“Sun Arise”: The Appropriation of Australia’s First Peoples’ Music, 1956–1974

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhile the music of Australia’s First Peoples contributes to a growing list of academic books and articles, the appropriation of that music by non-Indigenous pop musicians has received little academic attention. During the 1950s and 1960s, Australian audiences dismissed early attempts at fusing pop with Indigenous instrumentation as embarrassingly kitsch; at the same time, many Australian historians and archaeologists viewed Aboriginality as something primitive, a relic of the “stone-age”. Consequently, there was very little commentary on the cross-pollination between pop and Indigenous music. This article examines this phenomenon. Drawing on contemporary newspaper articles and vinyl record releases, this article argues that pop music appropriated Australia’s Indigenous music soon after art developing its fusions with Indigenous culture. Older popular musicians were more prepared to experiment than young pop performers. The reluctance of young pop musicians to experiment with Indigenous music was primarily an economic decision—American rock’n’rollers had captured the local teenage market. After more recordings of Aboriginal music became commercially available, interest in Indigenous music accelerated, and younger non-Indigenous musicians saw opportunities to incorporate Indigenous themes and instrumentation into their own material.