'Nearly 30 years ago, two senior Yolngu lawmen, Mungurrawuy at Yirrkala and Burramarra at Galiwin’ku, independently requested that Jill Stubington publish the results of her research with Alice Moyle ‘in order to teach balanda (non-Aboriginal people) the deep significance of their music’ (p.iii). This book fulfils their wishes, not only for Yolngu music but for many other language groups throughout Australia because it seeks to correlate and to contextualise ethnomusicological research in Australia within the period 1960 to 1980.'  (Introduction)

'Alice Marshall Moyle (nee Brown), one of the seminal figures in Australian ethnomusicology and a founding member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) passed away in Sydney on 9 April 2005.' (Introduction)

'Judith Stokes, Member of the Institute from 1968 to 1990, passed away on 12 June 2003. She was a woman ahead of her time, working together with the Anindilyakwa speakers of Groote Eylandt and Bickerton Island to keep their language and culture strong. In 1997 she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her service to the Aboriginal community on Groote Eylandt as a missionary and a linguist.' (Introduction)

'The Dyirbal people of the Cairns rainforest region in North Queensland have a rich heritage of song poetry, reflecting their way of life, their way of looking at the world, and their way of coping with invasion. This pioneering study examines the words and music of 174 songs, across five distinctive styles of performance, each with its own metrical pattern and linguistic and musical characteristics, describing the social context in which the songs were sung and explaining their message.

As sung by nineteen Dyirbal singers, this collection explores the poetic tradition of a culture which flourished in Australia long before European impact. As a detailed record of an ancient and disappearing literary tradition, it is invaluable. For language and music specialists it provides the unique vocabulary and grammatical patterning so characterisitc of Aboriginal song'. (Source: Back cover, UQP 1996 edition)

'Long ago, in the Dreamtime, Arelpe the Moon Man and Thangkenharenge the Bird Women created Kaytetye (pronounced kay-ditch) Country – a land of dry spinifex plains, low rocky outcrops and flat-topped hills. Kaytetye Country brings together for the first time the stories of the Kaytetye people of Central Australia. They tell the stories of their ancestors, of the coming of the white men bringing the Overland Telegraph Line, and the conflicts for land and resources which followed. They tell their own stories, from the days of travelling and living in the bush to the present day, living and working white people. These stories of good times and hard times help define a new history of Australia. They are told with humour and honesty by the Kaytetye themselves, the people who belong to Kaytetye Country.' (Source: Publisher's website)

'Janet Mathews will be greatly missed. The Institute will remember her in many ways, but her greatest legacy to it and to Aboriginal people is twofold: her collection of stories, word lists, and songs that appear on the 392 field tapes made between 1964 and 1976, and her friendships with Aboriginal people—especially Jimmie Barker, whose remarkable life story resulted in one of the best selling books ever published by the Institute, The Two Worlds of Jimmie Barker.' (Introduction)