Daru music workshop, 9-19 April 2013: The workshop

The Daru music workshop was seven days, beginning on Wednesday, April 10, and concluding on Thursday, April 18. The general structure of the workshop was very similar to the Urim workshop that I wrote about recently. (You can start here if you missed it or want to look at it again.) One difference: Western Province is one of the parts of PNG that has not adopted Tok Pisin as a language of wider communication. They use English, and I was able to teach the whole course in English.

The Daru workshop was special for me because it was the completion of a promise I made nearly three years ago. In October 2010 I went to Western Province to lead back-to-back music workshops in the Gizrra and Bine language areas. On my way home, I stopped for a few days in Daru, and on that Sunday a group of church leaders met together at TMC to hear something about what I do. They also shared with me some dramas from their church groups, and some of their songs. It was a really nice time, and I was impressed with the friendliness and the enthusiasm about local arts that I sensed from the people I met. They said I really needed to come back and do a workshop in Daru, and I said if it was at all possible, I would do so. So when I went back and led the workshop last month, it was a very satisfying continuation of the relationship that began a few years ago.

The closing celebration of the Gizrra music workshop, Kululae Village, October 2010

Around 40 people from five languages of Western Province (including Gizrra) gathered to learn about a biblical perspective on music, instruments, dance, and worship, and to work on new songs together.

As with the Urim, I tried a participatory technique to get people talking about their traditional musics and instruments.

 

The Kiwai-language participants discussing their instruments

People sat together in language groups and drew pictures of their local instruments. Then they attached kinds of songs to the instruments that accompany those songs. The end result is a visual map of some of the local music that is available in their areas. I hope that this helps people not only interact with each other about music, but also to think about music from an additional different perspective.

The Kiwai music map

After the initial teaching and discussions, the participants spent several days working on song composition. Most of the songs incorporated indigenous instruments, such as the kundu drum and rattles, with guitar. For some, this was a new experience, bringing the indigenous together with the guitar.

Then on the final afternoon, all of the participants planned a closing celebration to showcase the 20+ new songs they'd composed during the week. I was surprised to see that they had already arranged the songs for a plugged-in setup: electric guitar, electric bass, keyboard, and drumset. And the songs sounded pretty good in that style. I could easily imagine them being enjoyed in churches in Daru, many of which are used to that kind of band for church music.

Though the general tone of the closing celebration was decidedly "contemporary," there were also aspects of traditional culture present, whether in the kundu playing along with the band, or traditional attire, or a set of pieces that had been choreographed.

Traditional-style headdress of the area

Conch shell

Choreography in traditional costume

A group of the participants in a choreographed presentation

In the final Daru post, I'll share a few of the songs that came out of the workshop, as well as some thoughts about what the point of such a workshop is and what the participants really get from it.