A Review of Anna Hoefnagels and Beverley Diamond's Aboriginal Music in Contemporary Canada: Echoes and Exchanges

Echoes and Exchanges: Aboriginal Music in Contemporary Canada is a comprehensive anthology by editors and ethnomusicologists Anna Hoefnagels and Beverley Diamond. The anthology assembles works covering a diversity of musical traditions, practices, transmissions, and creations from a span of artists, culture bearers, scholars, and elders of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis hailing from many regions across the country. Components of the anthology are also diverse in format, from scholarly work to informal interviews, in the spirit of collaborative and interactive ethnography. Beyond the diversity of both its content and format, the anthology possesses a design for explicit use in an interactive classroom, assumedly at a post-secondary level. Within this short review, the anthology is discussed using critical thought surrounding a variety of ethnographical and ethnomusicological approaches. H. Lloyd Goodall’s prescription for contemporary ethnographic methods as well as Luke Eric Lassiter’s work in collaborative ethnography and public anthropology informs such an examination. Comparative insights with recent similar work in the field of Aboriginal music in North America, and specifically in Canada, are made. Most importantly, the qualification of the placement of the anthology in a variety of contexts will be discussed – within the contexts of “Canadian music”, the field of ethnomusicology, and Aboriginal nonfiction work. The principle of intellectual exchange and the manner in which the anthology’s editors and contributors confront issues involved in such an exchange between groups of historical asymmetrical power are also discussed. Finally, the work is qualified in the practical context of the classroom