Gillian Howell
Dr Gillian Howell is a musician and researcher whose work aims to advance our understanding of the social, cultural and political interactions of music-making in settings of protracted conflict, and the potential contributions of music to peace formation. She is the Dean’s Research Fellow at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne, the Co-Chair of the International Society of Music Education’s Community Music Activity Commission, and a musician whose community-engaged projects include post-conflict music development work in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste. In 2020 she won the Australian Art Music Award for Excellence in a Regional Area for her collaborative music work with First Peoples and Tura New Music in remote North-West Australia. She has been a keynote speaker in China, Australia, and Colombia, an Australian Government Endeavour Research Fellow in Sri Lanka and Norway, a Griffith University Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and a visiting scholar in Colombia and Norway.
Gillian lives and works on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung peoples of the eastern Kulin Nations in what is now known as Melbourne, Australia, with her partner Tony and small dog Gretel.
Website - www.gillianhowell.com.au
Gillian lives and works on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung peoples of the eastern Kulin Nations in what is now known as Melbourne, Australia, with her partner Tony and small dog Gretel.
Website - www.gillianhowell.com.au
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Papers by Gillian Howell
the central notions of this approach. Underpinning these four case studies is also the concept of musical excellence in community music interventions. This notion of excellence refers to the quality of the social experience – the bonds formed, meaning and enjoyment derived, and sense of agency that emerges for individuals and the group – considered alongside the musical outcomes created through the music making experience. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the ways in which community music opens up new pathways for reflecting on, enacting, and
developing approaches to facilitation that respond to a wide range of social, cultural, health, economic, and political contexts.
This chapter focuses on the divided city of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and examines the way that one group of young people reclaimed the exploration of identity and the expansion of their constrained physical and social worlds through participation in music-making activities. It examines the self-reports of their experiences through the idea of “life space”, a concept most commonly found in gerontology but expanded in this study to encompass three dimensions – physical, inner, and social life space.
The testimonies of former participants in the music activities form the primary data source. Data were gathered during a period of intensive ethnographic fieldwork in October–November 2013 and analyzed inductively and thematically. The relatively long retrospective view yielded findings that include the contributions that provision of diverse music activities made to the broad conflict stabilization and recovery effort, including goals concerned with peacebuilding and youth engagement. The provision of music and arts activities in a nonpolitical space were found to make a contribution to the maintenance of cultural alternatives in the city and the nurturing of a “capacity to aspire” among individuals, findings which have significance for locally driven development and the cultivation of more stable, tolerant societies.
A review of scholarly literature and related extant texts (websites, in-house publications, and media reports) revealed four broad categories of intention behind many music interventions in conflict-affected sits: Music Education, Cultural Regeneration, Social Development, and Healing and Health Promotion. This chapter focuses on those intentions, examining the contexts for each, and using the Pavarotti Music Centre in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music as illustrative examples.
Musician and educator Gillian Howell spent four months developing participatory music projects in East Timor [Timor-Leste], working from community bases and informal settings. This article describes some of the challenges that the complex cultural environment of Timor-Leste presented. Timor’s contemporary culture bears the legacies of centuries of negligent colonial rule by Portugal, and brutal occupation by Indonesia, and before that Japan. This history is compounded by the East Timorese people’s recent experiences as a newly-independent nation, supported in the rebuilding of their country by an enormous influx of foreign advisors, UN administrators, non- government organisations and church organisations. The influence of so much outside attention, influence, and power by these international actors on East Timorese soil has impacted on every aspect of East Timorese life in multiple ways.
Using narrative inquiry and autoethnographic tools to examine the environment and her experiences as a practitioner within it, the author describes a series of music projects, and the
decisions that needed to be made within these, in the light of cross-cultural challenges and dilemmas that arose. These included questions about musical content, instruments, pedagogical approaches, and interactions with local collaborators. The challenges and their solutions and findings are specific to Timor-Leste, but may be applied more broadly to other post-conflict, post- colonial and developing country settings.
