Maintaining grandmothers' law: Female song partners in Yanyuwa culture

Abstract

This article considers processes of Aboriginal women's song performance amongst the Yanyuwa community at Borroloola, Northern Territory. More specifically, it examines how Yanyuwa women's performance and Grandmothers' Law is mediated and maintained through the Yanyuwa phenomena of song partners and related social structures. Yanyuwa culture is first placed within a geographical and social setting followed by a review of relevant literature on Aboriginal women's performance practice. I then discuss in detail female song partners in Yanyuwa culture through reference to kinship structures, generations of female composers and processes of composition. Conclusions are drawn regarding the relationship between genres, gender roles and identity, and gendered knowledges in Yanyuwa culture.