f Where the music is: First Peoples’ perspectives on community music

This Special Issue emerges from a collaboration between the International Journal of Community Music and the International Society for Music Education Special Interest Group Decolonizing and Indigenizing Music Education (DIME). Led by Indigenous scholar-practitioners from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, the collection foregrounds First Peoples, Indigenous and First Nations perspectives on community music theory, practice and research. Across diverse global contexts, contributors challenge deficit and extractive approaches by asserting that music already exists within land, waters, ancestors, communities and intergenerational relationships. The articles collectively argue for community music practices that meet First Nations Peoples where music already is, while critically unsettling dominant colonial assumptions about music, community and knowledge. Drawing on Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies and cosmologies, contributors offer frameworks grounded in relationality, embodiment, place and care-full research practice. The Special Issue advances community music scholarship by centring Indigenous sovereignty, cultural continuity and innovation, and ethical responsibilities in music-making, facilitation and research.