Students fight for Aboriginal music studies
It wasn’t Caleb Raymond’s first demonstration. Weeks earlier, he had been marching the streets of Adelaide protesting the Western Australian government’s plans to close remote Aboriginal communities. Now, on 20 May, he was one of 200 marching through Adelaide University against the administration’s plans to cut the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM). “It’s all part of the same issue”, he told Red Flag. “What they’re doing is cultural genocide.”
Caleb, a first year CASM student, sees his course as more than just about getting a qualification. “It’s a way to reconnect to a culture I’ve been stripped of.”
Taught by a program specifically designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians, former students have made enormous contributions to Indigenous music over the 40-year history of the centre. Bands formed there include No Fixed Address and Coloured Stone, while acclaimed musical Bran Nue Dae had its origins in the old CASM studios. Now the university plans to scrap CASM’s three teaching courses and five teaching staff, replacing them with a research centre.
“Aboriginal people are the most researched people on the planet”, said Christine Abdulla, a second year anthropology student and Ngarrindjeri woman who addressed the protest. “We don’t want to be researched. We want to study. We want to learn.”
The changes, outlined in a memorandum sent to staff, are part of a planned overhaul of the music conservatorium at Adelaide University that includes abolishing classical voice performance and cutting staff. The overhaul has met opposition from music students, who in a general meeting on 14 May passed motions of no confidence in the head of music and executive dean of arts. At the 20 May protest, classical, jazz and pop music students marched side by side with students from CASM.
“With the protest I feel more a part of the conservatorium than ever before”, Caleb said. “The university tries to keep Aboriginal students separate, but what they’re doing is bringing us together. Without that support, we’d go crazy.”
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Tom Gilchrist is the NUS South Australia Education Officer.
