What are Aboriginal Songlines?

‘Songlines’ (also called ‘Dreaming Tracks’) are an important mode for transmitting cultural information. Songlines are an oral tradition deeply tied to the landscape; a type of ‘memory code’, where each song is a part of a larger story, and each songline can traverse hundreds of kilometres.

Song and stories are used to pass on information and share cultural knowledge. Songs in a songline may contain information about the land itself, about places, history, and plants or animals. Songs are linked to one another and a songline forms almost a map of sorts, based on sacred sites and Dreaming stories and knowledge. Songlines are often identical to Aboriginal trading routes, and were presumably used for navigating these routes.

One example of a Songline is the 3,500km travel route that connected the central desert region with the eastern coast of the country (modern day Byron Bay). This particular travel route allowed the desert communities to visit the ocean where they could witness how dolphins were used by the people to heard fish. Similarly people from the coastal communities were able to travel and visit the culturally important sites of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Deadly Story
‘When you look at those sorts of stories, you see the connectivity between all of the elements, between the sky, between the Earth, between the water, between magnificent sacred sites that are in the landscape that connect our people through this ancient wisdom and these ancient stories in song.’ — Dr Anne Poelina, Nyikina Warrwa