29
- Making Connections in Folklore -
ISSN 1833-6930
Australian Folklore Network
September 2009
Published for the AFN by the Australian Folklore Research Unit
Curtin University of Technology
CONTENTS
FROM THE CONVENOR
2010 NATIONAL FOLKLORE CONFERENCE
NEW EDITION OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS
AUSTRALIAN FOLK SPEECH ON THE ABC
NEW ZEALAND FOLKLORE COLLECTION PUBLISHED
WORLD ORAL LITERATURE PROJECT
TRADITIONAL MUSIC AT THE BRITISH LIBRARY
INFORMATION REQUEST ON PLACE NAMES IN TRADITIONAL SONG AND VERSE
FROM THE CONVENOR
In this edition we bring you a call for papers at the 2010 National Folklore Conference as well as a roundup of items from the wide world of folklore. Thanks to those who sent items in and please continue to do so.
Graham Seal
2010 NATIONAL FOLKLORE CONFERENCE
The conference will again be held in conjunction with the National Library of Australia and the National Folk Festival. Next year it will be on the folklorically appropriate date of Thursday, April 1. We are seeking expressions of interest from potential presenters. Please include a title of your paper (20 minutes in length), a brief abstract and a couple of sentences of biography.
The conference organising committee consists of Graham Seal (Curtin University), Rob Willis (AFN), Mark Cranfield (NFF) and Kevin Bradley (NLA).
We look forward to hearing from you by November 30. Expressions of interest to g.seal@curtin.edu.au
NEW EDITION OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH POPULAR BALLADS
First published 1883-1898, Francis James Child's monumental work on the ballad tradition of England and Scotland stands as a foundation document for all subsequent ballad scholarship and a resource for modern folk revivals. "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads" presents 305 distinct ballads, most with multiple variants, with commentary that traces the origins of the ballad stories through the literature and traditions of much of the western world. Professor Child's painstaking research ranges from ancient Greece to medieval Norway, with translations and detailed citations for all of the sources on which he draws.
Loomis House Press is pleased to present the first new (non-facsimile) edition of the Child collection, completely re-set and edited to include all of Child's post-publication corrections and additions, including 77 additional ballad texts.
http://www.loomishousepress.com/
Please note: This is a facsimile of the original edition, not newly typeset like our Child edition. The print quality is equivalent to a very good photocopy, but you may notice occasional blemishes or fading duplicated from the original printing.
AUSTRALIAN FOLK SPEECH ON THE ABC
Have a listen to some Australian accents recorded by Rob Willis for the National Library of Australia at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/05/2646328.htm
NEW ZEALAND FOLKLORE COLLECTION PUBLISHED
Phil Garlandıs book Faces in the Firelight has finally been published.
Forty years in the making it features a swag of songs about sealers, whalers, pioneers, goldminers, drifters, rogues and scoundrels, shearers, gumdiggers, hard drinkers and moonshiners, in company with a colourful collection of oral history, bush verse, tall stories, toasts and ditties. Hopefully after reading it youıll never be stuck for a song or a story again. The book will retail in shops for $34.99 but if you wish to order direct from me I can offer you a special one off price of $30 plus post & packaging for the month of August only.
Phil Garland can be contacted via phil@philgarland.co.nz or pgarland@xtra.co.nz
WORLD ORAL LITERATURE PROJECT
The World Oral Literature Project is an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record. The Project has been established to support local communities and committed fieldworkers engaged in the collection and preservation of oral literature by providing funding for original research, alongside training in fieldwork and digital archiving methods.
Established at the University of Cambridge in 2009, the project aspires to become a permanent centre for the appreciation and preservation of oral literature and to collaborate with local communities to document their own oral narratives.
For many communities around the world, the transmission of oral literature from one generation to the next lies at the heart of cultural practice. These creative works are increasingly endangered as globalisation and rapid socio-economic change exert complex pressures on smaller communities, often eroding expressive diversity and transforming culture through assimilation to more dominant ways of life. As vehicles for the transmission of unique cultural knowledge, local languages encode oral traditions that become threatened when elders die and livelihoods are disrupted. Of the world's over 6,000 living languages, around half will cease to be used as spoken vernaculars by the end of this century.
The first phase of the World Oral Literature Project provides small grants to fund the collecting of oral literature, with a particular focus on the peoples of Asia and the Pacific, and on areas of cultural disturbance. In addition, the project will host training workshops for grant recipients. The World Oral Literature Project will also publish a library of oral texts and occasional papers, and make the collections accessible through new media platforms.
Please visit our website for more information about our supplemental grants programme, activities and planned publications. We are very interested in collaborating with other institutions and individuals who are working on related projects and initiatives. If you are interested in exploring how your ongoing work might overlap with our new initiative, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Dr Mark Turin
Director World Oral Literature Project
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of Cambridge
Downing Street
Cambridge
CB2 3DZ
United Kingdom
url: http://www.oralliterature.org
TRADITIONAL MUSIC AT THE BRITISH LIBRARY
The British Library has opened up their huge collection for online listening under the title Traditional Music in England.
Circa 20,717 field recordings of traditional music, including popular ballads, children's skipping songs, customs, music hall, soldiers' songs, folk tales and interviews.
INFORMATION REQUEST ON PLACE NAMES IN TRADITIONAL SONG AND VERSE
I am seeking information about 19th and early 20th century Australian poems, songs and ballads. Specifically, I am after works that include the names of towns. For example 'Colonial Nomenclature' by John Dunmore Lang has many locations while 'Morgan' by Edward Harrington mentions Peechelba in Queensland. The only geographical areas excluded from consideration are Australia's off shore islands and external territories.
Last year I travelled around the country taking photographs of three topics on the mainland and am currently completing Tasmania where I now reside. The first topic was halls be they public, community or local, CWA, church, Masonic, Scout and Guide, band, etc.
I am thinking of putting together some sort of publication of these literary works with photographs of halls from the locations mentioned in the works; a sort of illustrated literary geography of the country. Where I don't have a suitable photograph of a hall, I will use photographs of my second topic which is war memorials of any description (Jundah in Queensland has a war memorial barbeque)although these photographs may form the basis of another publication.
The last specific topic that I am interested in is those literary works that refer to the Chinese (My Other Chinee Cook by Brunton Stephens) or China ("The Captains" by Henry Lawson) as another 'topic' for my 'photographic' expedition included the 'shop fronts' of Chinese restaurants, a few hotels with signage and a couple of signs. Another publication I am considering would put together such literary works with my photographs. I am also trying to find similar literary works written about Australia by Chinese authors either in Australia or in China during the 19th and early 20th century.
Any advice, contacts or sources about such literary works would be most appreciated
Graeme Lindsay
Deloraine Tasmania
email: glindsay@pnc.com.au