‘Keep the Music Going’: How the Isolation Tour 2020 Maintained Community and Cultural Connectedness during the 2020 COVID-19 Lockdown in Western Australia

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent social isolation measures had a profound impact on communities worldwide. In regional and remote Western Australia, the use of online platforms has become increasingly important for maintaining social and emotional well-being. This article examines the role of ‘The Isolation Tour 2020’ Facebook page in providing a lifeline for its mostly Aboriginal audience to stay connected with culture, Country, and one another during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in Western Australia. The authors conducted an in-depth interview with one of the administrators of the page and supplemented this with a thematic analysis of publicly available Facebook data. Data were analysed using NVivo qualitative analysis software and common themes were identified. The findings show that ‘The Isolation Tour 2020’ provided an effective virtual platform for people to interact with loved ones and feel a sense of belonging and comfort in the uncertainty of the pandemic. This research highlights the importance of online spaces for supporting social and emotional well-being during extended periods of social isolation and offers insights into how similar initiatives can be supported in future.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• social isolation
• Facebook
• social and emotional well-being
• live music

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Noongar Country, where this research took place, and Noongar elders past and present. They also acknowledge the generous contribution of Admin 1 to the development of this article.

Ethics

Ethics approval for this study was obtained from the Edith Cowan University Human Research Ethics Committee under approval number 2020-01711-BRACKNELL.

Declaration of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest in the preparation of this article.

Data Availability Statement

Some data that support the findings of this study are publicly available at the time of writing. These data were derived from the following resources available in the public domain: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064033173683.

Notes

1 Original spelling and punctuation have been retained throughout all quotations from posts on The Isolation Tour Facebook page.

2 The Tour page was initially labelled ‘2020’ but was renamed ‘2021’ the following year to maintain relevance and as the page admins organized live, in-person music tours throughout Western Australia. It remains ‘The Isolation Tour 2021’ at the time of writing. Subsequent citations of text from the page will be to ‘The Isolation Tour.’

3 Capitalized in Aboriginal contexts, Country is ‘nourishing terrain,’ alive and intertwined with Indigenous identities and knowledge systems (Rose 1996, 1).

4 Now renamed ‘The Isolation Tour 2021,’ the Facebook live videos are viewable online. Accessed 29 July 2023. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064033173683&sk=videos.

5 The Restart Investment and Sustain and Expand (RISE) was a federal government ‘emergency’ stimulus response targeted to the arts industry programmes and producers (see Pennington and Eltham 2021, 32).

6 NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) week is held in the first week of July, and National Reconciliation Week is held between 27 May and 3 June each year (see https://www.naidoc.org.au and https://www.reconciliation.org.au).

7 The reasons for women participating more often through karaoke than as instrumentalists reflect broader (national, global) trends whereby instrumental music is male dominated, thus limiting women’s access to these modes of music participation (Barney 2007; Doubleday 2008).

8 This numbering system was used to differentiate between unique artists and admins.

9 Aboriginal people throughout Australia use the term ‘Sorry Business’ to describe various practices related to death, mourning, and funerals.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science, and Innovation (DJTSI) under Edith Cowan University COVID-19 Research Projects Grant [there is no grant number affiliated with this scheme].

Notes on contributors

Brigitta Scarfe

Brigitta Scarfe is a gardiya PhD student at Kurongkurl Katitjin and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, and a descendant of Irish and English immigrants. Her doctoral research investigates Aboriginal women’s empowerment through community radio and amateur musicking practices in the West Kimberley region.

Amy Budrikis

Amy Budrikis is a wadjela Research Adviser at Kurongkurl Katitjin (Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research) at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia. She has a broad range of research interests from language revitalisation and historical linguistics to public health and social change.

Clint Bracknell

Clint Bracknell FAHA is a Noongar song-maker and Professor of Music at the University of Western Australia. He investigates connections between song, language, and landscapes, works on projects to improve Indigenous community access to cultural heritage collections, and releases music under the name Maatakitj.