914) of the decisions faced by many small Papuan communities regarding the future of their musical traditions.Ĭoulter goes into a brief description of each chapter in Gillespie’s work, calling it a “welcome addition to the understanding of current issues in Melanesian expressive arts” (p.

Coulter describes Gillespie’s work as an “apt picture” (p. 4 – December 2014, Neil Coulter reviews Kirsty Gillespie’s Steep Slopes: Music and Change in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

This study shows how, through musical creativity, Duna people maintain a connection with their past, and their identity, whilst simultaneously embracing the challenges of the present. New forms of music have been introduced, while ancestral traditions have been altered or even abandoned. A people who have experienced extraordinary social change in recent history, their musical traditions have also radically changed during this time. This book is a musical ethnography of the Duna people of Papua New Guinea. Songs, like the stick of bamboo, assist the Duna in picking their way over this terrain by providing a forum for them to process change as it is experienced, in relation to what is already known. Similarly, the Duna live in a social and cultural environment of steep slopes, where the path on which they walk can be precarious and unpredictable. A stick of bamboo used as a prop goes a long way in assisting a struggling traveller. The Duna live in a physical environment of steep slopes that are sometimes difficult to traverse.

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