On Sound Study, Xandão will follow unexpected resonances, feedback, and musical migration around the world. Tune in for situated listening, original field recordings, and occasional interviews with guest DJs, artists, and scholars.

Joseph Sikvayanuk standing at microphone. Whaling captain and dance group leader who shared the songs with Boulton

For this edition of Sound Study, Xandão invited Aaron Fox who spoke about becoming an accidental archivist and repatriation of archival sound recordings of indigenous American peoples—particularly the Iñupiaq—after inheriting the Laura Boulton archive at Columbia with its racist, colonial, and problematic history—a history shared by our disciplines of ethnomusicology and anthropology.

Tagiugmiut Dancers perform for Nalukataq (whale distribution ceremony) in June 2009 (these are the descendants of Joe Sikvayanuk, who started their group to rechoreograph Boulton recordings (Sakakibara).

Warren Matumeak, Iñupiaq elder and one of Aaron’s chief teachers. He and Martha were teenagers when Boulton came through.

Aaron Fox is an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at Columbia University. He is the author of Real Country: Music and Language in Working-Class Culture and in recent years has focused on issues of cultural and intellectual property and the repatriation of Native American cultural resources, as part of a broader interest in cultural survival and sustainability and music-centered community activism.

Aaron works with Iñupiaq elder Martha Aiken, 2009 to identify figures in 1946 photos.

TRACKLIST:
Girls’ Game- Angutnak and Matee (Folkways)
Merle Haggard- She Thinks I Still Care
Pablo and Frank Huerito (sic.) – Moccasin Game Song: Chickadee Song (Folkways)
Pablo and Frank Huerito (sic.)- Moccasin Game Song [in vocables]
(Folkways)
Pablo and Frank Huerito (sic.)- Moccasin Game Song: Antelope Song, Gray Song (Folkways)
Otis Ahkivigak- Inviting-In Dance Song (Folkways)
Joe Sikvayunak, Otis Ahkivigak and Jonas Oyoowak- Dance Song (Folkways)
Harry Gibbons- Bird Imitations (Folkways)
Harry Gibbons- Imitations of Walrus (Folkways)
Natahn Noonwook- Helicopter Song / Second Helicopter Song (Folkways)
Tanya Tagaq-Icebreaker (Six Shooter)