The little girl with her hair in pigtail lowered her head into the book to examine an array of maps and figures appearing on colourful pages. The Sunday morning visitors at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA)’s new exhibition in the national capital had a bountiful of books at hand for the young and the rest to learn more about the images and testimonies flashing on massive wall-to-wall screens.
Titled Walking Through a Songline, an immersive digital exhibition at KNMA, Saket (May 26 to June 30), transports viewers to the origin of the world where skills were to be learnt in the hard way to survive in an unforgiving land. Thousands of kilometres had to be traversed to find water. Food was scarce and survival led to bonds. The pursuit generated power, magic and art.
The creation and its aftermath is the story of Walking Through a Songline about the First Nations People of Australia. The exhibition, a component of the National Museum of Australia’s internationally acclaimed exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, uses modern technology to narrate the oldest story in the world. The songlines reflect the journey of Australia’s aboriginal people, who many believe represent the longest-living culture in the world. One of the most famous songlines is the Seven Sisters Dreamtime story, a creation tale that has its footprints stretching across the whole of Australia.
According to the songline, the Seven Sisters or Kungkarangkalpa in Aboriginal language traverse the country in their bid to evade their male pursuer, Wati Niru or Yurla. The Kungkarangkalpa cross deserts, rest at waterholes and eventually fly into the sky, becoming the Pleiades star cluster, known by the name, the Seven Sisters. The songline portrays the Seven Sisters as pursued in the night sky by Wati Niru, who becomes the Orion constellation. The Seven Sisters, who infuriate their pursuer, create songlines about the places they come to rest, as they fly across the vast land.
Videos and digital installations mark Walking Through a Songline, which benefits from the original Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters exhibition’s centrepiece, Travelling Kungkarangkalpa, created by Sydney-born visual artist Sarah Kenderdine from the works of many aboriginal artists. “Visual artist Sarah Kenderdine’s outstanding immersive artwork Travelling Kungkarang-kalpa is an integral part of the original exhibition, and we are thrilled to have this opportunity to share our commitment to sharing First Nations stories with Indian audiences,” says Katherine McMahon, the director of National Museum of Australia.
The exhibition not only introduces the profound narratives of the Seven Sisters songline, but also the vision of bridging ancient legacies with contemporary audiences, according to Roobina Karode, director and chief curator, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. “By integrating innovative multimedia with traditional storytelling, the project offers a unique experience that resonates across generations and cultures.,” says Karode. “It is through such collaborations that we hope to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of shared human heritage and the wisdom of ancient cultures, through the stories of their communities and their land.”
Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, represented by more than 100 artists, is an aboriginal-led exhibition developed in 2017. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey along the epic Seven Sisters Dreaming tracks, through art, indigenous voices and immersive display.
Damari and Guyala, another songline, tells the story of two brothers who criss-crossed Australia from the north to the south in the ancient language of Mandingalbay Yidinji aboriginal people. Songs, dreaming tracks or pathways of knowledge and rock art merge to form aboriginal knowledge, called the First Knowledge, which is an oral tradition. Compared to the Book of Genesis and Greek poet Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the songlines of the Australian aboriginal people tell the story of a culture that dates back to about 60,000 years.
Walking Through a Songline, which was first mounted in Mumbai in April, will travel to Bengaluru from Delhi.
