The purpose of this paper is to address the colonial ancestry of sound recording and its role within ethnographic research. Grounded in colonial logics, it is revealed that traditional sound preservation tactics participate in the despatialization of Indigenous acoustic culture. By unpacking how sound recording enforces normative, Western listening practices, and contrasting this with Indigenous epistemologies, the indigenization of audio technologies is explored, transforming them into cultural tools to reclaim acoustic and spatial agency over cultural heritage. This is investigated through conducting a series of ambisonic recordings that capture storyteller and poet, Dakota Feirer, a Bundjalung-Gumbayngirr man from the Southeast Coast of New South Wales, Australia. These recordings, taking place at New York University, aim at emphasizing the spatial nuances of Indigenous sonic and spatial practice, and highlight the inseparability of space, body and sound.
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https://aes2.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22545
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