Non-Western Ensembles: Crossing Boundaries and Creating Interstices in Cross-Cultural Educational Contexts

Two student members of non-Western music groups active in an Australian tertiary education music department, a Turkish ensemble and an Afro-Carribean steelpan ensemble, and the indigenous teachers of these ensembles were asked about their musical backgrounds, their musical, cultural and educational expectations, experiences and outcomes within these ensembles, and their responses to issues of appropriation and `cultural rights.' Drawing on Bhabha's (1994) idea of “interstices” within which “negotiation” can occur because of the different backgrounds of those within the ensembles, we note a diversity and sharing of teaching and learning approaches being undertaken by the participants. The teachers and students identified the needs for students to “extract personal meaning” through “deep learning” (Ramsden, 1992), a sense of “adding to the self” (Reimer, 1994), in order to negotiate boundaries. The teachers defined music which was shareable, and welcomed the blending of traditional music with other styles — providing that it is music which is able to be shared, and that it is understood correctly.