J. Reuben Silverbird

Indigenous music is an umbrella term for the traditional and contemporary music of Indigenous (original) peoples across the world. It centers the music of communities whose presence in a territory predates later settler or immigrant populations, and whose cultural continuity is rooted in place, kinship, and customary law. The label describes a social and political relationship rather than a single musical sound: what counts as "indigenous" is defined less by musical traits and more by a people’s historical and political status in their homelands. As a result, Indigenous music comprises an immense diversity of styles—from powwow and Inuit throat singing to Sámi joik, Yolngu manikay, Tuvan khoomii, Andean siku panpipe ensembles, West African griot traditions, Polynesian mele, and thousands more. Common through-lines include the primacy of voice and community participation; close ties between music, dance, and ceremony; cyclical or additive rhythms; place-based timbres and instruments (rattles, frame drums, flutes, zithers, jaw harps, didgeridoo, etc.); and languages, stories, and cosmologies that encode ecological and historical knowledge.