In the middle of the twentieth century, transnational networks sparked a range of cultural projects focused on collecting Indigenous music and folklore in the Americas. Indigenous Audibilities follows the social relations that created these collections in four interconnected case studies linking the U.S., Mexico, Nicaragua, and Chile. Indigenous collections were embedded in political projects that negotiated issues of cultural diplomacy, national canons, and heritage. The case studies recuperate the traces of marginalized voices in archives, paying special attention to women and Indigenous people. Despite the dominant agendas of national and international institutions, the diverse actors and the multi-directional influences often led to unexpected outcomes.

Author Amanda Minks brings together vivid storytelling and theories of collection, voice, and recording to challenge the transparency of archives as a historical source. The book presents a social-historical method of listening, reading, and thinking beyond the referentiality of archived texts, and in the process uncovers neglected genealogies of cultural music research in the Americas.