Airdate: Songlines on Screen

Next month NITV screens, Songlines on Screen showcasing eight short films from the remote regions of Western, Northern and Central Australia.

The films represent Aboriginal peoples ongoing connection to land and culture, as told throughout time by the way of sacred creation songs.

A special collaboration, the series aims to give place to some of the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Songlines that are integral to the makeup of Indigenous Australia. Presenting the complex Aboriginal belief systems that interconnect land, spirituality, knowledge and cultural values – it provides the rare opportunity to document these ancient traditions, which incorporate the full spectrum of storytelling including dance, song, art, body painting and sites of significance.

Tanya Denning-Orman, NITV Channel Manager, said: “NITV is proud to offer all Australians the rare opportunity to share the creation stories that are the foundation of our country’s rich history. The recording of our sacred Songlines enables us to keep our stories alive for future generations. The series will also offer a better understanding and respect of our culture and history, bringing us a step closer in educating all Australians about Aboriginal identity.”

Penny Smallacombe, Head of Indigenous at Screen Australia, said: “We’re proud to have partnered with NITV to deliver Songlines on Screen. It’s a fantastic opportunity for Indigenous screen practitioners to record and celebrate the Songlines that are vital to the preservation of Indigenous Australian culture. Bringing these Songlines to audiences through bold, interesting storytelling on screen has been a collaborative process between the filmmakers and custodians and we’re delighted to join NITV in helping to facilitate this process.”

Cornel Ozies, Director of Songline, ‘Footprints’, said: “Songlines are a library of information. 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, 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 are about the country and the sacred places where songs belong.”

Episode One: Footprints
It is 2014 and a group of young Aboriginal men from a tribe on the verge of losing their Songlines have just discovered that a law boss from a neighbouring tribe knows some of their cultural songs and dances. They have not been performed for more than 50 years and it was thought they had been lost forever. The songs and dances were given to the men’s tribe, the Djugun tribe, by their creator during the Buguragarri (the Dreamtime).

Sunday 12 June, 8.30pm on NITV.