Reuben Brown. The Gift of Song: Performing Exchange in Western Arnhem Land

From the outset, Reuben Brown acknowledges the deeply troubling impact of historical ethnomusicology, anthropology, and archaeology in Australia. Brown recounts that in 1948, American archaeologist Frank Setzler stole Indigenous human remains while taking part in the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. Seventy years later—and after extensive negotiations with the Smithsonian Institution—the remains returned from the United States to Gunbalanya in Western Arnhem Land. Setzler’s transgressions were just one of many carried out by researchers within these fields of study. Indeed, the University of Melbourne is currently in the process of airing its shameful history of collecting Indigenous human remains in the name of science, as an act of truth-telling. Perhaps, then, the arrival of Brown’s first monograph, The Gift of Song, is well-timed.