The tradition/modern binary simplifies real world experiences and places emphasis on hierarchy, where modernity is valued more than tradition, or vise-versa, depending on who is deciding. The tradition/modern binary also neglects in-between spaces where diversity and multiplicity reign in a continuum where tradition and modernity exist simultaneously. This paper considers the tradition/modern binary and the ways in which ethnomusicologists have engaged with these concepts in relation to their work with Indigenous musicians and communities. I explore how ethnomusicologists have theorized tradition and modernity and developed these concepts to construct “Indigenous modernity,” a catchall term that emphasizes the myriad of ways indigeneity and modernity co-exist.
About the presenterRaj Shobha Singh
Raj Singh, PhD, is a music researcher in the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University. Her interests include critical Indigenous theory, Indigenous methodologies and Indigenous modernity. Her current work examines how Inuit musicians combine traditional and contemporary forms of music to include new realms of lived experiences. Moreover, her work with Inuit hip hoppers interrogates the intersections between gender, identity, and race as they relate to individual and communal notions of belonging.