Indigenous Songlines: Highway Written in the Stars
Chapter 1

The architecture of deep time

Chapter 2

Songlines and the map of the stars

Chapter 3

Fire, water, and ancient engineering

Chapter 4

Art on the rocks and in the sand

Ch 2 · Songlines and the map of the stars
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matilda Aboriginal Australian songlines function as a living navigation network.

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matilda Songlines and Star Maps

We are driving down the highway that was written in the stars

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matilda Yolngu culture explains the connection between the moon and ocean tides.

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matilda Yolngu Tidal Cosmology

He scoops the sea, he fills his cup, he pours it right back

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Star Song Tracks
BETA

matilda Trace star tracks to discover how Indigenous Australians read stories written in the land.

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Songlines as living GPS networks

matilda Songs describing ancestral Dreaming journeys mapped waterholes and rock formations, enabling different language groups to trade and travel peacefully.

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Quiz

What cultural concept describes the era when ancestral spirits created the land and its songlines?

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Quiz

How do travelers traditionally use songlines to navigate across unfamiliar territories?

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We survive by mapping our knowledge onto the permanent features of our world.

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The Emu in the Sky

matilda Unlike Western star constellations, the Emu in the Sky is made of dark dust.

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Quiz

What seasonal activity is traditionally timed using the orientation of the Emu in the Sky?

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Quiz

What celestial feature makes up the body of the 'Emu in the Sky' constellation?

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Fun Fact

Cosmic map: The Wardaman people of the Northern Territory use the night sky as a legal map, where stars represent specific territories and boundaries on Earth.

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Quiz

What astronomical events does the Wurdi Youang stone arrangement track?

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Quiz

Which Indigenous group built and maintained the Wurdi Youang stone observatory?

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Glossary
songline (noun)
An ancestral path across the landscape believed to have been traveled by creator beings and recorded in traditional songs. Gamilaroi travelers follow these songlines over 700 kilometers to Queensland for seasonal Bunya nut gatherings.

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Quiz

In which region of northern Australia do the Yolngu people reside?

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Quiz

Which celestial body did the Yolngu people correctly link to the rising and falling of ocean tides?

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Gossip

If you could navigate only using one natural guide, which would you trust?

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