*
Song Lines
Out looking for whales
this morning
I thought about
Song Lines
Song Lines
are an ancient
cultural concept and motif
of the Australian Aboriginals
which are perpetuated through
oral lore
singing
and story telling modalities
such as dance and painting
The song lines are an intricate series
of song cycles
that identify landmarks -
a subtle tracking mechanism
for navigation
Our eye followed
the arc of white wash
across the bay
to where it ended
at the yacht
in the distance
and as we looked
an enormous tail fluke
rose out of the water
hallelujah
To the Aboriginals
all land is sacred and alive
the ancestors gave them singing
gave them life through song
and dwell in the land still
the song must be continually sung
to keep the land alive
the singing preserves the land
the story
the dreaming of their ancestors
and recreates it
in their oneness
of past
present
and future
song lines were used
to navigate vast distances
through the deserts
of the Australian interior,
over hundreds of kilometres
of varied terrain
and lands of many different
tribal groups
with different languages
and cultural traditions
song lines often followed ridge lines
and that is where
much of the sacred Aboriginal art is located
Sometimes they followed valleys
where water is more easily found
We leave the bay
to sit in the coffee shop
overlooking this beautiful tree
which may be a crepe myrtle
then fortified
we make our way back
and low and behold
Look...
a group
a family of travellers
resting in the calm waters
of the bay
before
making their way southwards
down the coast
of Queensland
to New South Wales
and beyond...
look how close
the family group is
to the boat
In 1987 Bruce Chatwin
wrote a book
entitled Song Lines
which tells very beautifully
of these ancient sung
highways and byways
of the Australian continent
Satisfied
with whale sightings
we walk up the road
to my friend's home
Bruce Chatwin says:
The labyrinth of individual pathways
which meander all over Australia
are known to Europeans
as dreaming tracks or Song Lines
-to the Aboriginals
as the Footprints of the Ancestors
or the Way of the Law...
The Whales,
I have learned,
seem to have their own
heritage of song lines
that are sung
from one pole to another
and heard over great distances
connecting
the whale communities
and maintaining group identities...
Wonders
of time
of place
of the land
of peoples
and
of the oceans
*
