Songlines: The Power and Promise reframes Indigenous Australian knowledge systems not as cultural artefact but as a living, sophisticated archive — one that has sustained over 60,000 years of human flourishing through song, story, dance, art, and ceremony.
About This Book
Songlines are far more than navigational routes traced across Country. They are vast, intricately structured repositories of knowledge — encoded not in writing but in performance, landscape, and memory. In this book, Lynne Kelly and Margo Neale weave personal storytelling with rigorous research into mnemonics to illuminate how Indigenous traditional knowledges operate, why they endure, and what they might offer the wider world. This is not a book that treats First Nations wisdom as historical curiosity; it is a direct invitation to understand how Country itself functions as a mnemonic system, and how those principles remain urgently relevant today.
Key Features
- 216 pages combining personal narrative, mnemonic research, and analysis of Indigenous knowledge systems
- Authors: Lynne Kelly & Margo Neale
- Published by Thames & Hudson Australia, ISBN 9781760761189
What You'll Discover
- How songlines function as memory palaces at civilisational scale — encoding ecological, social, and ceremonial knowledge across Country
- The mechanics of Indigenous mnemonic systems: how song, art, dance, and story work together to store and transmit complex information without writing
- The contemporary relevance of these knowledge systems, and how they might inform the way all peoples approach memory, learning, and connection to place
- Practical pathways for adapting songline principles — through song, art, and relationship to Country — into everyday life and practice
About the Author
Lynne Kelly is a researcher and author whose work on memory systems and non-literate knowledge has drawn international attention. Margo Neale is a leading curator, scholar, and authority on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture. Together, they bring complementary expertise — Kelly from the science of memory and mnemonics, Neale from deep engagement with First Nations knowledge traditions.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 216
- Dimensions: 196 x 131 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781760761189
- Publisher: Thames & Hudson Australia
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and designers thinking seriously about place and Country; researchers in Indigenous studies, memory, and knowledge systems; educators, cultural practitioners, and anyone drawn to the intersection of landscape, cognition, and living culture.