HMRP and HCPO meet with Zuni Cultural Resources Advisory Team to Return Historic Songs

Hopi Tribal Archivist, Stewart Koyiyumptewa, and HMRP Lead Researcher, Trevor Reed, met with the Zuni Cultural Resources Advisory Team (ZCRAT) on Wednesday, October 24, 2012, to begin the repatriation of a series of 70+ year-old A:shiwi (Zuni) traditional songs from the Laura Boulton World Music Collection.  The meeting was generously supported by the Zuni Culture Resource Enterprise, Hopi Cultural Preservation Office and Columbia University’s Center for Ethnomusicology, and allowed ZCRAT—comprised of A:shiwi elders—to hear the voices of prominent early-twentieth-century community leaders and traditional singers performing ceremonial and social songs recorded by A:shiwi men and women at Zuni Pueblo in October 1940.

ZCRAT members collaboratively identified the performers, content, and contextual details pertaining to approximately 25 A:shiwi recordings currently housed in Columbia’s Center for Ethnomusicology in preparation for their formal return next year.  The body of recordings currently being repatriated also includes two Hopi ceremonial songs containing Zuni linguistic content, which were previously repatriated to Hopi clans and villages but have now been offered to the A:shiwi elders at the request of Hopi leaders and representatives as a token of the ongoing alliance between the two communities. Of particular note were ZCRAT members’ recollections of individuals, places, and histories that resurfaced through listening to these recordings. Members of ZCRAT stated that several of the songs would be heard again at upcoming events and within local community programs and also expressed interest in meeting with Hopi composers to exchange information about A:shiwi language and poetics, as has been practiced over centuries between the two groups.

HMRP and HCPO thank ZCRAT members for their willingness to collaborate with us in the music repatriation project and look forward to working with them in the coming years as we begin process of returning these songs and their corresponding rights back to the A:shiwi people.

Podcast: Returning Hopi Songs–A Hopi Perspective

We hope you enjoy this podcast with Hopi Cultural Preservation Office (HCPO) repatriation coordinator, Lee Wayne Lomayestewa. Along with his duties at HCPO, Lomayestewa is an active traditional leader at Shungopavi village, rancher, and father. Lomayestewa offers insights into the role of Hopi song in Hopi society, a Hopi perspective on the Federal repatriation process, and discusses what is at stake in the return of recorded Hopi voices from the past to contemporary Hopi life.

Click here to download: Podcast with Lee Wayne Lomayestewa (MP3)

HMRP on Native America Calling

The Hopi Music Repatriation Project will be featured on Native America Calling (check local affiliates here) with Columbia University Music Department Chair, Aaron Fox, and HMRP lead researcher, Trevor Reed.  The program invites community listeners to join with experts in a discussion of critical issues for indigenous people.  The program will air on Friday, October 29, 2010 at 10 am Pacific / 1 pm Eastern Time and will be rebroadcast at 4 pm PT/ 7pm ET

Native America calling is heard on 52 stations throughout the United States and Canada, with approximately 500,000 listeners.

Link to the like webcast at www.nv1.org.

What is Community-Partnered Repatration? Podcast with Aaron Fox, Columbia University

We wanted to share this podcast with ethnomusicologist and Columbia University Music Department Chair, Aaron Fox, in a timely way as we have very good news to report.  Fox along with Columbia University Earth Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow, Chie Sakakibara, have reached an important milestone in their effort to repatriate music from Columbia University’s Center for Ethnomusicology to the Iñupiaq community.  On June 16, Fox and the Iñupiat History, Language, and Culture Commission reached a preliminary agreement to return the rights to Laura Boulton’s 1946 series of Iñupiaq recordings to their community of origin. The details of this important announcement can be found here.

Congratulations to all involved!  We hope you enjoy this interview with Aaron Fox and invite your comments.

Follow this link to download (32 mins):HMRP Podcast #01: Aaron Fox for iPod (30MB Sound/Images)

For MP3 audio only, click this link: HMRP Podcast #01: Aaron Fox MP3 (15MB audio only)

HMRP Presentation to NAISA

Trevor Reed, HMRP lead researcher, will present the results of preliminary work to return the Laura Boulton collection to villages and societies within the Hopi Tribe on Friday, May 21, 2010 in Tucson.  The invitation was extended by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, and Mr. Reed will be joined by representatives from the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Peabody Essex Museum, University of Arizona, and the Newberry Library McNickle Center.  Chairing the panel will be Kevin Grover from the National Museum of the American Indian.

Unabridged text of the paper to be presented is available here: NAISA Hopi Voices.

We thank NAISA and the selection committee for their interest in this project.

Repatriation Initiative Receives Endorsement from Hopi Elders

At the invitation of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, HMRP presented the results of this summer’s research to the Hopi Cultural Resources Advisory Task Team (CRATT) at its December 17, 2009 meeting. CRATT, a body of Hopi village and clan representatives who advise the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office (HCPO), provided valuable insights into how the Hopi recordings in the Laura Boulton Collection at Columbia University could be repatriated to the Hopi people.

The support of CRATT members and Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, HCPO director, during the meeting provided significant momentum for HMRP as the project moves forward with additional research this summer. The goal of this first meeting with CRATT was primarily to outline the project, present a few of the recordings as examples of the more than 6 hours of Hopi music archived in Columbia’s Center for Ethnomusicology, and to find out how the collection might be of use to Hopi villages and clans. The opinion given by these traditional leaders was overwhelmingly in favor of returning the recordings and the copyrights to the Hopi people. Just how the recordings might be used and the specifics of who should hold the rights were the subject of significant dialog, and additional conversations on these topics will be the the theme for additional meetings with HCPO and CRATT over the course of this year. As Kuwanwisiwma explained, “There is a delegated authority vested in CPO and our CRAT team here, but how to work it out–how to protect the music–that’s all of our job here to do.”

Several of the songs presented were familiar to CRATT members, and some have perpetuated almost identically through the collective memory of kiva societies and villages.  CRATT members were able to recognize and identify many of the voices and songs on the recordings.  Perhaps the highlight of the event was the presentation of one of the recorded kööyemsi (mud head katsina) songs recorded by Laura Boulton in Hoatvela (Hotevilla) around late July of 1940.  Nearly every member of CRATT joined in to sing, showcasing how many of the songs captured by Boulton continue to be a vibrant part of Hopi life nearly 70 years later.

HMRP thanks HCPO and CRATT for their invitation to present these songs and for their support of this important project.

HMRP Achieves Common Ground with First Nations Composer Initiative

The First Nations Composer Initiative (FNCI), a program of the American Composers Forum, announced last month a Common Ground award to fund travel, educational programs, and other elements of HMRP’s Summer 2009 research.  According to their press release announcing the grant winners, “The FNCI is committed to supporting activities that build the careers of Indigenous creative musicians, including commissions, residencies, performance and production, travel/study, and outreach.” As HMRP seeks to return valuable cultural property to the Hopi community, especially composers, musicians and Hopi students, the Project found a common voice with FCNI’s purposes.

HMRP gratefully acknowledges the generocity of the Ford Foundation’s IllumiNation portfolio, which funds the FNCI Common Ground grantmaking program.