Early Childhood and Music in Indigenous Contexts: Approaches to Teaching and Learning in an Indigenous Australian Community

Descriptions of children’s musical experiences and practices in Indigenous Australian contexts often reflect holistic approaches to identity, linked to ancestry, spirituality, and place. Simultaneously, the musical worlds of Indigenous children are interconnected with complex social, cultural, historical, spiritual, and political contexts that draw upon local, regional, and global musical styles. This collaborative chapter reviews selected literature that addresses cultural identity and expression in the context of babies and children in Indigenous Australian and Indigenous Canadian contexts. This literature is used as a foundation from which to present accounts of childhood musical cultural practices from the Mowanjum Aboriginal Community in the Kimberley region, northwest Australia. Focusing on musical teaching and learning, the chapter considers the musical landscape, cultural inheritances, and active roles that young children play through their musical activities, in cultural resurgence, in stimulating new music (and dance) practices, and in social wellbeing.