Playing with Others and Selves: Australian Aboriginal Desert Musicians on Tour

Based on extensive fieldwork among Aboriginal country, rock and reggae musicians in the Central Australian deserts, the present paper expands the analytical theme of mediation for exploring intercultural transformations of Indigenous and male modes of being. Drawing on ethnographic descriptions from interstate touring ventures, it explores how various and overlapping ideas of masculinity and sense of selves are mobilised and transformed as the men engage with other ‘blackfella’ and ‘whitefella’ places, people and models of manhood and music. From such engagements, ambivalent ‘mongrel’ Aboriginal and male selves emerge that are nonetheless experienced as distinctive and deeply meaningful.