Australian Folklore in the 21st Century
Graham Seal and Jennifer Gall
The papers collected here arise from the Australian Folklore Network’s National Folklore Conference series. Beginning in 2006 as a partnership with the National Library of Australia and the National Folk Festival, the conference has been the major public forum for presenting folklore research, collection, archiving and dissemination over the last decade or so. The conferences have always been a lively combination of scholarship, performance, collection and archiving interests, as reflected in the chapters presented here. While it has only been possible to publish a selection of the many papers presented at the conferences, those included provide an overview of recent folklore studies in Australia at the start of the 21st century. We hope that they also provide some pointers to where the field might go into the future.
The major areas of strength in Australian folklore studies at present are folk song and music and children’s traditions, reflecting a history of collecting and research that reaches back to the 1950s and beyond. Other aspects of folklore have also been given some attention, including folk narrative, particularly in the form of the yarn and the contemporary legend; customs; speech and aspects of material culture and foodways. Some account of the depth and variety of these activities and expressions can be found in the Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Australian Folklife (1987), in The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore (1993) and in From Ned Kelly to Aeroplane Jelly: A Guide to Australian Folklore (2003). The journals Australian Folklore, established in 1986, and Play and Folklore (formerly the Australian Children’s Folklore Newsletter, established 1981) also provide a continuous record of research interests, activities and outcomes over the period.
Folklore conferences have been held from time to time, usually under the title of the National Folklore Conference and some of these have produced proceedings, including Folklore in Australia: proceedings of the 1st National Folklore Conference, 1984; The possum stirs: Proceedings of the 2nd National Folklore Conference 1986; Proceedings of the 3rd National Folklore Conference, 1988; 5th National Folklife Conference: traditions, transitions, visions: folklife in multicultural Australia, 1992 and Traditions and tourism: the good, the bad and the ugly: proceedings of the 6th National Folklife Conference 1994.
A number of book-length studies of various aspects of Australian folklore and life have also been published, as indicated in the chapter notes and in bibliographies that can be found in the select list of ‘Resources’ at the end of this paper.i
Much of what we know of the nation’s folklore has been collected by individuals, frequently working without or with only limited institutional support. Fortunately, the National Library of Australia’s Oral History and Folklore Collectionii has provided a repository for much of this work, safeguarding it for the future and also making it accessible to researchers, teachers or anyone wishing to investigate Australia’s folkloric riches. The National Library holds many collections made by leading Australian folklorists. Folklore collections are also held in many other libraries and archives around the country, including the Australian Children’s Folklore Collection, now at Museum Victoria, and the Western Australian Folklore Archive in the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library at Curtin University, Perth. Cultural institutions such as the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum of Australia also contain materials of considerable folkloric significance in their respective collections. These and many other smaller collections are identified in the Register of Folklore Collections maintained by the Australian Folklore
Network.iii
A number of medium to large-scale research projects have been mounted over the last decade or so. These include the Western Australian Folklife Project, an ongoing partnership between the National Library and Curtin University since 2004. The Australian Research Council has funded a large project on ‘Childhood Tradition and Change’, 2007-2011 that recorded playground traditions at primary schools around the country. A number of large-scale oral history projects, including the ‘Bringing Them Home’ project from 1998-2002 have also included a folkloric dimension. In addition, individual fieldworkers have mounted often long-term collecting projects that have immeasurably increased our knowledge of the traditions of the Australian people.
Since the 1980s a few tertiary education institutions have developed units or courses in folklore. The Graduate Diploma in Australian Folklife Studies available through Open Universities Australia and Curtin University developed from an earlier course established at Monash University by Gwenda Beed Davey. The University of New England has a single unit that is offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels under the title ‘Australian Folklore and Australian Folk Speech’. Southern Cross University has no dedicated unit, but topics and approaches are incorporated into several of the teacher-education units — particularly play in the Early Childhood units, Australian Identity in the Social Studies curriculum units, and storytelling in an elective unit with that name. The Australian National University School of Music has developed a Folk Music course in collaboration with the National Library and the National Folk Festival. Despite the availability of such training for the first time in Australia, it is still not possible to gain specialised training as a folklorist in this country. Nevertheless, a number of scholars have completed doctoral theses on folklore and folklorerelated topics in recent years and many of these are available through the relevant institution’s online repositories.
Since 2002, the Australian Folklore Network has brought together the various constituencies with an interest in folklore. Academics, librarians, archivists, teachers, performers and other specialisations have been connected through the e-newsletter Transmissions,iv through the conference series that generated this book as well as through special publishing, collecting and archiving projects. Many of those involved pursue their interests through the many folk festivals and related activities that are held frequently around the country and which provide opportunities for performance, learning, education and discussion. An important product of this combination of interests has been the National Folk Fellowship implemented by the National Library. This allows selected applicants to access the Library’s folklore holdings with a view to developing performances and recordings.
