GLOBALISATION AND INDIGENOUS CHRISTIANITY: TRANSLOCAL SENTIMENTS IN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL CHRISTIAN SONGS

Abstract

Indigenous societies have responded to a legacy of missionisation, universalist Christian beliefs and global contemporary Christian music through their own expressions of worship in a myriad of ways. This article considers the role of emotions in Australian Aboriginal expressions of contemporary Christian music amongst Yolngu in the Northern Territory. Moral obligations to kin and land are strategically embodied in Yolngu traditional ritual performance and shape appropriate “performative emotions.” These emotive ideals persist through Christian worship styles and have influenced the composition and performance of Yolngu Christian music. Because Indigenous performances are based on inherent connections between place and personhood, it is argued that translocal sentiments of belonging can be shared amongst Australian Aboriginal communities as well as amongst other Indigenous groups at Christian gatherings. Thus, while Indigenous communities participate emotively in the worldwide Christian arena through contemporary Christian music, they also resonate with one another at the level of translocal sentiments expressed in conceptions of self and personhood that are based in songs about the country.

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