Songlines on Screen: Footprints (ATOM Study Guide)

This ATOM study guide has been designed to assist you with classroom preparation in relation to the viewing of the short film Footprints. This film is one of eight films that have been made to record, celebrate and share precious historic and cultural information from Indigenous groups in remote western, northern and central Australia.

Footprints Synopsis:
It's 2014 and a group of young Aboriginal 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. They have not been performed for more than fifty years and it was thought they had been lost forever.

The songs and dances are very significant – they were given to the men's tribe, the Djugun tribe, by their creator during the Buguragarra (the Dreamtime). They give the people their identity and set out the laws they must live by. They are part of a broader 'songline', a series of songs sung by tribes throughout the region and beyond, that recount the journey of the creator as he travelled the land giving the people their law and culture.

Curriculum Links:
This film provides opportunities for learning activities in Year 7–10 English and Media Arts.