Decoloniality and the Disappearance of Ethnomusicology in Australian Universities: Where Are we Now?

Abstract

The words ‘decolonise’, ‘decolonising’, and ‘decolonisation’ have become ‘buzz’ words in much academic discourse today and resonate with much excitement, fervour, and noise about teaching, learning, and research which aims to bring about social justice and empowerment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and a reconciled future between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. However, taking heed of Tuck and Yang’s almost decade old warning that ‘without mention of Indigenous peoples, our/their struggles for the recognition of our/their sovereignty, or the contributions of Indigenous intellectuals and activists to theories and frameworks of decolonization’ (2012, p. 3) the word itself it becomes nothing more than a metaphor which recentres whiteness, resettles theory, and extends innocence to the colonial settler. In this chapter then, in acknowledgement of the problematics associated with decolonis/ing/ation buzz words, we take up instead the ethico-onto-pistemological praxis of ‘decoloniality’—defined by Global South scholars (Chatterjee and Maira, The imperial university: Academic repression and scholarly dissent, University of Minnesota Press, 2014; Grosfoguel, Cultural Studies, 21(2–3), 211–223, 2007; Maldonado-Torres, Cultural Studies, 21(2–3), 240–270, 2007; Mignolo, The darker side of Western modernity: Global futures, decolonial options, Duke University Press, 2011), as a way of untangling the production of knowledge from primarily Western, Eurocentric and colonial system—to explore the ways in which the discipline of music, and more specifically ethnomusicology, in Australian universities is performed within/against the ongoing legacy of colonialism. We write this chapter explicitly from our positionality as non-Indigenous ethnomusicologists and begin by outlining our understanding of decoloniality as thinking and practice. We then move to examine closely ethnomusicology programmes in Australian universities to consider the ways in which curriculum, content, and pedagogy remain ‘disciplined’ to coloniality or engaged in ‘undisciplined’ work to ask, ‘decoloniality, are we there yet? And if not, how do we get there?’