Songlines: The living narrative of Australia. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the Dreamtime describes a time when the earth, people and animals were created by ancestral spiritual beings.
They created the rivers, lakes, plants, land formations and living creatures. Songlines are part of the Dreamtime where dreaming tracks crisscross Australia and trace the journeys of these spirits as they created the land, animals and lores. These dreaming tracks are sometimes called ‘Songlines’ as they record the travels of these spirits who 'sung' the land into life. This year we will celebrate NAIDOC Week from Sunday 3 to Sunday 10 July with the theme Songlines: The living narrative of our nation. NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. There will be dances, artefact displays, painting, reading, singing and much more that celebrates NAIDOC Week and Songlines. Did you know? The Songlines - Australian History, Indigenous Studies. The Songlines is a video clip from the documentary series and website First Australians produced in 2008 by Blackfella Films for SBS Television.
First Australians chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. First Australians explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world’s greatest empire. The Songlines should be viewed in conjunction with other First Australians video clips, offering an insight into the life and culture of indigenous Australians before the arrival of European settlers in the late 18th century. This video clip describes how various clan groups extending across the land were linked by networks of songs containing aspects of cultural heritage, mythology and identity. The ‘songlines’ were as important to the daily existence of indigenous Australians as the ceremonial trade routes and the stories that described the Australian landscape.
Singing the country to life. The theme of this year's NAIDOC Week is Songlines.
Sometimes called dreaming tracks, songlines crisscross Australia and trace the journeys of ancestral spirits as they created the land, animals and lore. To celebrate NAIDOC Week, we look at songlines from different parts of Australia. Guru-Gulu people of Gungganji Country, Yarrabah The beaches and mountains surrounding Yarrabah, east of Cairns, are filled with stories and songs that tell Elverina Johnson who her ancestors were.
"This whole land, if you wanted to call it that way, is our cultural storybook," Ms Johnson said. "But it's not made up, it's not sci-fi. Ms Johnson is a descendant of King Menmuny, and the songlines passed down to her tell a rich story about who he was. "We know what kind of character he had. But songlines also tell the story of country, and the ocean between Yarrabah and Green Island tell the people of the community what they must teach their children. Ewamian people, Gulf Savannah Darumbal people, Rockhampton. Songlines: the Indigenous memory code - All In The Mind.
Like oral cultures around the world, Indigenous Australians use cues from the landscape to recall and pass on important knowledge, cultural values and wisdom.
Lynne Malcolm and Olivia Willis discover how these songlines operate as a potent form of cultural memory. Indigenous Australians have the longest continuous cultural history of any group of people on Earth. To this day, their history is preserved and passed down through intricate song, dance, art and stories of the Dreamtime. Because of Aboriginal culture, we have these continuing stories to our country that other countries don't have. Lynne Kelly Woven into this history is the oral tradition of songlines—an ancient memory code used by indigenous cultures around the world. 'Songlines and Dreamings are often held in physical parts of the country, and that assists us to maintain our continuing culture,' says Karen Adams, associate professor in medicine and health sciences at Monash University and Wiradjuri woman.
What are songlines?