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29-524: At its core, a songline functions as both a navigational aid and a repository of cultural knowledge. Embedded within traditional song cycles, dance rituals, stories, and artistic expressions, these pathways enable individuals to traverse vast distances while reciting the songs that describe landmarks, water sources, and natural features. Notably, the melodic contours and rhythmic nuances of the songs transcend linguistic barriers, facilitating cross-cultural understanding as different language groups interact and share

58-662: A forebear , is a parent or ( recursively ) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent , great-grandparent , great-great-grandparent and so forth). Ancestor is "any person from whom one is descended. In law, the person from whom an estate has been inherited ." Two individuals have a genetic relationship if one is the ancestor of the other or if they share a common ancestor. In evolutionary theory, species which share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of common descent . However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some bacteria and other organisms capable of horizontal gene transfer . Some research suggests that

87-601: A few kilometres, whilst others traverse hundreds of kilometres through lands of many different Aboriginal peoples — peoples who may speak markedly different languages and have different cultural traditions. One songline marks a 3,500-kilometre (2,200 mi) route connecting the Central Desert Region with the east coast, to the place now called Byron Bay . Desert peoples travelled to the ocean to observe fishing practices, and coastal people travelled inland to sacred sites such as Uluru and Kata Tjuta . Since

116-505: A large role in the establishment of sacred sites as they traversed the continent long ago. Animals were created in the Dreaming, and also played a part in creation of the lands and heavenly bodies. Songlines connect places and Creation events, and the ceremonies associated with those places. Oral history about places and the journeys are carried in song cycles, and each Aboriginal person has obligations to their birthplace. The songs become

145-466: A particular First Nations group affects their culture, way of seeing the world, and interactions with other people. Margo Ngawa Neale, senior Indigenous art and history curator at the National Museum of Australia , and author of books explaining Indigenous knowledge, says: Country is more than a view of landscape, it is a belief system and a worldview. For First Nations people, your identity

174-416: A songline can span the lands of several different language groups, different parts of the song are said to be in those different languages. Languages are not a barrier because the melodic contour of the song describes the nature of the land over which the song passes. The rhythm is what is crucial to understanding the song. Listening to the song of the land is the same as walking on this songline and observing

203-502: A spiritual connection to the land, underscoring the concept of "connection to country," wherein the intricate relationship between individuals and their ancestral lands forms a cornerstone of Aboriginal identity and cultural preservation. The Dreaming, or the Dreamtime, has been described as "a sacred narrative of Creation that is seen as a continuous process that links Aboriginal people to their origins". Ancestors are believed to play

232-443: Is actually caring for it as you would your mother or your relative or any other person. You've got to care for it ancestrally, spiritually and every other way. When you perform a ceremony , the power of it goes into the ground. The songs you sing to Country and the stories you tell on Country animate and invigorate it, keeping it alive. You pay homage to the ancestors of that place. A Welcome to Country (or Acknowledgement of Country)

261-459: Is an essential element in most Mardudjara ritual performances because the songline follows in most cases the direction of travel of the beings concerned and highlights cryptically their notable as well as mundane activities. Most songs, then, have a geographical as well as mythical referent, so by learning the songline men become familiar with literally thousands of sites even though they have never visited them; all become part of their cognitive map of

290-544: Is clear that most ancestors of humans (and any other species) are multiply related (see pedigree collapse ). Consider n  = 40: the human species is more than 40 generations old, yet the number 2 , approximately 10 or one trillion, dwarfs the number of humans who have ever lived . Some cultures confer reverence to ancestors, both living and dead; in contrast, some more youth-oriented cultural contexts display less veneration of elders. In other cultural contexts, ancestor worship or, more accurately, ancestor veneration

319-646: Is connected, animals, trees, rocks, land and sky all deserve respect. Past is connected to present, and there is a sense it is important to acknowledge and respect the country of other peoples, wherever one travels in Australia. The term "on Country", or "on [a specific people] country" is often used. Connection to country, "the most fundamental pillar of Indigenous identity", is a difficult concept for non-Indigenous Australians to understand, and disconnection from country has been shown to have an impact on Indigenous peoples' health and well-being. The connection to country

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348-545: Is frequently expressed in Indigenous art . Bill Neidjie , Gaagudju elder, expressed that it is by “feeling” country that a person is "made" (exists). Palyku woman Ambelin Kwaymullina : "Country is filled with relations speaking language and following Law ... Country is family, culture, identity. Country is self." Aileen Moreton-Robinson , Professor of Indigenous Research at RMIT University , has written that

377-411: Is of great significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, often expressed as "connection to Country". Country can be spoken about as if it is a person, and it implies an interdependent and reciprocal relationship between an individual and the lands and seas of their ancestors. The relationship is enhanced and sustained by the living environment and cultural knowledge . Because everything

406-581: Is related to their continuing occupation of the Australian continent for around 60,000 years, and the belief that Aboriginal lore/law was created by spirit ancestors to look after the land and its people. Songlines perform several functions, including mapping routes across the continent and passing on culture, and express connectedness to country. "Caring for Country" is another term commonly used in an Indigenous context, defined as "participating in interrelated activities on Aboriginal lands and seas with

