Yunupingu's contribution on the Freedom album as vocals, bilma (clapsticks) and clan leader. The intricacy of protocols of use and acknowledgment is shown in the information provided for the cover painting of Birrkuta - Wild Honey. It cites Gawirrin Gumana (a senior elder from Gangan) and 'Wuyal Wirrpanda (the Djungaya songman for the design) for permission to use Trevor Warralka Wunungmurra's cover art. Also cited are the assistant painter (Mitjayna Wunungmurra) and the conceptual and background painting (Yalmay Yunupingu).
The packaging of the Yothu Yindi Website is similarly informative and of high quality. Along with introductory data, there is additional cultural information, and sound samples and visuals are available under the categories of The Band, Discography, Tour Dates, Sound and Video, Art Gallery, Our Home, Our Vision and Web Links. As well as being able to order albums and video tapes direct, other products are on offer such as t- shirts, didieridoos and videos. Throughout the album and Website packaging there is consistent emphasis on the interconnections between land, music, art and Yolngu, and the possibility of 'both ways' co- operation between Yolngu and Balanda (Europeans). In order to meet the demands of the market-place and thus facilitate the dissemination of Yolngu (and pan-Aboriginal) political agendas and aspirations, Yothu Yindi may be packaged as a product. However, successfully exploiting available technologies also contributes to Yothu Yindi's polysemy as a process.
Yothu Yindi as a process
Your parents and grandparents saw us (Aborigines) as utterly mysterious and incomprehensible. For you lot [of people] we had to be different and inferior, otherwise your lot could not have treated us the way they did. They refused to see us as civilised people who owned land. Your lot wanted us to be just a blur on the land, like a smudge on paper that could be rubbed out. That was an important part of your colonising us. I am saying that it is time for those attitudes to be left behind. It is time you understood us as we are. ( Mandawuy Yunupingu, 1994: 11)
There are different layers . operating concurrently in the cultural production and discourse of Yothu Yindi as a process. There are several that are useful to note here. The first is the notion of what Hamilton (1993) refers to as 'anti-colonialist cultural criticism', defined as 'a practical commitment to the political consequences of representation [that] requires a rupture and a positive awareness of the way colonial representation has shaped, and mis-shaped, reality for colonizer and colonized alike' (ibid.: 5). The quotation at the beginning of this section is a persuasive example of Yothu Yindi as anti-colonialist cultural criticism. It points out the underlying premise of western colonialism and the necessity of trying to move beyond a singular Eurocentric version of Australian history to re-represent its multiple histories. Yothu Yindi's songs, both in English and Yolngu Matha offer one of those histories. As identity narratives they chronicle the past and present experience of colonialism and offer templates for changing Australian society.
Similarly, the informational content of Yothu Yindi's packaging sometimes overtly critiques colonialism. For example, the story behind the use of the cover art work for Birrkuta - Wild Honey (noted above) is that the design belongs to the Manatja people, most of whom never recovered from a massacre in the early 1906’s when most of its members were shot by intruders with guns and horses. Later. the skulls of some of those murdered were collected and sold to museums and universities for scientific study. (Birrkuta - Wild Honey liner notes)
One of the only two survivors is the mother of Mandawuy Yunupingu's wife Yalmay, who (as noted above) provided the conceptual and background painting for the cover artwork. Anti-colonialist cultural criticism is a consistent thread running through the discourse of Yothu Yindi (such as the song 'Luku - Wangawuy Manikay' [1788] on Homeland Movement), although its rhetoric is sometimes either circumspect or subsumed by the music and rhythm of the songs.
A second layer of Yothu Yindi as a process concerns notions of self- representation. In an Aboriginal context applicable directly to Yothu Yindi, Langton asserts that 'it is clearly unrealistic for Aboriginal people to expect that others will stop portraying us in photographs, films, on television, in newspapers, literature and so on' (1993: 10). So rather than demanding the impossibility of total control over representations, Langton suggests that 'it would be more useful to identify those points where it is possible to control the means of production and to make our own self-representations' (ibid.). In this sense, Yothu Yindi have had access to the means of production, either in the sense of technologies of musical production and reproduction or the promotional skills to disseminate their product and link it effectively to political objectives.
