Understanding songlines
An immersive digital experience at KNMA of an ancient practice of the Aboriginal Australians
In the absence of written text, the songlines have become increasingly di cult to preserve
Some 65,000 years ago, the native inhabitants of Australia developed a complex tool of communication — songlines, or “dreaming pathways” — not only as a means to map the histories and geographical routes of the tribes criss-crossing the vast country, but to also build pathways of knowledge which contained within them advice on sustainable living, seasonal vegetation, and how to survive in the great Australian outback.
These songlines have been passed down generations orally for many millennia, but in the absence of written text, have become increasingly diffcult to preserve.
After nine years of hard work, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), Delhi, has come up with an immersive digital experience based on a component of the National Museum of Australia’s (NMA) internationally acclaimed exhibition on aborigine songlines. The show, representing the work of over 100 artists, features several spaces dedicated to visual storytelling of the oral traditions — through short lms, puzzles and DIY stickers — in a way that celebrates their original identity.
An integral part
“Aboriginal communities involved in this exhibition are integral to it,” says Margo Ngawa Neale, emeritus curatorial fellow (First Nations) at the NMA. “We could not proceed without them. They are the owners of the story, the custodians of their parts of the songlines, and have the responsibility to keep them alive and keep their retelling correct,” says the Canberra-based curator through an email interview.
The show at KNMA is centred on the Seven Sisters songline — a story of seven sisters who make their way from East to West
Australia while running from a shapeshifting sorcerer who seeks to entrap them. The sisters’ journey, while mapping the contours of the country, also comes to signify themes of creation and sustenance.
The rst few exhibits feature short lms narrated by tribal elders. Naji, for instance, depicts how spirit beings awoke the dry, barren land, creating life and water as they travelled through the continent. Footprints captures how a group of young Aboriginal men on the verge of losing their songlines discovers that a neighbouring tribe still remembers some of their cultural songs. An especially immersive section, titled Travelling Kungkarangkalpa, brings to life a version of the Seven Sisters story.
Amazing experience
To view the audiovisual experiment, one must lie ffat on the ground and gaze up at the spherical projection on the ceiling, which uses animations modelled on paintings from Aboriginal artists. Another section allows visitors to work on a thousand-piece puzzle of ancient artwork.
The nal exhibit is a “dizzying” experience. It features a dark room that comes alive with projections of the masterfully animated abstractions of the Seven Sisters songline, which whoosh past the viewer and fade away. “NMA has tried to capture this oral tradition by incorporating features of dancing and painting — both of which came long after songlines rst originated. The exhibition is abstract for a reason, because the Aboriginals viewed time as cyclical, not linear, and thus we are only able to depict fragments of this tradition,” says Divjyot Singh, manager (Partnership and Events), KNMA.
At the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, 145, DLF South Court Mall, Saket; Till June 30; 10.30am to 6.30pm (Mondays closed)