The Songlines: Bruce Chatwin
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For its twenty-fifth anniversary, a new edition of Bruce Chatwin’s classic work with a new introduction by Rory Stewart The notion of songlines was largely – and reductively – introduced to the UK and to non-Indigenous Australia through British writer Bruce Chatwin’s 1987 book The Songlines. Yet these phenomena are considerably more complex than Chatwin could describe. They embody the stories of ancestral beings and their creation of the landscape whose churinga (or dreaming) paths have wisdom etched into their every part. Proust, more perspicaciously than any other writer, reminds us that the 'walks' of childhood form the raw material of our intelligence.”
travel Werner Herzog: ‘The world reveals itself to those who travel
A blend of travelogue, memoir, history, philosophy, science, meditation, and commonplace book...Chatwin's astonishing style captures the metamorphoses of his own "'Walkabout".... He takes the travel genre beyond exoticism and the simple picturesque into the metaphysical. If they obtain a Voice, should there be any conditions on its exercise? Should whites have to listen to their message? Should we have to agree with it? (Do you only have freedom of speech, if we agree with what you say?) Not only have I failed to make my young self as interesting as the strangers I have written about, but I have withheld my affection. The Native Cat Dreaming Spirits who are said to have commenced their journey at the sea and to have moved north into the Simpson Desert, traversing as they did so the lands of the Aranda, Kaititja, Ngalia, Kukatja and Unmatjera [ citation needed]. Each people sing the part of the Native Cat Dreaming relating to the songlines for which they are bound in a territorial relationship of reciprocity. A blend of travelogue, memoir, history, philosophy, science, meditation, and commonplace book…Chatwin’s astonishing style captures the metamorphoses of his own ‘Walkabout’….He takes the travel genre beyond exoticism and the simple picturesque into the metaphysical.”— The Boston GlobeBeing in Brixton gives a special resonance: it will not feel like “working with the motherland”, she says. “So I get to avoid a little bit that colonial thing, if you know what I mean. I’m not going there to work with England so to speak – I’m going there to work with people I relate to and who have maybe experienced the same oppressive histories.” Phenomenal! But what will happen if the knowledge isn’t passed on? If there’s nobody left to sing the country, will the land die? A unique facet of songlines lies in their role as cultural passports, denoting respect and recognition for specific regions and their inhabitants when the songs are sung in the appropriate languages. This intricate network of songlines interconnects neighboring groups, fostering social interactions based on shared beliefs and obligations. The perpetuation of songlines through generations sustains a spiritual connection to the land, underscoring the concept of "connection to country," wherein the intricate relationship between individuals and their ancestral lands forms a cornerstone of Aboriginal identity and cultural preservation.
Bruce Chatwin’s song Thirty years on, what should we make of Bruce Chatwin’s song
No ordinary book ever issues from Bruce Chatwin. Each bears the imprint of a dazzingly original mind. Cairns, Hugh; Yidumduma Bill Harney (2003), Dark Sparklers: Yidumduma's Wardaman Aboriginal Astronomy: Night Skies Northern Australia, H.C. Cairns, ISBN 978-0-9750908-0-0 I wasn't expecting the primary narrative to be almost a diary of 'what Chatwin did' while in Western Australia. A catalogue of his interactions, observations, conversations and thoughts, but that is exactly what is was. How much of it is true, in context, and without omissions we will never know, but I found it a very easy read, largely very amusing, and reasonably legitimate sounding when it came to the Aboriginal information. It couldn't have been less academic; the style was casual.
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So precious, so enveloping of pre-colonial history dating at least 50,000 years are the songlines, there are even suggestions that they ought to be Unesco world heritage-listed. La “mappa” di Ipolera Herman Malbunka, l’ultimo erede del Gatto Selvatico e dell’Uccello dello Spinifex, custode del loro Sogno, del mito fondatore della storia della sua gente - nelle sue terre. Bradley, John; Yanyuwa Families (2010), Singing Saltwater Country: Journey to the Songlines of Carpentaria, Allen & Unwin, ISBN 978-1-74237-241-9
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- EAN: 764486781913
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