Indigenous or Aboriginal rock is a style of

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

which mixes

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

with the instrumentation and singing styles of

Indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

. Two countries with prominent Aboriginal rock scenes are Australia and Canada.

Australia

In Australia, Aboriginal rock mixes rock styles and instruments (e.g. electric (

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

and

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s) with

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

instruments such as the

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...

and clapsticks. Aboriginal rock is mostly performed by Indigenous bands, although some bands include non-Aboriginal members. Bands include

Yothu Yindi Yothu Yindi (Yolŋu Matha, Yolngu for "child and mother", pronounced , natively ) are an Australian musical group with Australian Aboriginal, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members, formed in 1986 as a merger of two bands formed in 1985 – a wh ...

, Us Mob and No Fixed Address. Yothu Yindi, with vocalist Mandawuy Yunupingu has politicised lyrics, such as 1991's "Treaty". Other songs relate more generally to Aboriginal culture. Another major band was the Warumpi Band, which toured with

Midnight Oil Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by H ...

. The Warumpi Band focuses more on the Aboriginal aspects of the music, rather than the rock sound of Yothu Yindi. In the 2000s, Aboriginal bands such as NoKTuRNL have adopted a

rap metal Rap metal is a fusion genre that combines hip hop music, hip hop with heavy metal music, heavy metal. It usually consists of heavy metal guitar riffs, funk metal elements, Rapping, rapped vocals and sometimes turntablism, turntables. History O ...

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, with a metal umlaut) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop music, hip hop, funk, industrial music, industrial, and grunge. Nu ...

sound. Formal training institutions include the Government sponsored

Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts The Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) is a national Australian institution for the culturally sensitive training of Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people in the performing arts. Founded in 1997, it has been loca ...

. Famous songs include "

Treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

", " My Island Home", and " Blackfella/Whitefella".

Canada

Indigenous peoples in Canada include

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...

and

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

. Some examples of Canadian Indigenous rock bands or artists include

Aysanabee Aysanabee is an Oji-Cree singer-songwriter from Canada, whose debut album ''Watin'' was released in 2022.Jonathan Ore"Aysanabee's pandemic phone calls with his grandfather inspired his debut album" '' Unreserved'', November 4, 2022. Background ...

, Breach of Trust,

Kashtin Kashtin were a Canadians, Canadian folk rock duo in the 1980s and 1990s, one of the most commercially successful and famous musical groups in First Nations in Canada, First Nations history. Career The band was formed in 1984 by Claude McKenzie a ...

, Bruthers of Different Muthers, Burnt Project 1, Digging Roots, Edward Gamblin, The Halluci Nation (formerly A Tribe Called Red), George Leach, Derek Miller,

Robbie Robertson Jaime Royal Robertson (July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) was a Canadian musician of Indigenous and Jewish ancestry. He was the lead guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s. Robertson was also the ...

, Julian Taylor, Ruby Waters, and Tom Wilson.

Ecuador

Several mestizo-bands in Ecuador made use of indigenous musical elements in rock music since the 1990s. Rocola Bacalao integrated Andean rhythms and made in their song-texts references to emblematic indigenous towns, such as Pujilí in Cotopaxi. Sal y Mileto and Casería de Lagartos coined the genre of new Ecuadorian Rock. Nevertheless, in the 1980s and the early 1990s the rhythm of the social as expressed in Ecuadorian rock was characterized by hopelessness and resistance or even resignation against repression. With the emergence of a powerful indigenous movement the rhythm changed. The most emblematic references towards the political impact of the indigenous movement are made by the metalband Aztra and the hardcore band CURARE at the beginning of the 2000s, during the heyday of indigenous social protest against neoliberalism and for (ethnic) democratization.Olaf Kaltmeier. 2019. 7. Rockin` for Pachamama: political struggle and the narration of history in Ecuadorian rock music.” In: Sonic Politics. Ed. Olaf Kaltmeier und Wilfried Raussert. New York: Routledge 2019, pp. 179-204.

References

External links

{{Rock 21st-century music genres Rock music genres Australian Aboriginal music First Nations music Fusion music genres Australian styles of music

Australia

Canada

Ecuador

See also

References

Further reading

External links