Striking the right chord: Indigenous people and the love of country

Many Aboriginal Australians have participated in, and take pleasure from, country music. Country music has provided a vehicle for Aboriginal people to tell our stories and assert our connection to “Country”—a term used to describe our ancestral lands. Country music is often associated with such terms as “redneck” and “hillbilly” (Malone, 2006) and is often associated with White working class. However, Indigenous participation in the country music genre disrupts this assumption. Indigenous people as both consumers and producers derive a great deal of pleasure from the country music genre. This paper will explore the appropriation of country music by Aboriginal Australians and Native Americans who continue to express their histories, beliefs and connection to Country through country music.