ABSTRACT
Melanesian music and dance comprises those practices and expressions that islanders accept as their own, which were either inherited from their ancestors, acquired through trading networks, or absorbed from diverse influences following contact with the wider world beginning in the nineteenth century. Melanesians have created a diverse and complex range of auditory cultures around song, dance and sound-making instruments. Dancing in Melanesia has multiple meanings: religious, political, sexual and social. Indigenous Melanesian sound-producing instruments are often intricately decorated, however they are not technologically elaborate. The emotive singing of the African-Americans made a strong impression on missionaries, who in turn introduced their songs to nascent Melanesian Christian congregations. Building on the earlier popularity of hymnody, the advent of the guitar brought about an extraordinary burst of musical creativity throughout Melanesia. Music and dance keep safe vital information, tell of islanders’ contact history and modern transformation, and challenge injustices including those relating to their nineteenth-century stigmatisation as the black, hence inferior islanders.
