Burr-Gi Wargugu ngu-Ninya Rrawa: Expressions of ancestry and country In songs by the Letterstisand

Abstract

This article documents the musical creativity of the Letterstick Band from Maningrida on Arnhem Land's north-central coast and in particular focuses on the musical and socio-contextual analysis of two prominent songs in their repertoire: ‘Bartpa’ and ‘An-Barra Clan’. Although as musicians the band's members have availed themselves of new media and technologies that have been introduced to Arnhem Land since the mid 1960s, through such analyses it is demonstrated how songs in the band's repertoire are informed by the aesthetics, formal elements and themes of local manakay and borrk song traditions. Drawing upon observations first made by the Hiatts in the late 1950s, it will be established how two key members of the Letterstick Band, David Anjawartunga Maxwell and his younger brother Colin Jiliburr, have extended the musical legacy of their father, Harry Mulumbuk, by balancing continuity of local musical traditions against creative engagement with new musical media and technologies.