MUED1007: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music

"Sell the song" task (40%), co-composition project (60%).

None

Despite the unit's title not really reflecting this, "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music" is heavily designed for education students. MUED1007 was geared towards thinking about cultural tensions and issues in the contemporary classroom and exploring how we can use music as a means to understand and resolve them. This unit is also taken by second year students but as part of my major, I had to do this in first year and I'll have to say I'm really glad I did.

The assessments we had for this unit looked really confronting from first glance but was broken down into smaller components worth 5% to 30%. Other than perhaps the peer teaching assessment and choir, the "sell the song" task was the only other performance assessment I had. I felt like this was a great task because it encouraged myself and my partner Helen to do heaps of research into the song, practise consistently and to even email (and get a response!) from Jessica Mauboy herself. It was a really liberating experience to also perform something pop at the Con and I overall felt like the assessment was immensely enjoyable. As for the co-composition project, I struggled with certain parts of it like the transcription and the collaborative workshop (I was slightly nervous about contributing ideas since my peers were all second years) but the essay was by far the most fun assessment I've done in uni so far. It really allowed me to reflect and write critically, whilst still injecting my personal voice and flair into it. MUED1007 really nailed assessment on the head and I came out of the course feeling a lot more confident in my ability to empathise and lead music education in a cultural framework.

As I previously spoilt, this was my favourite subject alongside MCGY2613. I learnt so many meaningful things in this unit and I felt like I've grown more as a person from it. I've even created a playlist full of music supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians in Australia and still listen to it frequently. My credit for succeeding in this unit needs to go to Tom who I was really close with. My highlight of the whole semester was when we, along with another one of my classmates, went for drinks and saw Baker Boy at the Oxford Factory. I felt like I was able to apply everything I was learning and discussing in MUED1007 into real life and had a very fun time then. Tom was super responsive to all my questions, pushed me to think more critically and made me feel welcome amongst the second years. A lot of the effort I put into the unit was because of his excellent teaching and I hope he gets permanently hired as the lecturer for this subject. I definitely miss doing this unit but I've found myself doing my absolute best to keep what I learnt alive from it in my daily life and I hope this will be even more so when I head out to teach.

1x 2 hour seminar

3/5

Depends on the week; some weeks were recorded for assessment purposes.

Thomas (Tom) Fienberg

None

5/5

None; you are provided with readings in PDF form each week. I would recommend reading anything and everything Elizabeth Mackinlay. Her research aligns significantly with this unit and her papers were my main sources of research material for the reflective essay after the co-composition project.

2019 Semester 1

85 HD