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Toksave: Culture Talks

Jodie Kell and Steven Gagau 19 Episodes Jul 21, 2026

Toksave: Culture Talks explores the role of music and language in Indigenous identity, focusing on the return of legacy recordings to communities. The podcast is hosted by archivist Steven Gagau and musicologist Jodie Kell from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Each episode features interviews with people who have discovered personal and cultural connections through the PARADISEC digital archive, which preserves materials from endangered cultures. The series highlights how these recordings contribute to the continuation of cultural practices.

Episodes

PARADISEC: Opening the Archive for access, engagement and innovation Jul 21, 2026 00:56:02 PARADISEC undertook a Library exhibition co-curated by Dr Jodie Kell and Steven Gagau at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music from August to November 2025. It showcased some of the equipment, audio techniques and innovative solutions used to safeguard valuable audiovisual materials for the future. It also demonstrated the importance of opening the archive highlighting the value of providing access f

PARADISEC: Opening the Archive for access, engagement and innovation Jul 15, 2026 00:56:03 PARADISEC undertook a Library exhibition co-curated by Dr Jodie Kell and Steven Gagau at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music from August to November 2025. It showcased some of the equipment, audio techniques and innovative solutions used to safeguard valuable audiovisual materials for the future. It also demonstrated the importance of opening the archive highlighting the value of providing access f

Language, Land, and Lineage: Sustainability and Resilience in Music Apr 29, 2026 00:44:09 Starr Abelardo and Lolita Emmanuel join Toksave: Culture Talks as guest producers with a special episode looking at the SA1 collection and featuring Talaandig Lumad culture-bearer Rodelio “Waway” Saway and Filipino-Aboriginal Australian musician Rhyan “DOBBY” Clapham. Rooted in Indigenous advocacy—Waway’s bamboo innovations, soil art, and songs about mountain forests, and DOBBY’s songs uplifting F

Music of Malaita: Ainimae, Masina Rule, Panpipes and Flutes Apr 1, 2026 00:35:04 Following on from Episode 15, this episode features the music and culture of Malaita from the IF01 collection of Ian Frazer in his fieldwork with people of To’abaita and neighbouring Baeggu, Baelelea and Lau. This episode covers a range of musical styles and their connection to the history of Malaita through conversations with Ian Frazer and Malaitan diaspora community member Mary Sattin. The epis

Ngali nuts: work songs and delicacies in Malaita, Solomon Islands May 7, 2024 00:36:02 This is the first of two episodes featuring the music and culture of North Malaita, Solomon Islands from the IF01 collection of Ian Frazer in his fieldwork with people of To’abaita and neigbouring Baegu, Baelelea and Lau. In this episode, we feature the cultural practice and music surrounding the ngali nuts which are harvested from a canarium almond tree. Through conversations with Ian Frazer and

PNG: Central Province Music and Dance Nov 11, 2023 00:31:34 Following on from Episode 13, we continue our exploration of music of the Central Province, Papua New Guinea featuring the PNG Peroveta Singers of Canberra. This is a special episode where the group responds to the PARADISEC collections of IC1 and MG1 with a Sene performance of traditional songs whose meanings are explained by group members Deveni Temu and Tommy Dietz. Sit back and enjoy the journ

PNG: Peroveta (Prophet Songs) Nov 11, 2023 00:35:54 This is the first of two episodes featuring the PNG Peroveta Singers of Canberra, a group of diaspora community members who share and perform the music of Central Province, Papua New Guinea. They respond to the PARADISEC collections MG1 and IC1 with song and dance performances recorded in the ACT in 2023. This episode focuses on Peroveta (Prophet Songs) and includes an interview with group leader

Buried in the Sand: Digging deep into Gudjal language and culture Oct 19, 2022 00:37:48 Episode 12: Buried in the Sand: Digging deep into Gudjal language and culture William Santo is a Gudjal elder, author and musician. Opening with William’s song, ‘Buried in the Sand’, this episode discusses William’s long-term aspiration to uncover Gudjal language resources held in archives and utilise them to rediscover Gudjal history and culture and revitalise the Gudjal language. He is joined by

True Echoes: Responding to Hula Songs from the Past Aug 31, 2022 00:35:27 Following on from episode 10, we continue discussions about early recordings made by Charles Gabriel Seligmann during the Daniels Ethnographical Expedition to British New Guinea in 1904. Deveni Temu brings his perspective to the history and context of the recordings. He is a Hula speaker who was born and raised in Kapari and Viriolo villages and who worked as the Pacific Librarian in the Menzies L

True Echoes: Hula language and song May 30, 2022 00:36:42 Excerpts from and a discussion of 1904 wax cylinder recordings from the Hula village in the Rigo District of Papua New Guinea, with Hula speakers Roge and Gulea Kila. Produced in partnership with the British Library, Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies as part of the True Echoes project.

