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Songspirals: Sharing Women’s Wisdom of Country Through Songlines

Aug 2022

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Author: Group of Women, Gay'wu, Burarrwanga, Laklak, Ganambarr, Ritjilili, Ganambarr-Stubbs, Merrkiyawuy, Ganambarr, Banbapuy, Maymuru, Djawundil, Wright, Sarah, Suchet-Pearson, Sandie, Lloyd, Kate

Category: Society & social sciences

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

ISBN: 9781760633219

RRP: 34.99

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Synopsis

A rare opportunity to connect with the living tradition of women's songlines, as recounted by Yolngu women from far north Australia. Joint winner of the 2020 Prime Minister's Award for Non-Fiction.
Shortlisted for the 2020 Victorian Premier's Award for Non-Fiction.

'We want you to come with us on our journey, our journey of songspirals. Songspirals are the essence of people in this land, the essence of every clan. We belong to the land and it belongs to us. We sing to the land, sing about the land. We are that land. It sings to us.'

Aboriginal Australian cultures are the oldest living cultures on earth and at the heart of Aboriginal cultures is song. These ancient narratives of landscape have often been described as a means of navigating across vast distances without a map, but they are much, much more than this. Songspirals are sung by Aboriginal people to awaken Country, to make and remake the life-giving connections between people and place. Songspirals are radically different ways of understanding the relationship people can have with the landscape.

For Yolngu people from North East Arnhem Land, women and men play different roles in bringing songlines to life, yet the vast majority of what has been published is about men's place in songlines. Songspirals is a rare opportunity for outsiders to experience Aboriginal women's role in crying the songlines in a very authentic and direct form.

'Songspirals are Life. These are cultural words from wise women. As an Aboriginal woman this is profound to learn. As a human being Songspirals is an absolute privilege to read.' - Ali Cobby Eckermann, Yankunytjatjara poet

'To read Songspirals is to change the way you see, think and feel this country.' - Clare Wright, award-winning historian and author

'A rare and intimate window into traditional women's cultural life and their visceral connection to Country. A generous invitation for the rest of us.' - Kerry O'Brien, Walkley Award-winning journalist

Good Reading Book Review

There’s a stern warning near the beginning of this unique book. While the Yolŋu women of north-east Arnhem Land, writing as the Gay’wu (Dilly Bag) Group of W omen and the Bawaka Collective, invite readers to find out more about songspirals and particularly those called milkarri, which are keened by women, they see that most of the books about songlines were written by white people, mainly white men, not paying attention to or valuing women’s knowledge, particularly of milkarri.

This is the warning: ‘We share songspirals with you and ask that you treat them with respect. Respecting the knowledge means not writing about things that you don’t understand, not putting things into your own words. The words in this book are our knowledge, our property. You can talk about it, but don’t think you can become the authority on it. You can use our words for reflection. You need to honour the context of our songspirals, acknowledge the layers of our knowledge.’

The group consists of the four daughters of Gaymala Yunupiŋu – Laklak, Ritjilili, Merrkiyawuy and Banbupay – and their daughter Djawundil; along with Kate Lloyd, Sandie Suchet-Pearson and Sarah Wright, academics from Newcastle and Macquarie universities in New South Wales who have been adopted into the family. The four sisters are teachers, health workers, artists and writers.

The collective has worked together for more than 12 years and has published other books as well as numerous academic and popular articles. Their second book, Welcome to My Country, sold more than 10 000 copies, providing a rich understanding of some of the patterns, relationships, motions, and rhythms of time and space that underpin the ways that Yolŋu relate to their country.

In this new book, the women share five songspirals, translating them and sharing some of their poetic meanings, but they will not, and cannot, share all their meanings, as some of the layers are too deep and sacred to share. Neither can they share the songs of other clans. They include stories about the family, their mother, the eldest sister Laklak (awarded an honorary doctorate from Macquarie University) and how daughters and granddaughters are keeping the songlines and the knowledge alive.

Just read this extraordinary book. Discover for yourself the deep attachment to Country, knowledge, language and the Law that governs Yolŋu lives.

4 Stars
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville