>that history is a long one
>aboriginal people involved in 'folk' circles/industries are quite
>rare except as people performing traditional or contemporary
>aboriginal music not identified as folk to those circles/industries
>indigenous performers are more often involved in 'traditional' music
>production, in country music, or in rock, especially reggae.
>there's Archie Roach, and people have called him folk, I wouldn't,
>and to the best of my knowledge he doesn't (any longer), and others
>who I would associate with his work in one way or another
The problem, in that case, does not lie in music but in the definition of "folk music" created through the identification of the word "folk" with "Herrenvolk democracy" in Australia. Perhaps in Australia, the Popular Front culture (which was internationalist & interested in folk melodies of the world at the same time) & other attempts didn't succeed in the redefinition of "folk" to any significant degree. That's no reason to dismiss -- based upon a parochial experience -- "political folk music" in general from all over the world, though.
>i find it weird to think of robeson as folk music
>though i can see why
Robeson not only embraced such black folk expressions as spirituals (see _Souls of Black Folk_ by W.E.B. DuBois) but also folk melodies of all peoples, including European folk music. "While we live in a time when bilingual education is being made into a crime, Robeson learned 25 [!] languages, the better to understand cultures throughout the world and sing folk songs in their native tongue" (at <http://www.unionbug.com/more-robeson.html>).
BTW, Robeson visited Australia as well:
***** ...Paul Robeson visited Australia at the end of 1960 and in a few days he sang to packed concert halls, talked and sang to thousands of industrial workers. Everyone crowded around to shake his hand, shouted their approval of what he said.
Workers building the Opera House invited him to sing during their lunch break. (A concert now remembered in the game Trivial Pursuits, the question: "Who was the first internationally renowned singer to perform at the Sydney Opera House")
Speaking to journalist, Alec Robertson, of 'Tribune': Robeson said
"Formal concerts don't mean much to me any more. I must go among people, as they work and live. I must give them what there is in my music and words that encourage them in their forward struggles. That's a part of my job, as I see it.."
Alec's article continued: "When he was shown two films -- one showing the misery of tribal Aborigines in a West Australian desert reserve, and the other showing confident and healthy tribal Aborigines running their own mining co-operative at Pindan -- Robeson was beside himself with anger, compassion and determination to arouse more international action to assist the emancipation struggle of those he called the indigenous people of Australia."...
<http://crixa.com/muse/robeson/robeson.htm> *****
Robeson was the soul of cosmopolitan black folk -- and that's not an oxymoron!
Yoshie