Published in 2016, this book looks to define, break down and analyze Australian Indigenous Hip Hop. In the introductory chapter, the Author works to make connections between Hip Hop and Indigenous Culture. The most pressing what that they did this was through the concept of Bricolage. Generally speaking, this is the process of taking parts of a certain culture and using it or making it better. Minestrelli makes the point that Indigenous cultures use Bricolage as part of their Survivance (Resistance and Survival skills). “They (Indigenous peoples) are constantly engaged in critical dialogue with outside influences to decide what to reject or accept and how to indigenize and adapt to local needs what they are powerless to resist.” (pg. 6). In other words, they are constantly taking from colonial culture and critically deciding what to use and what to reject, whenever possible. Hip Hop similarly uses Bricolage by taking bits and pieces of different styles of music and accepting or rejecting them in their music. For example, Hip Hop utilizes jazz, blues, soul and R&B in its beats, but develops lyrical rhythms which are counter to what these musical forms would use.
I think that this book will be extremely helpful for my final project as it will provide an academic framework from which to pull ideas. While I would like to focus more so on Canadian Indigenous Hip Hop, I think there is a lot of cross over, especially in the way that the artform has become global and international.
Minestrelli, Chiara. Australian Indigenous Hip Hop: the Politics of Culture, Identity, and Spirituality. Routledge, 2016.