This introductory article to the special issue overviews central themes of the field of Ecomusicology as drawn out from the discussions of Indigenous Australian and Aoetearoa New Zealand music and dance performance and/or sound and movement practices as considered with relation to their environments. We discuss how these practices are holistic multimodal art forms, emphasise the importance of deep listening and discuss the role of collective memory and metaphor as central to Indigenous understanding and relating . We also illustrate how these performance traditions exist within contexts of cultural and environmental disruption yet have the power to adapt to ecological change as they have done so over generations. We draw the major themes of this issue together to show how the health of people, Country and music and interconnected and how these interrelational connections have long been central to survival.