Participatory Ethnomusicology: An Epistemic Approach to Social Justice, Human Rights, and the Sustainability of the Traditional Arts of Minorities

Abstract

A range of unfortunate circumstances––violence, poverty, unemployment, drug trafficking, displacement, and the like––driven by the forces of conflict, climate change, natural catastrophes, and pandemic have tremendously affected minority groups living across the globe. Social stereotyping, exclusion, stigmatization, discrimination, domination, and prejudice equally impact minority groups based on an ethnic identity, race, religion, language, and/or political opinion. This article examines the three key interconnected issues of social justice, human rights, and the sustainability of the traditional arts of minorities in the context of such circumstances. It reflects on the applied ethnomusicology-guided approaches employed in ethnomusicological research in minority studies, including the inquiry into new epistemological scenarios in ethnomusicology. It also refers to the theoretical and methodological idea of Participatory Action Research (PAR). Grounded in the principles of applied ethnomusicology and the PAR paradigm, this article proposes and discusses ‘participatory ethnomusicology’ as an epistemic approach to social justice, human rights, and the sustainability of the traditional arts of minorities. The article presents a participatory collaborative research project conducted with the Nepalese minority immigrant community of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and demonstrates how the community became the primary actors in the study with shared roles and authority over decision-making at all stages of the research––identifying the key issues of the community and planning, implementing, and reflecting on the research project.