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by Catherine Grant (Author)
Like biological species and languages, many musical and other cultural practices around the world are at risk. In some cases, the threat to their future is due to social inequalities or injustices that impinge upon people's capacity to engage in vibrant cultural lives of their choosing, such as assimilation policies, systemic land dispossession, forced displacement, or erasure of certain cultures in education. In Sounding Good, author Catherine Grant joins artist-researcher collaborators from across five continents to explore the deep and sometimes surprising interplays between music, cultural sustainability, and matters of social justice.
In Cambodia, a "magic music bus" chugs through rural provinces, joyfully returning traditional music to people and places from which it has nearly disappeared. In a refugee camp in the harsh Algerian desert, people come together to sing old and new songs about everyday life in the camps, their nostalgia for their Western Saharan homeland, and their hopes for the future. In a university class in Brazil, students learn songs, dances, and stories from a senior Indigenous culture-bearer--the first time these cultural practices have been welcomed into formal tertiary education. Through these cases, and others from Vanuatu, India, and Australia, Sounding Good demonstrates how strong and sustainable cultural practices can advance the cause of social justice, and vice versa. Traversing a range of pressing contemporary social concerns--from forced migration, educational equity, and poverty to matters of racial, cultural, and climate justice--Grant contends that music can help us better understand the ways that cultural sustainability and social justice are entangled. Not only will this understanding help musicians, communities, scholars, and cultural agencies in local and global efforts to protect and promote the rich diversity of musical practices around the world, but it will also enhance our prospects of an equitable and thriving world, now and into the future. Collaborators:Arn Chorn-Pond
José Bonifácio da Luz (Bengala)
José Jorge de Carvalho
Jessie Lloyd
Saurav Moni
Violeta Ruano Posada
Mohamed Sleiman Labat
Sandy Sur
Thorn Seyma
Author Biography
Music researcher and educator Catherine Grant has worked with musicians and communities in Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Vanuatu on projects supporting the strength and sustainability of cultural expressions. She has published over 60 journal articles, book chapters, books, and creative outputs in the areas of ethnomusicology, cultural heritage, and music education, including the monograph Music Endangerment: How Language Maintenance Can Help (OUP, 2014) and the award-winning Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures (as co-editor; OUP, 2016). Grant is recipient of an Australian Future Justice medal for her research, advocacy, and activism on music endangerment and sustainability.
Collaborators:Arn Chorn-Pond
José Bonifácio da Luz (Bengala)
José Jorge de Carvalho
Jessie Lloyd
Saurav Moni
Violeta Ruano Posada
Mohamed Sleiman Labat
Sandy Sur
Thorn Seyma
