Music for dreaming: Aboriginal lullabies in the Yanyuwa community at Borroloola, Northern Territory

TLDR

Lullabies are universal soothing songs, and in the Yanyuwa community of Borroloola they are called kurdakurdamanthawu, with content drawn from both restricted and unrestricted performances that differ by access based on gender, age, or kinship. The article offers an ethnographic overview of Yanyuwa lullabies, analyzing the performance practice, themes, and textual content of both restricted and unrestricted forms.

Abstract

The lullaby is a type of song sung the world over to calm a crying child and gently lull babies into the arms of sleep. Amongst the Yanyuwa Aboriginal community in the remote town of Borroloola in the Northern Territory of Australia, lullaby songs are broadly referred to by the generic term kurdakurdamanthawu and the content of lullabies is drawn from both restricted and unrestricted forms of Yanyuwa performance. As I have suggested elsewhere (Mackinlay 2000:73), the terms “restricted” and “unrestricted” “delineate who can access the knowledge and information contained within performance “. The term “restricted” refers to those performances which limit the participants and their access to the meaning of the ritual textual elements and associated information on the basis of gender, age and/or kinship affiliation. In contrast, the term “unrestricted” denotes performance that does not place limitations on who may participate and who may access the knowledge contained within the performance. In this article I provide an ethnographic introduction to restricted and unrestricted Yanyuwa lullabies through examination of performance practice, themes and textual content of both forms of Aboriginal singing.