In this podcast (released June 20, 2007), Smithsonian Folkways Director and Curator Dan Sheehy talks about “endangered sounds,” sounds we lose from changing technologies or encroaching globalisation, including musical traditions. Dan reports on what Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is doing to preserve these sounds through their recordings.

Podcast: Endangered Sounds
Talking Music: Lectures and Conversations on Music, Archives, and Technology
by Smithsonian Folkways

A podcast from “Big Ideas” on ABC Radio National, released 8 July 2014.

How does globalisation and new technology affect our sense of belonging and place?

Click through to listen: Globalisation and cultural identity

You often hear about the loss of indigenous language in Australia, some language experts still maintain that more languages have been lost here than anywhere else on the planet.

The same seems to be true for Indigenous music traditions.

How important is the maintenance of Indigenous culture through music?

We are at risk of losing crucial parts of Indigenous music culture over the next couple of generations. Music and performance is closely linked with other forms of cultural expression, but why are these cultural traditions so important to keep alive?

Too often the history and traditions of Indigenous Australians are allowed to disappear from living memory.

Around 98% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music traditions have already been lost and there are concerns that the remaining traditions could be lost in a generation or two.