Margaret Kartomi

We are delighted to present the first MISS Podcast hosted by Julian Millie, Professor of Indonesian Studies and Acting Director of the Monash Herb Feith Centre featuring guest Margaret Kartomi AM, FAHA, Professor Emeritus, Ethnomusicology and Director of the Music Archive of Monash University (MAMU).

Margaret Kartomi has been researching Indonesian music in field settings for more than fifty years. In this conversation, Margaret reflects back upon some of those settings, the musical forms she encountered, and the Indonesians who helped her in her research. The conversation covers some surprising topics: her experiences studying at a famous East German musicological institution; the benefits she received through her close collaboration with her husband; and, the sound recording technology she utilised. She reveals the music genre that remains most powerful in her memory: Indonesian genres of lament.

To find out more about Margaret's newly published book mentioned in this podcast, Performing the Arts of Indonesia: Malay Identity and Politics in the Music, Dance and Theatre of the Riau Islands, please click here.