Naomi Sunderland

Despite strong community leadership, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples continue to face elevated levels of distress, death, and disadvantage linked to intergenerational trauma (Blagg et...

First Nations musicians often describe live performance as a means of fostering social, cultural, and political change that shapes determinants of health (DoH) for First Nations Peoples. This study examined how audience experiences of First Nations live music events in Central Australia may influence those DoH - including intercultural understanding, social cohesion, and community wellbeing - and explored the durability of such effects over time. Guided by an Indigenist mixed‑methods approach, we conducted a pilot survey at two arts festivals featuring diverse First Nations musicians, followed by optional six‑month "mini yarn" interviews to explore immediate and longer‑term audience experiences. Quantitative analyses included descriptive statistics and Fisher's exact test; qualitative data were thematically analysed and reviewed with community partners. Seventy‑eight audience members completed the survey. Most identified as non‑Indigenous (n = 69), with four identifying as Aboriginal or of mixed First Nations heritage. Participants represented a wide range of ages, genders, and sexual identities. Respondents across cultural backgrounds reported positive social, emotional, and cultural effects. Non‑Indigenous attendees frequently described strengthened connections with First Nations communities, greater appreciation for First Nations cultures and languages, and motivation to support First Nations issues. Follow‑up yarns suggested that although some effects lessened, many participants reported sustained intercultural understanding or connection. Findings indicate that First Nations live music may influence social and cultural DoH by fostering intercultural understanding, allyship, and reconciliation‑oriented attitudes. The six‑month follow‑up underscores the value of examining both immediate and enduring impacts of live music on health and social cohesion.

This Special Issue emerges from a collaboration between the International Journal of Community Music and the International Society for Music Education Special Interest Group Decolonizing and Indigenizing Music Education (DIME). Led by Indigenous scholar-practitioners from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, the collection foregrounds First Peoples, Indigenous and First Nations perspectives on community music theory, practice and research. Across diverse global contexts, contributors challenge deficit and extractive approaches by asserting that music already exists within land, waters, ancestors, communities and intergenerational relationships. The articles collectively argue for community music practices that meet First Nations Peoples where music already is, while critically unsettling dominant colonial assumptions about music, community and knowledge. Drawing on Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies and cosmologies, contributors offer frameworks grounded in relationality, embodiment, place and care-full research practice. The Special Issue advances community music scholarship by centring Indigenous sovereignty, cultural continuity and innovation, and ethical responsibilities in music-making, facilitation and research.

This article explores the spiritual and relational dimensions of community engagements with First Nations music through the Gamilaraay framework of Maal (‘One/Self’), Bulaarr (‘Two/Relationship’) and Gulibaa (‘Three/Community’). Drawing on five yarning interviews across South-East Queensland and Northern New South Wales, Australia, the study centres Indigenous methodologies, relational philosophy and embodied storytelling to investigate music’s role in healing, identity and intergenerational well-being. Framing music not as entertainment but rather as a lived practice, the article affirms music’s role as a relational, cultural and spiritual force. Using a Gamilaraay Indigenist approach led by Glenn Barry, the article proposes re-Indigenizing community music research by centring ancestral wisdom and collective well-being. The findings contribute to Indigenous-led music scholarship by offering a culturally secure model for engaging with First Peoples’ knowledge systems and health.

This article documents the project Play On , a series of online curated conversations held between community arts practitioners and researchers based in Ireland and Australia. The Play On series featured contributions from community musicians and artists, researchers, activists and Elders. Together, we considered the challenges and opportunities we encountered in our work and discussed how we might respond to urgent issues impacting our field, our communities and our lives. The discussions from this project continued to impact us long after the series ended. They are presented here as four stories, representing the four curated conversations we had online during that time. Each one weaves together some of the multiple voices who contributed. We are of different nationalities but are based primarily in Ireland and Australia. Each story includes a series of questions or provocations for the reader to consider, discuss and debate in their own contexts. Our intention is to share our learning and stimulate further conversation about how we might approach the complexities and possibilities of our community music work.

This article reports on promising pilot research which indicates that intergenerational musical practices in diverse First Nations families and communities in Vanuatu and Australia can shape cultural determinants of health (CDoH). We contend that such strength- and culture-based approaches to health promotion may help to disrupt colonial and deficit constructions of First Nations People and our health and wellbeing. The pilot study used Indigenist yarning which prioritized First Nations ideas, concepts, and knowledges during informal and relational semi-structured interviews with 9 diverse First Nations musicians in Australia and Vanuatu. The pilot study underpins an ongoing international 3-year research project examining First Nations music as a determinant of health led by Griffith University, The University of the Sunshine Coast, The University of Queensland, and Edith Cowan University. Yarning interviews were analyzed using collaborative thematic analysis and Indigenous visual art responses. Major themes emerging from the data related to intergenerational music activity and transmission. Themes include Music as an intergenerational medium of cultures; Music as a bond between older and younger generations; Intergenerational musical activism and advocacy; and Musical lineages and strengths. Intergenerational musical practices in diverse First Nations families may provide protective cultural, social, economic, educative, and professional determinants of health. The study indicates that more research and new theory may unlock the potential of First Nations musical activities as protective and agentic cultural practices in our families and communities.

RRH: Rural and Remote Health. Published article number: 7832 - Exploring arts–health ecologies in the very remote Barkly Region of Australia

This article reports on findings that indicate how First Nations musical activities function as cultural determinants of health. Drawing on early findings from a 3-year Australian Research Council funded project titled The Remedy Project: First Nations Music as a Determinant of Health, we detail Australian and Ni Vanuatu First Nations musicians’ reported outcomes of musical activity using a First Nations cultural determinants of health framework. The broader findings indicate that our respondents see musical activity as actively shaping all known domains of cultural health determinants, and some surrounding political and social determinants. However, this paper focusses specifically on the political and economic determinants that emerged in analysis as the most dominant subthemes. We argue that this study provides strong impetus for continued investigation and reconceptualization of the place of music in cultural health determinant models. This article looks at how making and performing music, recording music and listening to music helps the health of First Nations peoples in Australia and Ni Vanuatu. Music is an important part of the lives of First Nations peoples from these places and so research was done to try to understand why it is meaningful. Music can be used as an outlet for personal feelings, and can also be a way that groups of people can express common concerns. First Nations musicians talked about how music makes them feel, and how music is used to strengthen relationships between people, and between people and their culture. Musicians also talked about how music helps them express their political and economic goals. The findings backed up existing First Nations’ models of health that say that health for First Nations People’s needs to be thought about in a holistic way. The findings also showed that the relationship between music and health needs to be studied more so that we can better understand how it helps maintain links with the past, gives a guide for the present and opens options for the future.

This paper reviews existing approaches to inclusive, co-produced and agentic research in disability, and shares related reflections from a co-produced digital storytelling project. The project, which included self-advocates with intellectual disabilities, academics, and support staff was undertaken in Queensland, Australia, in 2018. This paper reflects on the potential and limitations of inclusive research methods by, and with, people with intellectual disabilities. We reflect on and analyse our experiences using a co-production framework and consider how this project increased participation and agency by, with, and for people with intellectual disabilities. The paper concludes with a summary of learnings and recommendations for future co-produced research activities including the importance of taking time to build capacity and establish the required foundations for more inclusive research.