In this presentation I shall draw upon my current PhD research and give an overview of participatory music activities in post-conflict settings, considering formal, non-formal or informal modes of interaction, and the pedagogical approaches used. I limit my focus to initiatives in the last 20 years that have developed as a response to war and/or part of reconstruction and rebuilding of community, civil society, and physical resources.
I shall then discuss some of the issues and challenges arising from these initiatives in relation to their community ownership and long-term sustainability, and the implications for local music ecologies that may arise from these programs.
In this paper, I examine composition activities within community musicking in different cultural contexts, and how different understandings of these activities may have implications for practitioners working cross-culturally. In the hierarchical organisation of Western music, the position of the composer – and subsequently, the perceived value of composing and creating one’s own music - is well-established as an elevated and celebrated undertaking. Thus, within music education curriculum and settings, composition has its place. In particular, it is a key tool in the area of community music as an intervention, where a skilled music leader supports groups to collaborate, explore and develop their own musical creations, nurturing through this process a sense of ownership and agency among the participants.
However, my experiences as a community music leader in diverse communities suggests that the idea of creating one’s own music is not universally appealing, and the rationale for wanting to do so can be contestable in different lived experiences or world views. Furthermore, the notion of ‘writing’ music may be understood differently in different contexts, especially in settings where music is something that belongs to communities rather than individuals.
I begin my presentation with the story of a songwriting project that I led in Timor-Leste and some of the questions that arose for me. I then compare this experience to other songwriting and composition projects in Timor-Leste, indigenous Australia, and refugee and immigrant communities in Melbourne, highlighting key points of divergence. These divergences will be of relevance to practitioners working in cross-cultural settings in the Asia-Pacific region.
24) through state-of-the-art rock music education, production, and promotion programs in Kosovo and North Macedonia. Music Connects features a carefully developed approach that seeks to build sustainable social inclusion and participation opportunities with young musicians leading the way. This evaluation
has examined the social difference that this program makes to participating youth and their communities. This evaluation has investigated the extent to which inclusion and connection among divided youth in Kosovo and North Macedonia have been achieved
in the programs delivered in three rock schools. Specifically, it has considered the outcomes of Music Connects in relation to social connections, inclusion, changing of perspectives and mobility, and the practices, values, and strategies that facilitate these. This report identifies factors that influence the depth of bonds that may be created, and it foregrounds the voices and perspectives of the young musicians involved, who are the frontline beneficiaries of the program.
In 2019, Agrigento engaged Dr Gillian Howell as Research Consultant to lead a survey of 13 practitioners, researchers and practitioner-researchers from Australia, Canada, Scandinavia, Sri Lanka, the UK and USA. Collectively, these individuals had experience of a wide range of music as social action programs and contexts, including community music, El Sistema-inspired programs and projects within schools, post-conflict settings and centres for people experiencing social exclusion.
This summary report is based upon the final report prepared by Dr Howell. It provides an overview of knowledge shared by the interlocutors captured under four themes: (1) what do exemplary music as social action programs look like; (2) what appear to be the critical change mechanisms linking music action to social change; (3) what are some of the current gaps in provision and knowledge that we can address, and (4) what are the challenges affecting program implementation and sustainability that we may struggle to change.
also be elusive, unpredictable and capricious. What are the qualities, layers, contexts and 'ripples' of inspiration for artists co-creating work with children? This essay unpeels the onion skin layers of inspiration.
Many researchers, educators, artists, arts advocates and policy makers have travelled to Venezuela in order to understand the secret to El Sistema’s success. However, UK scholar Geoffrey Baker’s research took a slightly different stance, asking, “Is El Sistema successful? At what? And what do Venezuelan musicians think about it?” The result of his lengthy ethnographic inquiry is a book that has strongly divided opinions and caused something of a storm among the global Sistema community.
Some in that community have questioned Baker’s motives, darkly suggesting vendettas and hidden agendas to explain why he found so much to criticise in such a lauded program. In this review, Gillian Howell attempts to steer a steady course through such turbulent waters, teasing out the book’s offerings and provocations for music educators, researchers, and anyone interested in the role that music learning may play in human transformation.