Decolonising and Indigenising Music Education: First Peoples Leading Research and Practice

Centring the voices of Indigenous scholars at the intersection of music and education, this co-edited volume contributes to debates about current colonising music education research and practices, and offers alternative decolonising approaches that support music education imbued with Indigenous perspectives. This unique collection is far-ranging, with contributions from Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, India, South Africa, Kenya, and Finland. The authors interrogate and theorise research methodologies, curricula, and practices related to the learning and teaching of music. Providing a meeting place for Indigenous voices and viewpoints from around the globe, this book highlights the imperative that Indigenisation must be Indigenous-led.

The book promotes Indigenous scholars’ reconceptualisations of how music education is researched and practised, with an emphasis on the application of decolonial ways of being. The authors provocatively demonstrate the value of power-sharing and eroding the gaze of non-Indigenous populations. Pushing far beyond the concepts of Western aesthetics and world music, this vital collection of scholarship presents music in education as a social and political action, and shows how to enact Indigenising and decolonising practices in a wide range of music education contexts.

Te Oti Rakena is an Associate Professor of music, and American-trained New Zealand singer, voice teacher and researcher with indigenous Māori tribal affiliations to Ngāpuhi, Ngati Ruanui and Kāi Tahu.

Clare Hall is a Senior Lecturer in performing arts education in Australia researching diversity and inclusion in the sociology of music and music education.

Anita Prest is Associate Professor of Music Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction guided by an advisory group, she conducts community-based participatory research to examine the embedding of local Indigenous knowledge, pedagogies, and worldviews in K-12 music classes in British Columbia.

David Johnson is an Associate Professor of music at the Western Norway University for Applied Sciences in Bergen, Norway. He leads the Singing Map of Scandinavia initiative that seeks to promote and sustain Nordic traditional and Indigenous singing cultures through music education.