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Phillip Joe Plays Waila: Tohono O'Odham Dance Music
Hardcover
Series: Tohono O'Odham
General Juvenile NonfictionPerforming Arts
Publisher Price: $19.95
Publisher: Desert Ink Press
Published: Feb 3 2026
Pages: 32
Weight: 0.97
Height: 0.33 Width: 8.67 Depth: 11.11
Language: English
This lyrical and joyously illustrated bilingual book celebrates waila (why-la) dance music, a blend of Polish, German, Mexican dance music unique to the Tohono O'odham Nation in southern Arizona. As explained by protagonist Philip Joe, waila music really gets you moving. He learned as a child to play the multiple instruments that blend to create the fast moving, upbeat rhythms that are a part of every community piast (celebration) and continues to play in bands and teach young tribal members the exciting form of music.
The book, third in a series on the tribe, shares and reaffirms the language and culture of the Tohono O'odham, a people who have lived in this southwestern desert for over 10,000 years. A QR code in the Let's Speak O'odham section at the front of the book takes the reader to a website to hear and learn to speak words from the story as well as listen to waila music by Philip Joe.
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