SGMO-Circular, April 2006.

Dear members,
I hope you had a peaceful Easter celebration.
Thanks to all who sent news and information to circulate in this newsletter, I would like to start this letter with a few reminders:

Reminder: Study Group meeting and SEM- conference
- The next meeting of our Study Group will take place 19 -21 November 2006 in Honolulu. It will begin after the 11/19 mid-day closing of the SEM Annual Meeting and conclude on 11/21 with a good-bye dinner scheduled for 19:00. Please see the January 2006 circular for information about housing options and, for those who wish, how to make reservations at the East-West Center.

Meeting organizers Barbara Smith and Jane Moulin are planning a number of exciting events for this meeting. Papers should address either the topic "Pacific Strings" ('ukulele, string bands, guitars, etc.) or recent/on-going research on Pacific music. Please send your abstract for to Moulin with copies to Smith and Ammann before June 30, 2006.

The URL for SEM has been changed recently. Information on the forthcoming Annual Meeting in Honolulu, it is now: .

Reminder: our website
- ICTM Secretariat has moved to Canberra. All email sent to the former address at UCLA are being forwarded there. The new email for the Secretariat is and the Executive Assistant there (more or less, taking over Kelly's role) is Lee Anne Proberts. The new website is http://www.ictmusic.org.
- Our homepage (Oceania on - ICTM – Study Groups) is no yet updated – we hope to have these updates in the next few weeks – please be patient.

Reminder: SGMO panel in Vienna
- It had been proposed that the SGMO presents a panel at the Vienna 39th ICTM conference. The three propositions for a theme so far are: 1)“Europe Consuming the Pacific in the 19th Century”, 2) "Festivals" 3) "Archives". I suggest that the members use the listserv for a vivid discussion on the selection of one of these themes or to propose other themes.
- We should go ahead with the planning and organisation of this panel. The deadline to send the abstracts to the program-committee is October 2006.

News from members:

News from Kirsty Gillespie
Kirsty continues to work on her doctoral research at the Australian National University, studying the musical practices of the Duna people of Highland Papua New Guinea, and in particular the relationship between the 'traditional' and 'modern' musics the Duna compose. Kirsty plans another fieldtrip to PNG this year, first to Goroka in June to attend a 5-day workshop of the Chanted Tales Project, a project she works on with other researchers from the ANU, and PNG scholars, including Don Niles. She will then travel on to the Southern Highlands Province to work with the Duna for 3 months. Kirsty hopes to present some of her research at the SEM 2006 meeting in Hawai'i in November. This semester, however, she is based in Canberra, and is assisting Stephen Wild with running the ANU course 'Music in Indigenous Australian Society'.

News from Karl Neuenfeldt and Denis Crowdy
- Seaman Dan, 76 years old Torres Strait Islander singer-songwriter, has released his fourth CD, "Island Way". The CD features music that makes connections with Oceania, where some of his ancestors originated. In 2005 Seaman Dan also won the Australia Council for the Art's Red Ochre Award for contributions to Indigenous arts and in 2004 an Australian Performing Rights Association (ARIA) award for best 'world music' CD. All of his CDs have been collaborations with local Indigenous communities and have involved music researchers/
producers Karl Neuenfeldt and Denis Crowdy. Seaman Dan's original commercial recordings were under the aegis of research projects.
- Two CDs have been released of Rotuman music. 'Rotuman Chants and Hymns' and 'Ma'ma Kikia Se Puk On Aitu' (Churchward Chapel Choir Vol 2) were recorded in Fiji in collaboration with the Rotuman community and the Oceania Centre for Arts and Cultures at the University of the South Pacific, which has released the former CD. The recordings were produced and recorded by Nigel Pegrum from Cairns, Australia and Karl Neuenfeldt from Central Queensland University.

