Music Across Generations: Exploring Intergenerational First Nations Musical Practices as Cultural Determinants of Health.

This article reports on promising pilot research which indicates that intergenerational musical practices in diverse First Nations families and communities in Vanuatu and Australia can shape cultural determinants of health (CDoH). We contend that such strength- and culture-based approaches to health promotion may help to disrupt colonial and deficit constructions of First Nations People and our health and wellbeing. The pilot study used Indigenist yarning which prioritized First Nations ideas, concepts, and knowledges during informal and relational semi-structured interviews with 9 diverse First Nations musicians in Australia and Vanuatu. The pilot study underpins an ongoing international 3-year research project examining First Nations music as a determinant of health led by Griffith University, The University of the Sunshine Coast, The University of Queensland, and Edith Cowan University. Yarning interviews were analyzed using collaborative thematic analysis and Indigenous visual art responses. Major themes emerging from the data related to intergenerational music activity and transmission. Themes include Music as an intergenerational medium of cultures; Music as a bond between older and younger generations; Intergenerational musical activism and advocacy; and Musical lineages and strengths. Intergenerational musical practices in diverse First Nations families may provide protective cultural, social, economic, educative, and professional determinants of health. The study indicates that more research and new theory may unlock the potential of First Nations musical activities as protective and agentic cultural practices in our families and communities.

Music as a determinant of health among First Nations people in Australia: A scoping narrative review.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: While social determinants frameworks are still popular in research about First Nations health in Australia, a growing body of research prefers cultural determinants of health models. Cultural determinants models provide a holistic, strength-based framework to explain connections between health and contextual factors, including the potential role of music and its impact on social and emotional well-being. Given the growing international recognition of links between music, health, and wellbeing through bodies such as the World Health Organisation, this article examines whether and how music practices are acknowledged in First Nations determinants of health literature. METHODS: We conducted a scoping narrative review of literature from five databases: Scopus, PsycInfo, CINAHL, PubMed and ProQuest Central. The search returned 60 articles published since 2017, which we analysed in NVivo for common themes. RESULTS: Music was only explicitly identified as a determinant of health in two studies. Yet, participants in five studies identified music and song as directly impacting their social and emotional well-being. When we broadened our frame of analysis to include other forms of expressive cultural practice, one quarter of included studies empirically acknowledged the role of expressive cultural practice for social and emotional well-being. CONCLUSION: While many recent studies identify the impact of First Nations' expressive practices broadly, they miss important features of First Nations music as a potentially unique cultural, social, political and ecological determinant of health. SO WHAT?: There is an opportunity for future research and health determinant modelling to explicitly examine the role of First Nations music and other creative practices for social and emotional well-being.

First Nations music as a determinant of health in Australia and Vanuatu: political and economic determinants.

This article reports on findings that indicate how First Nations musical activities function as cultural determinants of health. Drawing on early findings from a 3-year Australian Research Council funded project titled The Remedy Project: First Nations Music as a Determinant of Health, we detail Australian and Ni Vanuatu First Nations musicians' reported outcomes of musical activity using a First Nations cultural determinants of health framework. The broader findings indicate that our respondents see musical activity as actively shaping all known domains of cultural health determinants, and some surrounding political and social determinants. However, this paper focusses specifically on the political and economic determinants that emerged in analysis as the most dominant subthemes. We argue that this study provides strong impetus for continued investigation and reconceptualization of the place of music in cultural health determinant models.

This article looks at how making and performing music, recording music and listening to music helps the health of First Nations peoples in Australia and Ni Vanuatu. Music is an important part of the lives of First Nations peoples from these places and so research was done to try to understand why it is meaningful. Music can be used as an outlet for personal feelings, and can also be a way that groups of people can express common concerns. First Nations musicians talked about how music makes them feel, and how music is used to strengthen relationships between people, and between people and their culture. Musicians also talked about how music helps them express their political and economic goals. The findings backed up existing First Nations' models of health that say that health for First Nations People's needs to be thought about in a holistic way. The findings also showed that the relationship between music and health needs to be studied more so that we can better understand how it helps maintain links with the past, gives a guide for the present and opens options for the future.