Kungkarangkalpa Seven Sisters Songline

1-2 MARCH

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA

“I am learning so much about the role of a culture in keeping a country together. The discussion is full and exciting. It is a privilege to watch and an honour to serve these stories’

Wesley Enoch, Artistic Director

Senior desert dancers of Kungkarangkalpa: the Seven Sisters Songline, will fly from the red sands of Central Australia to alight by the lake for a series of performances at the National Museum of Australia.

The ancient chants of the epic song saga of the Seven Sisters will fill the night as the dancers sing up the living cultural routes of trade, story, dance, art and music that criss-cross our country, they will symbolically join the nation’s capital to the nation’s heart.

Creative director Wesley Enoch, a Stradbroke Island man, is working with APY Lands Anangu custodians and Dr Diana James, director of the Songlines Project Margo Neale, senior Indigenous curator, Songlines project NMA and producer Helen Healy, HHO Events to bring Kungkarangkalpa: the Seven Sisters to the nation’s capital for the Centenary of Canberra.

Creative Director, Robyn Archer AO identified the project for the Centenary Program when she heard about Alive with the Dreaming! Songlines of the Western Desert, an Australian Research Council project of national significance (due for completion in 2016). This project is led by Anangu elders with Dr Diana James at the Australian National University and supportive Partners the National Museum of Australia, the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council, Ananguku Arts and Culture Aboriginal Corporation, and the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and the Centenary of Canberra.

“Alatjila kanyini Tjukurpa pulka munu kunpu munu nintini malatja ,malatja tjuta tjana ngapartji atunymankunytjaku munu nintintjaku palumpa tjitji malatja malatja tjuta kulu.”

Inawinytji  Williamson, Senior Law Woman

"This is how we look after strongly this big important creation story and teach the young ones who come after us so that they can look after it in their turn and teach their children, the many to follow.”

English translation by Dr Diana James