435-419: Is totally related to Country, your own Country where your particular clan comes from. We spell it with a capital C because it is not country as with Israel or America — it is not a surface thing, it is not cartographic. We see Country as a personage, as a living being It holds the wisdom and knowledge and all the features are the result of the ancestral beings who have travelled the country and created it. Country

464-437: Is traditionally related to self-identity, and with relation to an individual, describes family origins and associations with particular parts of Australia. For example, a Gamilaraay man, whose traditional lands ("country") lies in south-west Queensland might refer to his country as "Gamilaraay country". Australian Aboriginal identity often links to their language groups and traditional country of their ancestors . Land

493-424: Is when people seek providence from their deceased ancestors. Connection to country The Indigenous peoples of Australia , that is Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people , have strong and complex relationships with the concept of " Country " (often capitalised). In this sense it does not refer to the nation of Australia, but rather different aspects of how the traditional lands of

522-432: The average person has twice as many female ancestors as male ancestors. This might have been due to the past prevalence of polygynous relations and female hypergamy . Assuming that all of an individual's ancestors are otherwise unrelated to each other, that individual has 2 ancestors in the n th generation before them and a total of 2  − 2 ancestors in the g generations before them. In practice, however, it

551-447: The basis of the ceremonies that are enacted in those specific places along the songlines. A songline has been called a "dreaming track", as it marks a route across the land or sky followed by one of the creator-beings or ancestors in the Dreaming. A knowledgeable person is able to navigate across the land by repeating the words of the song, which describe the location of landmarks, waterholes , and other natural phenomena. In some cases,

580-627: The continent and pass on culture, but also express connectedness to country. Songlines are often passed down in families, passing on important knowledge and cultural values. Molyneaux and Vitebsky note that the Dreaming Spirits "also deposited the spirits of unborn children and determined the forms of human society", thereby establishing tribal law and totemic paradigms. Anthropologist Robert Tonkinson described Mardu songlines in his 1978 monograph The Mardudjara Aborigines - Living The Dream In Australia's Desert . Songlines Singing

609-534: The continent in the Dreamtime, singing out the name of everything that crossed their path - birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes - and so singing the world into existence. Margo Ngawa Neale, senior Indigenous art and history curator at the National Museum of Australia , says: Songlines can be visualised as corridors or pathways of knowledge that crisscross the entire continent, sky and water. Songlines, sometimes referred to as dreaming tracks, link sites and hold stories, known as story places, which are read into

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638-604: The desert world. In his 1987 book The Songlines , British novelist and travel writer Bruce Chatwin describes the songlines as: ... the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as "Dreaming-tracks" or "Songlines"; to the Aboriginals as the "Footprints of the Ancestors" or the "Way of the Lore". Aboriginal Creation myths tell of the legendary totemic being who wandered over

667-443: The essence of these ancient narratives. A unique facet of songlines lies in their role as cultural passports, denoting respect and recognition for specific regions and their inhabitants when the songs are sung in the appropriate languages. This intricate network of songlines interconnects neighbouring groups, fostering social interactions based on shared beliefs and obligations. The perpetuation of songlines through generations sustains

696-445: The land. Songlines have been described as a "cultural passport" which, when sung in the language of a particular region and mob , show respect to the people of that country. Neighbouring groups are connected because the song cycles criss-cross all over the continent. All Aboriginal groups traditionally share beliefs in the ancestors and related laws; people from different groups interacted with each other based on their obligations along

725-426: The natural features of the land. These sites of significance, formed by ancestral beings, are like libraries, storing critical knowledge for survival. The stories at significant sites contain knowledge that instruct on social behaviour, gender relations or where water or food can be sourced. Ancestor This is an accepted version of this page An ancestor , also known as a forefather , fore-elder , or

754-408: The objective of promoting ecological , spiritual and human health ". Caring for Country projects in operation across Australia involve collaborative partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people working to repair Indigenous lands and to preserve the environment using cultural knowledge. Of Caring for Country, Neale says: Caring for Country is more than cleaning waterholes. It

783-440: The paths of the creator-beings are said to be evident from their marks, or petrosomatoglyphs , on the land, such as large depressions in the land which are said to be their footprints. By singing the songs in the appropriate sequence, Aboriginal people could navigate vast distances, often travelling through the deserts of Australia's interior. The continent of Australia contains an extensive system of songlines, some of which are of

812-481: The sense of belonging, home and place experienced by Indigenous peoples of Australia stands in sharp contrast to that of non-Indigenous peoples, many of whom descend from the original colonisers. According to her, white Australians' sense of belonging is "derived from ownership and achievement and is inextricably tied to a racialised social status...", and based on the persistence of the idea of terra nullius . The deep spiritual connection felt by Aboriginal Australians

841-583: The songlines. In some cases, a songline has a particular direction, and walking the wrong way along a songline may be a sacrilegious act (e.g. climbing up Uluru where the correct direction is down). Aboriginal people regard all land as sacred, and the songs must be continually sung to keep the land "alive". Their " connection to country " describes a strong and complex relationship with the land of their ancestors, or " mob ". Aboriginal identity often links to their language groups and traditional country of their ancestors . Songlines not only map routes across

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