Other Aboriginal groups and soloists also have had access to the means of production (e.g. Archie Roach, Coloured Stone, Kev Carmody, Blek Bela Mujik), but Yothu Yindi has moulded a musical, visual and political image that contributes to a sense of a cohesive whole. They have survived and prospered while arguably more talented musicians and groups have not, perhaps because of being perceived, accurately or inaccurately, as rooted in something that transcends the moment. To draw momentarily on one of the false but persistent stereotypes of Aborigines, they have been perceived and often represented in the media as 'real blackfellas' with ,authentic' connections to 'tradition', unlike their urban counterparts.
Yothu Yindi is predicated on a notion of self-representation, even though, if necessary, this may take the form of technologically and industrially mediated syncretic music and westernized rhetorical, lyrical and/or audio-visual styles. However, Yothu Yindi's self-representation is problematic in some respects in that the band are not all Aborigines, nor do they speak for all Aborigines. Similarly, accommodation and resistance within self-representation are fluid and relative concepts, especially when the relations of power (coercive and moral) are asymmetrical yet (somewhat) open to negotiation. If there is recognition of a of agency in indigenous music groups such as Yothu Yindi, then accommodation is not necessarily antithetical to resistance. It may be an essential adjunct that neither demeans nor impedes the achievement of desirable end results.
A notable aspect of Yothu Yindi is the consistent emphasis that real, positive change in Australian society can only come about through dialogue, and that the two major cultural logic’s and world views (i.e. indigenous and Euro-Australian) do have some points of contact - places where boundaries can be crossed and bridges built. Yothu Yindi has consistently offered itself as one of those points of contact. However, there is a sense that they also are well aware that their appeal as exotica can be useful in challenging what the western world lacks (or thinks it lacks). Taken in a broader context, their efforts are part of indigenous peoples' efforts to’ seize the means of cultural expression to redefine a positive image of themselves' (Young, 1990:11). Yothu Yindi is consistently positive about the future even when recounting the negatives of the past. It is not a Pollyanna-ish or haphazard approach. It has been consistent throughout their career regardless of the ebb and flow of street-cred(ibility)', popularity, airplay or academic interest.
Conclusion
In this chapter I have described and discussed the cultural production and discourse of Yothu Yindi across various media, showing how the group operates simultaneously as a product and a process. These interwoven facets of Yothu Yindi help to fashion it into a cohesive whole in pursuit of specific agendas and aspirations. These revolve around land, Yolngu relationships with it and the roles of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians in creating a sociocultural, musical and political climate where difference is accepted as valuable and diverse knowledges are recognized as valid.
For this (or any other) analysis to avoid uncritical lionization or over- critical dismissal, it is important to place Yothu Yindi in perspective. It is like any other popular music group, with a 'shelf-life' and a 'use-by' date similar to other musical commodities on offer in the marketplace. It is rare for a group or soloist to sustain a career over any length of time and failures are more common than successes. That is the reality of the music business. In this context Yothu Yindi is no different when understood solely as a product. Their career has had a predictable, if somewhat meteoric, entertainment industry trajectory. They have gone from being a cause calibre in the early 1990s to present in which they are subject to equivocal and sometimes disparaging reviews.7
When popular music groups - especially indigenous ones - are also understood as a process, however, notions of what constitutes success have to be considered differently. Attention needs to be given to how consistent they have remained to either themselves (e.g. musically and aesthetically) or to the often politicized agendas and aspirations that may have inspired them. For indigenous artists, it is often in this latter sense, the all-important 'business of culture', that success is gauged, although commercial and critical success is certainly not irrelevant. Yothu Yindi has remained focused on what constitutes success to them and what roles their music can play in the pursuit of extra-musical objectives. The interconnection of the business of culture and the business of music is crucial to understanding indigenous groups such as Yothu Yindi. They may end up as culture brokers serving several masters simultaneously because they operate at the interstice of popular music, technology and contemporary indigeneity. However, they also can pursue their own agendas and aspirations within the parameters of western cultural production and discourse. They are often fluently bi- or tri-cultural.
