In this book Dylan Robinson posits the inclusion and funding of indigenous American and Inuit sound works by Canadian arts councils revolves around the stripping and repackaging of indigenous sonic traditions to fit within underlying classical western modes of listening. Suggesting that terms like ‘inclusionary music’ and ‘inclusionary performance’ run counter to their supposed enrichment of social progression.

“While indigenous performers are increasingly offered space within a composition or on a stage, they are infrequently offered the opportunity to define what venue for performance might be used, the design of the space and audience-performer relationship, and the parameters and protocol for gathering at the site of performance.”

Through the removal of exchanges between space, temporality, performer and listener that would take place in traditional settings, the sound is reduced to an aesthetic exhibit. This reminds me of the Pitt-Rivers museum of natural history which I remember visiting as a child where there was a collection of shrunken heads(tsantsa) of the Shuar held inside a neutrally western glass cabinet. They have now been removed from display as ethical questions have arisen surrounding its framing. Here is a quote from their website.

“The decision was taken to remove the tsantsa from public display because it was felt that the way they were displayed did not sufficiently help visitors understand the cultural practices related to their making and instead led people to think in stereotypical and racist ways about Shuar culture.”

This is relevant when working with objects and sounds that are imbued with inherent meaning and cultural value. For my first idea I wanted to explore reconnection with my Igorot side, a culture I am tied to through ethnicity, by reproducing begnas which is a celebration and blessing to indigenous deities for good harvests, spiritual healing and community cleansing from societal dilemmas or catastrophes. Within these celebrations, gangsa(tuned metal gongs) are performed often in a circle. My plan was to reproduce this celebration as a live performance by automating the gong strikes with motors within a space and layout where the audience is facing the performer. However, within this mode of interaction the listener is hearing within a western framework. Gangsa are intertwined with dance and with improvisation acting as an expression of community and identity, and as such, removing the participation of the listener would produce a similar dynamic to that of the tsantsa and the glass cabinet framing it. Behaving as an observer as opposed to a participant. By reproducing an indigenous sonic tradition I would be stripping the cultural context associated with such traditions and reappropriating its aesthetics to fit within a western framework of interaction irrespective of the validity of my ties to the performance.

Approaching Listening from Igorot perspectives in Space and in Participation

gangsa are inherently tied to dancing and often viewed as part of the same expression, with no community there would be no dance and with no dance there would be no sound and vice versa, as such soundmaking in this context creates a collective identity which is felt and shared intuitively as opposed to a dialogue based interaction which causes the separation of the soundmaker and the sound observer into two entities. To stimulate the emergence of listening structures similar to that of begnas there are a number of considerations that would have to be navigated. Spatial location, temporal location and geographic location play a part in the synthesis of listening structures and would determine whether the performance is appropriation or emancipation. As Robinson describes the aim of the book is to differentiate between “those displays of equality that are more concerned with importing Indigenous content and increasing representation than with redefining the structures of inclusion”