Songlines on Screen is a special collaboration between Screen Australia and NITV that presents eight short films from the remote regions of Western, Northern and Central Australia. These films represent Aboriginal people's ongoing connection to land and culture as told throughout time by the way of creation songs.
NITV wants more Australians to learn about the songlines of this country's First Peoples. We have put together these multimedia features, which tell the creation stories featured in . Explore the stories by clicking on the links below.
When to watch Songlines on Screen on NITV
Landmark documentary series Songlines On Screen – coming soon
Naji
A creation story from the Bugarregarre time, the Dreamtime, from the Goolarabooloo people of the West Kimberley Coast.
It’s 2014 and a group of young men from a tribe on the verge of cultural extinction have just discovered that a law boss from a neighbouring tribe knows some of their cultural songs and dances.
Source: NITV
A group of women travel from Roebourne all the way to Kiwikurra in the Great Sandy Desert to the south of Balgo, in search of their husbands.
Source: NITV
Goorrandalng: Brolga Dreaming
A song and a story about the Dreaming place at Keep River National Park in the Northern Territory, where women can go to become pregnant.
Source: NITV
Wardbukkarra
A story from the Bininj people about the creation of the first people of Western Arnhem Land, and the battle between good and evil.
Source: NITV
Yolngu song men trace the epic dreamtime story of their great nomadic warrior, Wurray, across the wilderness of North East Arnhem Land.
Source: NITV
An endangered songline from remote Arnhem Land that explores cycles of death, life, rain, tears and the replenishment and abundance of land, sea and spirit.
Source: NITV
Damari and Guyala: A Story of Two Brothers
The story of how the brothers Damari and Guyula
created the land of the Yidinji Mandingal bay
people.
Landmark documentary series, 'Songlines on Screen' showcase Mandingalbay Yidinji lore, Damari and Guyala: A Story of Two Brothers. Source: NITV
What are songlines?
'Songlines are a library of information,' says Cornel Ozies, who directed the Songlines on Screen film Footprints. 'They are many things: a road map, a bible, our history. The examples and stories in songlines guide the way we live and give us our unique cultural identities.
'But our culture and history is an oral one and if it is not talked about it is forgotten. In order for our culture to survive it must move from oral to documented. To record these songlines to film is a natural progression. We must use any devices at our disposal to keep our traditions alive.
'The songs that the old people sing and pass along, they are about the country and the sacred places where songs belong.'