What has been left out of this analysis thus far is the effect and affect of Yothu Yindi on individuals. Although not all Aborigines would have the same views on Yothu Yindl;' Western Australian Aboriginal (Nyungar) educator and musician Clifton Quartermaine provided a compelling personal perspective on the role of Yothu Yindi, in particular, and indigenous popular music and musicians in general, when interviewed by the author at Edith Cowan University (Bunbury, Western Australia) in October 1992. His comments provide a fitting conclusion to this chapter because when all the trappings of cultural production and discourse are stripped away and analysis is set aside, it is still individuals who use popular music to fashion identity and help makesense of the private and public worlds in which they live.
If vou listen to [Aboriginal artists such as singer-songwriter] Archie Roach it reminds you of what happened in the past and the struggle still going on. But if you listen to Yothu Yindi, it gives you hope that somewhere along the line things have got to change. And if both [Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal) cultures can get together, like the Yothu Yindi band, then that relationship should come closer. Yothu Yindi do remind you [of the past] on one hand, but on the other hand they give you hope for what the future holds.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Steve Knopoff and Fiona Magowan for their suggestions, Cal Williams for Internet information and Ian Faith for insights on music production.
Notes
1. Yothu Yindi (pronounced 'yo-thoo-yin-dee') is a kinship-related term meaning 'child/mother'. 'Yolngu' is the term for 'human being' in related, regional Arnhem Land dialects. As a music group Yothu Yindi is a paradox in that it is considered (and celebrated as) an 'Aboriginal' band although it has always had both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members and management. As Beach (1995) argues, it has been commercially and critically successful and also has had a demonstrable positive effect in promoting the Northern Territory as a tourist destination.
2. There are several useful World Wide Websites that contain information on Australian indigenous peoples:
Australian National University: http//coombs.anu.edu.au/wwwvl-Aboriginal
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation: http://www.austlii.edu.au/car/
National Library of Australia: http://www.nla.gov.au
Indigenous peoples in general: http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/fwdp.html
3. See, particularly, Castles (1992), Hayward (1992), Lipsitz (1994), Muecke (1992), Nicol (1993), Shoemaker (1994a and 1994b), Stubington and Dunbar- Hall (1994) and Turner (1995).
4. Langton offers an influential discussion of this process at work in Australia. The title of her book, "Well I Heard it on the Padio and Saw it on the Television" is taken from the Yothu Yindi song 'Treaty'. Feld (1994) provides a useful frame for understanding the splitting of sounds from their sources, while Feld (1996) uses 'pygmy pop' as an instructive case study of the process he labels 'schizophonia to schismogenesis'.
5. See Neuenfeldt (1993) for a discussion of the importance of water metaphors in Yothu Yindi's songs.
6. Dunbar-Hall (forthcoming, 1998) addresses this specifically in the context of Yothu Yindi album designs.
7. Examples of recent equivocal or negative reviews (supplied to the author by Mushroom Records) are: 'Yothu Yindi are to be credited for remaining optimistic ... But then, [their) strength has always been in couching their messages" in upbeat and easily digestible formats ... The only question remaining is whether or not Yothu Yindi are still saying what their fans - loyal and fickle alike - want to hear' (Stafford, 1996 npd); and 'the hopes "Treaty" once so conjured for a truly original Australian music has dissipated ... something obviously went wrong while we were congratulating ourselves over [Yothu Yindi]' (Unattributed, 1996).
8. See Aboriginal singer-songwriter Kev Carmody's comments on some of the paradoxical side effects of Yothu Yindi's success for other Aboriginal artists (cited in Johnson, 1993).