The Voice and Its Doubles: Media and Music in Northern Australia

341 Pages·2016·21.603 MB·English

by  Daniel Fisher

THE VOICE AND ITS DOUBLES
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THE VOICE

AND ITS DOUBLES
Media and Music in Northern Australia
DANIEL FISHER
duke university press D urham and London 2016
© 2016 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞
Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan
Typeset in Minion by Westchester
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Names: Fisher, Daniel (Daniel Todd), author.
Title: The voice and its doubles : media and music in
Northern Australia / Daniel Fisher.
Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2016. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2015042543
isbn 9780822360896 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn 9780822361206 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn 9780822374428 (e- book)
Subjects: lcsh: Communication in anthropology— Australia,
Northern. | Aboriginal Australians in mass media. | Radio—
Production and   direction— Australia, Northern. | Sound—
Recording and reproducing— Australia, Northern. |
Communication and culture— Australia,  Northern. | Politics and
culture— Australia, Northern.
Classification: lcc p94.5. a852 a8 2016 |
ddc 302.23/44089991509429—d c23
lc rec ord available at http:// lccn. loc. gov /2 015042543
Cover art: Satellite dish, Northern Territory, Australia. ©
Deco / Alamy Stock Photo.
CONTENTS
acronyms vii
acknowl edgments i x
prologue. Staging the Voice xiii
introduction. 1
chapter 1. Mediating Kinship: Radio’s Cultural Poetics 43
chapter 2. Aboriginal Country 80
chapter 3. From the Studio to the Street 114
chapter 4. From Radio Skid Row to the Reconciliation Station 143
chapter 5. Speaking For or Selling Out? Dilemmas of Aboriginal
Cultural Brokerage 1 82
chapter 6. A Body for the Voice 222
conclusion. An Immanent Alterity 250
notes 2 67
references 2 87
index 3 07
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ACRONYMS
abc Australian Broadcasting Corporation
alpa Arnhem Land Pro gress Association (Uniting Church)
ards Aboriginal Resource and Development Ser vice
atsic Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
atsis Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ser vice
bracs Broadcasting for Remote Aboriginal Communities Scheme
caa Council for Aboriginal Affairs
caama Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association
cbf Community Broadcasting Foundation
cmaa Country Music Association of Australia
create Culture Research Education and Training Enterprise
det Department of Education and Training
docITA Department of Communications, Information Technology and
the Arts
ihhp Indigenous Hip Hop Projects
nirs National Indigenous Radio Ser vice
nter Northern Territory Emergency Response
nwa Niggaz With Attitude (hip- hop group)
teabba Top End Aboriginal Bush Broadcasting Association
yyf Yothu Yindi Foundation
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AC KNOW LEDG MENTS
I have been working on this proj ect and thinking about the po liti cal and
pleas ur able imbrication of music, sound, and technology for a long time.
Across ten years of research, travel, and teaching, many p eople and places
have left their mark on my thinking and encouraged me along the diff er ent
threads of musical and vocal sociality I draw together h ere. I extend my great-
est appreciation to the many broadcasters, producers, musicians, and activists
in Australia whose work drew my attention and whose efforts are insistently
tuned to the horizons and futures of Indigenous possibility. Their efforts, their
many successes, and the friendship they extended to me are at the heart of
this book. In Brisbane Tiga Bayles, Alec Doomadjee, Daniel Kinchela, Wayne
Blair, and many others answered questions and shared music and stories, all
the while drawing me into 4aaa’s daily routine and seasonal travels. In Dar-
win the crews at teabba and Radio Larrakia and the members of Darwin’s
Long Grass Association gave generously of their time and, just as importantly,
gave me room to ask questions, to work across organizations, and took me
with them on their travels. They need not have done so, and this willingness
to cart me along made everyt hing else pos si ble. Rico Adjrun has for a full de-
cade proved an enormous font of energy, great humor, and even better music.
I also thank Tiga for his permission to reproduce my photog raph of him as
figure 4.1 and Jedda Puruntatameri for her permission to reproduce my pho-
tographs of her f ather and other family members in figures 5.2 and 5.3.
Several cotravelers in Top End media whom I here call Tracy, Gary, and
Karen proved steadfast friends in the wake of a serious automobile accident
on the Stuart Highway. The proj ect might have stalled then and t here but for