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First Knowledges Songlines

The Power and Promise
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
First Knowledges Songlines by Margo Neale and Lynne Kelly explores the complex concept of songlines, an intricate system of knowledge central to Indigenous Australian culture. The authors delve into how these songlines function as a method of knowledge storage and transmission through stories, songs, art, and ceremonies. This book provides an educational and insightful look into the significance and modern relevance of these ancient traditions.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you are interested in exploring the deep knowledge embedded in Indigenous Australian culture and how it connects to the land through the ancient practice of songlines. This insightful work provides a unique perspective on the integration of traditional wisdom with contemporary understanding, appealing to those who are curious about cultural traditions and educational methodologies.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Let this series begin the discussion. - Bruce Pascoe

An act of intellectual reconciliation. - Lynette Russell

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.

About the series: Each book is a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers and editors; the series is edited by Margo Neale, senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia.

Forthcoming titles include: Design by Alison Page & Paul Memmott (2021); Country by Bill Gammage & Bruce Pascoe (2021); Medicine & Plants (2022); Astronomy (2022); Law (2023).

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Series: First Knowledges

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  • Caring for Country: First Knowledges for younger readers
    What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? Join writer and farmer Bruce Pascoe and historian Bill Gammage as they generously share their knowledge about the amazing way that First Nations people cared for Australia and how closely humans have been connected with nature for tens of thousands of years. From the...
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  • First Knowledges Country
    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. For millennia, Indigenous Australians harvested this continent in ways that can offer contemporary environmental and economic solutions. Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe demonstrate how Aboriginal people cultivated the...
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  • First Knowledges Innovation
    β€˜Deeply insightful, sensitive and passionate. An inspiring, meticulous picture of the innovations that have made us the world's oldest living culture.’ - Larissa Behrendt β€˜Another fascinating volume in this landmark Australian publishing series.’ - Richard Flanagan 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...
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  • First Knowledges Law
    'Our Laws are forever present and provide the pathways for all Australians to truly learn how to belong to this continent.' - June Oscar 'No other current work has been able to so comprehensively explain the significance of traditional law in all its manifestations.' - Henry Reynolds Law is culture, and culture is law. Given by the ancestors and cultivated...
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  • First Knowledges Astronomy
    What do you need to know to prosper for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the oldest scientists in human history. Many First Peoples regard the land as a reflection of the sky and the sky a reflection of...
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  • First Knowledges Plants
    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. Plants are the foundation of life on Earth. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have always known this to be true. For millennia, reciprocal relationships with plants have...
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  • Songlines: First Knowledges for younger readers
    How do you find your way around, get your food and drink, connect with your friends and family? How do you know the right and safe way to do things, or how to make things? Before the white people came to the continent, all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples knew how to do all these things - and...
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  • First Knowledges Design
    Aboriginal design is of a distinctly cultural nature, based in the Dreaming and in ancient practices grounded in Country. It is visible in the aerodynamic boomerang, the ingenious design of fish traps, and the precise layouts of community settlements that strengthen social cohesion. Alison Page and Paul Memmott show how these design principles of sophisticated function, sustainability, and storytelling, refined...
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  • First Knowledges Ceremony
    What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deep understanding of the expertise, wisdom and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians. We perform ceremonies every day. Some are personal, some highly organised, and others are repeated for generations. For First Nations Australians, ceremonies create the backbone of cultural...
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  • First Knowledges Health
    What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deep understanding of the expertise, wisdom and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians.For thousands of generations the wellbeing of Australia's First Peoples was grounded in the sacred lands of Mother Earth. Good health occurred naturally because lifestyle and diet were...
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  • First Knowledges Politics
    First Nations peoples of Australia are among the world's oldest political designers. For them, Country isn't just a place to live, it's part of the network of relationships that shape responsibilities, behaviour and decision-makingβ€”a template for living together. First Nations social and political systems balance individual freedom with a strong sense of responsibility and connection to others. By placing relationships...
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  • First Knowledges The Collection
    First Knowledges: The Collection introduces Indigenous knowledge systems in vital areas, exploring their relevance to the present and the future. It brings together two distinct ways of understanding the natural world: one rooted in over 65,000 years of tradition, the other shaped by colonial perspectives. Each book is a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers and editors, with the series...
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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781760761189

Publisher: Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 27 October 2020

Country: Australia

Imprint: Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 196g

Pages: 216

About the Author

Margo Neale is the head of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges, senior Indigenous curator, and principal adviser to the director of the National Museum of Australia (NMA). She is also an adjunct professor at the Australian National University and has authored or edited eleven books, including the Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture. She has curated groundbreaking, award-winning national and international exhibitions, including Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters; Utopia: The Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye; and Urban Dingo: The Art and Life of Lin Onus.

Lynne Kelly is a science writer working as an honorary research associate at La Trobe University. Her field of research is the memory methods used by those who depended on their memories for everything they knew: oral cultures including Australian Aboriginal, Native American, Pacific and African cultures. She is also a mnemonist, committing vast amounts of information to memory using the memory technologies of Indigenous peoples. She is the author of The Memory Code and Memory Craft.

Also by Lynne Kelly

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  • The Memory Code
    In the past, the elders had encyclopaedic memories. They could name all the animals and plants across the landscape, and the stars in the sky too. Yet most of us struggle to memorise more than a short poem. Using traditional Aboriginal Australian songlines as the key, Lynne Kelly has identified the powerful memory technique used by indigenous people around the...
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  • The Knowledge Gene
    Over 500,000 years ago, a single gene mutated. It spread over time, becoming critical in the journey that transformed our earliest ancestors into fully modern humans, capable of navigating the entire planet and beyond. A few thousand years ago, humans started outsourcing knowledge to writing, displacing art and music from the heart of learning. This is the extraordinary story of...
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  • Songlines: First Knowledges for younger readers
    How do you find your way around, get your food and drink, connect with your friends and family? How do you know the right and safe way to do things, or how to make things? Before the white people came to the continent, all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples knew how to do all these things - and...
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  • Three Blue Hearts
    From the bestselling author of Song for a Whale comes a moving tale about the life-changing bond between a boy and the octopus he rescues. NATIONAL BESTSELLER. From the bestselling author of Song for a Whale comes a deeply moving story about a boy, an octopus, and the extraordinary bond that changes their lives forever. Max can't seem to escape...
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  • Song for A Whale
    A stirring and heart-warming tale of a young deaf girl who is determined to make a difference. For fans of Wonder. Iris was born deaf, but she's never let that define her; after all, it's the only life she's ever known. And until recently she wasn't even very lonely, because her grandparents are both deaf, too. But Grandpa has just...
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Also by Margo Neale

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  • Songlines: First Knowledges for younger readers
    How do you find your way around, get your food and drink, connect with your friends and family? How do you know the right and safe way to do things, or how to make things? Before the white people came to the continent, all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples knew how to do all these things - and...
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  • Feminine Power
    Divine women in many guises have featured in every world faith from deep history until the present day, inspiring people and cultures across the world. In a cross-cultural and global approach, this book discusses Eve alongside Inanna, Radha, and Aphrodite in the context of sex and desire. In the chapter on evil, witches and Hecate are compared with other deities,...
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