Dance and quality of life for indigenous communities in Australia
pp. 495-512
in: Karen Bond (ed), Dance and the quality of life, Berlin, Springer, 2019Abstract
Indigenous peoples today continue ancient traditions of dance and other arts for sustaining and developing health and wellbeing. This chapter documents how traditional and contemporary dance practices of Indigenous peoples of Australia can strengthen participants' access to quality of life, as described in Indigenous epistemology. We examine two case studies of cultural practices focused around dance in detail—the Junba dance-song tradition of Western Australia and the Milpirri Festival of the Northern Territory—identifying factors that might enable improved quality of life through dance. These include close connections with traditional culture, aesthetic elements utilized thoughtfully to facilitate experienced wellbeing, different roles and opportunities for people of all generations, and processes for negotiating new identities in changing contexts.