The Rebecca Coyle Prize is awarded to the best paper on popular music in the Australia-New Zealand region in a given year. The prize is named in honour of long-time IASPM ANZ member Rebecca Coyle in commemoration of her work advancing popular music studies and mentoring emerging academic talent.
The judges were impressed by the quality and variety of submissions to the Rebecca Coyle prize. The 2018 winner was awarded to Chris Bourke for his book Good-bye Maoriland: The Songs and Sounds of New Zealand’s Great War. The judges offered the following comments:
This elegantly written and highly illustrative work aimed at a readership beyond the academy represents a significant contribution to our historical understanding of music in Aotearoa/New Zealand during the First World War. It covers the role of a wide range of music traditions and practices in the lives of soldiers overseas and people on the home front. Good-bye Maoriland captures with striking force the ability of music to engender collective feelings and belonging during the war. The book weaves together stories of musicians and soldiers, instruments and songs, performances and battles. Bourke pays significant attention to Maori and women in emergent New Zealand musical identities shaped by imperial culture and other transnational flows. The variety and presentation of archival material is impressive and the writing gives a rich sense of the musical sounds of war. Please join us in congratulating Chris Bourke.