Paama, Vanuatu, Sharks and shark spirits Feb 15, 2021 00:31:08 Johnny Obed and Kirk Huffman join Jodie and Steven discussing the cultural significance of sharks in Vanuatu and across Melanesia from the SD1 collection by Simon Devylder. The recordings inspired Johnny from Simon's research on shark spirits, shark attacks and the art of sand drawings. Through Kirk's association with Simon on such recordings and research work, it motivated him to share his long e

Sinaugoro, makes me think about my language Feb 15, 2021 00:34:34 Eileen Bobone and Mae Carroll join Jodie and Steven to talk about the 2020 Field Methods Lingusitics course conducted at the Australian National University in Canberra with a focus of the Sinaugoro language of the Rigo District of Central Province, PNG. The personal and cultural connections of Eileen as a Sinaugoro speaker working with Mae in the course led to conversations about the recordings in

Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu, NT, Australia: Old ways for New Ceremonies Feb 15, 2021 00:27:24 Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu women Payi Linda Ford and Emily Tyaemaen Ford discuss the private archival collection LPF and the research journey through archival materials that lead to the creation of this repository of Murrunungu culture, language and history.

Fiji Hindi, Re-connecting with my Girmitiya Heritage Feb 15, 2021 00:19:06 Prash Krishnan joins Jodie and Steven to talk about the JS2 Collection deposited by researcher and Professor Jeff Siegel of the University of New England, NSW. Conversations with Jeff have helped Prash to better understand his journey to re-connect his linguistic and cultural history of Fiji Hindi developed as a plantation language and his identity as an Indo Fijian of the Girmitiya heritage.

Rabaul, PNG: The Music Nov 7, 2019 00:33:59 Following on from the previous episode, this podcast is a kind of blindfold test as we listen to a range of musical examples Steven has chosen from the MW6 collection, recordings Michael has not heard for 25 years. The ensuing conversation highlights the diversity and creative breadth of Tolai musical practices and their connection to the history and identity of the Tolai people.

Rabaul, PNG: The Researcher and the Tolai Nov 7, 2019 00:33:48 When Sydney Conservatorium Associate Professor Michael Webb met Steven Gagau, they quickly realised they had Tolai connections and Tok Pisin language in common. It turns out that Michael did his PhD research in the Rabaul region where Steven is originally from. As PARADISEC digitised and archived MW6, Michael's collection of tapes and videos, Steven found himself wearing different hats as archivis

Paama, Vanuatu: This is gold to me Oct 28, 2019 00:28:23 Tom Johnny Obed is a Paamese man living in Sydney. He is an associate of Steven Gagau through the Wantok Association of Sydney, a representative body for Melanesian people living here. Johnny, as he likes to be known, met linguist Terry Crowley during his fieldwork on Paama Island, when Johnny was teaching high school in Vanuatu. Our conversation touches on language, education and music as we disc

Papunya, Australia: Just like a storybook Oct 28, 2019 00:23:23 We are transported to the Western Desert of Central Australia as Pintupi-Luritja woman Linda Tjungkata Anderson listens to her father Nosepeg Tjupurrula singing songs from the Wanji Wanji public song set recorded by musicologist Professor Richard Moyle in 1976. These legacy recordings, held at AIATSIS in Canberra, were taken back to the community in 2018 by Dr Myfany Turpin. Linda's interview is a

Trobriand Islands, PNG: Our Culture is Just a Heartbeat Oct 28, 2019 00:25:04 Grace Hull joins Jodie and Steven to talk about the RL1 collection recorded by Ralph Lawton in the Trobriand Islands, off the east coast of Papua New Guinea. Grace may live far from the village where she grew up, but she carries the village in her heart and this is very apparent as she shares her knowledge of Trobriand music and culture and comments on the value of these recordings.

Toksave: Culture Talks

Episodes

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