The ongoing Australian folklore revival has also produced a number of publications that have, at various times, carried the torch for the combined constituency of interest described above. These have included Australian Tradition (1964-75. Previously as Gumsucker’s Gazette 1960-63), National (originally Northern) Folk (1966-1970). Other valuable periodical and occasional publications have been issued by groups such as the Sydney Bush Music Club, Wongawilli, the Folk Song and Dance Society of Victoria, the Victorian Folk Music Club, the Folklore Council of Australia, the Australian Folk Trust (1974-1996) and its successor the Australian Folk Alliance, as well as the newsletters and occasional publications of the various state folk federations and associations. Regional historical societies frequently include folkloric material in their newsletters
In the more public arena, the magazines Stringybark and Greenhide (1879-1986) and Trad & Now have provided a more broadly- distributed point of access to the revival. Online publications, sites and other resources include the Australian Folksong and Union Songs site by Mark Gregory, as well as Simply Australia, Folklore Australia, Warren Fahey’s Australian Folklore Unit and an ever-increasing range of personal, group and institutional sites have also been developed. Such engagements with digital technologies promise to provide opportunities for the broader dissemination of folklore well into the foreseeable future.v
Overall, Australian folklore embraces a broad and diverse range of activities, each with its own integrity and each contributing to an increasing knowledge and understanding of the national traditions and their many meanings. Given the history of official disinterest and underfunding of folklore research and study in Australia, the way forward is to combine the various interests and strengths through loose-knit but effective coalitions and networks, connecting interest groups and pursuing distinct projects that can be usefully completed with the limited resources available.
The activities described here have moved the study of Australian folklore well beyond the bush song and yarn and into a maturing understanding of the breadth and depth of all facets of Australian folk expression and practice. The seventeen chapters in this book provide a reasonable sample of the state of Australian folklore studies as we move into the second decade of the century. They are presented in a number of sections: Children’s Folklore; Music and Song; Identity; Reinterpretation; Revival.
Children’s folklore is the most developed facet of Australian folklore studies. Its infrastructure includes a specialised archive, teaching, the periodical Play and Folklore, a range of publications spanning many years and ongoing research activity. The papers by June Factor and Gwenda Beed Davey together provide an excellent overview of the development and ongoing activity of this important field. Paying similar attention to the relevant research history, Judy McKinty discusses the role and wide spread of traditional string games among children – and some adults.
Also well developed in Australia are the collection, archiving and study of traditional song and music. This has effectively been going on since A B ‘Banjo’ Paterson began researching ‘the old bush songs’ in the 1890s. Since then, a considerably broader range of musical styles have been discovered and studied and a number of chapters in the book reflect aspects of this interest. Those included in the section on ‘Song and Music’ provide insights into music making among contemporary indigenous communities, highlighting the fusion of various influences. Jeff Corfield focuses mainly on Darwin and the Northern Territory, while Karl Neuenfeldt and Will Kepa look at contemporary music practices among Torres Strait Islander communities. Peter Parkhill provides a compelling description and analysis of traditional music and its context among Melbourne’s migrant Greek community. Mark Gregory traces the history of the radical song tradition, reminding us of the always-close connection between such expressions and their industrial and political contexts.
Wherever it is collected and studied, an important aspect of folklore is its connection with identity, whether local, regional, ethnic, cultural, national or some combination of these. The chapters in this section discuss a range of folklore forms, with an emphasis on their relationship to popular ideas and ideals of Australian cultural identity. Ruth Lee Martin looks at the yearning for home among Gaelic-speaking Scots immigrants. Warren Fahey reports the results of a general folklore survey of the city of Sydney and its inhabitants, past and present. The origins and history of Australia’s unofficial national anthem are subjected to some new research by Dennis O’Keeffe, while Robert Smith samples the folkloric profundities of the humble but iconic meat pie. Graham Seal listens to the history and significance of the colourful folk speech form of rhyming slang in relation to cultural identity.
Reinterpretation is another constant aspect of folklore research. Keith McKenry re-examines an old favourite, ‘Click Go the Shears’, pointing to the many anomalies and confusions in the song’s history. Jennifer Gall highlights the central but neglected role of women in traditional song making and folklore collection, providing a new dimension to our understanding of the complexity of musical traditions.
Revivalism is an inevitable and usually controversial dimension of folklore. For one reason or another, various groups feel a need to resurrect or prolong otherwise fading traditions, whether these be of music, dance, costume, arts and crafts or customs. The ‘folk revival’, as the Australian expression of this urge is known, is heavily focussed on song and dance. The chapters in this section discuss some features of the revival and pose for consideration issues of authenticity, relevance and, once again, identity, whether ethnic, national or even personal. Ruth Hazleton tracks the development of ‘extra-ethnic’ learning and transmission of traditional music and techniques, while Graeme Smith analyses what happens to folk music when it moves beyond its original environing context.
Also included is Brian Samuels’ ‘Chronology of the Australian Folk Revival’. This provides a useful overview of folklore activities in Australia, both within the community and in terms of research publications. The Chronology also provides a valuable contextualisation of many of the papers.
The picture of Australian folklore that emerges from this selection shows a healthy coalition of research and fieldwork by folklorists in academia, cultural institutions and within the community. While the collection, archiving and study of folklore in this country is underfunded and often unappreciated, this book shows that the field is a healthy one in spite of these realities.
The editors would like to acknowledge the efforts of the numerous reviewers of all the papers appearing here.
i Some bibliographical information is available on the Folklore Australia website at http://members.iinet.net.au/~cknow/ ii http://www.nla.gov.au/oh/ iii http://members.iinet.net.au/~cknow/ iv Archived at http://members.iinet.net.au/~cknow/
v Including websites such as Mudcat Café at http://www.mudcat.org/ vi http://www.nfsa.gov.au/
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