News from Phil Hayward and Denis Crowdy
- Phil Haywards has launched his latest book : 'Bounty Chords: Music, Dance and Cultural Heritage on Norfolk and Pitcairn Islands' (Eastleigh (UK): John Libbey and Co.) - 248 pages,
illustrated, was just launched at the 2nd International Conference on Small Island Cultures held on Norfolk Island () - ISBN 0-86196 6783 - US distribution Indianana University Press, also available (shortly) through Amazon.
- Denis Crowdy at Macquarie University and Phil Hayward were awarded a four year ARC Discovery grant in the last round to research the Melanesian Music Industries.

Latest review by Barbara Smith
- "Traditional Songs of the Maori". Third Edition by Mervyn McLean and Margaret Orbell. The review was published in The Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 114, No. 3 (Sept. 2005).

Publication announcement by Junko Konishi
- Art and Identity in the Pacific: Festival of Pacific Arts. Edited by Matori YAMAMOTO
JCAS Areas Studies Research Reports No.9 2006, National Museum of Ethnology.
Please ask Konishi to send a copy by e-mail, indicating the address to be sent to.

Latest publications from Jane Moulin
- 2005 “Marquesas Islands.” In Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife, William M. Clements, editor. Volume 1: Topics and Themes, Africa, Australia and Oceania, pp. 377-386. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
- 2005 “Oltobed a Malt (Nurture, regenerate, celebrate): The Ninth Festival of Pacific Arts in Koror, Palau. Contemporary Pacific 17 (Fall):512-516.

Latest publications from Raymond Ammann
- In the festschrift for Christian Kaufmann (the ex-Curator of the Department of Oceania - Museum der Kulturen in Basel), Ammann published an article on dance and historical development on the island on Tanna, Vanuatu: „Wenn die Insel zur Bühne wird, Tänze auf der Südseeinsel Tanna, Südpazifik” Regio Basiliensis 47/1 5-10 (2006)
- Raymond Ammann and Jacob Kapere's film: Karum Nupu (shown at the ICTM conference in Sheffield) is now available. Copies can be purchased either from Ammann (send a mail) or from the Vanuatu Cultural Centre (vks@vanuatu.com.vu). The DVD includes four versions: English, French, German and an English version with directors' comments. Price: 3000 vatu / 40 Swiss francs/ 30 USD (All profits from the sale go towards preservation of cultures in Vanuatu)

Latest review by Brian Diettrich
- 2005 Review of "The Theory and Practice of the Music in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea" by Jennifer J. Jones. in Yearbook for Traditional Music 37.

Latest publication from Jennifer Shennan
- Jennifer Shennan and Makin Corrie Tekenimatang edited:
One and a Half Pacific islands - Stories the Banaban People Tell of Themselves
edited by Jennifer Shennan & Makin Corrie Tekenimatang Victoria University Press, Wellington 2005.$39.95
- This collection of 72 stories documents the 20th century history of the Banaban people who were dislodged from Banaba and relocated in 1945 to live on Rabi Island in the Fiji group. The book's publication in 2005 marked the 60th anniversary of that migration - and is testament to the Banabans' high morale and resilient determination to survive as a people against great odds and injustices that have seen them isolated and impoverished, while countries such as New Zealand and Australia have developed enormous agricultural wealth from that bounty of phosphate.

New members:

Dr. Min WANG, head of the Music department of Xiamen University has been asked to contribute the section on Oceania to a world music text in China and thus has been studying sources on Oceanic musics very extensively in preparation for doing so. – Welcome in our Group, Dr Wang - I am sure you can count on our support on your work on Oceanic musics.

Dr. Manami YASUI form Tenri University, Naga, Japan. Dr Yasui had been at the Festival in Nouméa in the year 2000 and might be known to some of the members – Thanks for joining us and - a very warm welcome to you, Dr. Yasui.

So much of reminders and news. Once our website will be up-dated, you can find this and all the earlier circulars and newsletters there.
And please, take advantage of the listserv whenever you would like to exchange thoughts and ideas with your colleagues.

The next circular is planed for July.

Best wishes to all of you

Raymond