Songlines: The Power and Promise

The First Knowledges Series

Margo Neale and Lynne Kelly

What do you need to know to prosper as a people for at least 65,000 years?
The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians.

Songlines are an archive for powerful knowledges that ensured Australia’s many Indigenous cultures flourished for over 60,000 years. Much more than a navigational path in the cartographic sense, these vast and robust stores of information are encoded through song, story, dance, art and ceremony, rather than simply recorded in writing.

Weaving deeply personal storytelling with extensive research on mnemonics, Songlines: The Power and Promise offers unique insights into Indigenous traditional knowledges, how they apply today and how they could help all peoples thrive into the future. This book invites readers to understand a remarkable way for storing knowledge in memory by adapting song, art, and most importantly, Country, into their lives.