Yawahr: A Corroboree for Everybody

Aboriginal peoples of the south-eastern regions of Australia have had a long, harsh history of European contact. As the area of the most intensive European settlement, Aboriginal culture in coastal New South Wales (NSW) has been almost devastated by white invasion. Consequently, musicological work in western NSW is quite different to other areas of Australia, for it is essentially a salvage operation,in collecting and trying to make sense of the remaining knowledge of a small number of senior Aboriginal people. This paper discusses 'Yawahr', one performance genre from the Bundjalung and Gidabal areas of south-eastern Australia. Several recordings of one song, 'Mundala', are examined, and evidence is produced to confirm that performances in the past, unlike today, incorporated group singing and dancing. These findings are then placed into the broader context of existing research on the nature of performance from other areas of New South Wales.