Songlines on Screen

Songlines on Screen is a series of short 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.

The films:

• Tjawa Tjawa: Tjawa Tjawa songline follows a group of women in search of husbands. Travelling from Roebourne all the way to Kiwikurra in the Great Sandy Desert to the south of Balgo. It is a long journey with many stories along the way about how the women came to their end, only to come alive again and continue to travel the lands. (Running time: 12 minutes)
• Footprints: It’s 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 fifty 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). (Running time: 10 minutes)
• Damari & Guyala: Before the white man arrived, two brothers – Damari and Guyala – made their way down the east coast of Australia. They came seeking shelter and good after a long journey from the north and made a stopover near the land of the Mandingalbay Yidinji tribe of the Cairns area. This story of betrayal, lies and loyalty is told in the language of Mandingalbay Yidinji elder David Mundraby. (Running time: 10 minutes)
• Bulunu Milkarri: Bulunu Milkarri is a film about one woman's journey to learn an endangered songline from remote Arnhem Land that explores the cycles of death, life, rain, tears, and the replenishment and abundance of land, sea and spirit, and the quest to ensure this ancient songline is practiced for generations to come. (Running time: 25 minutes)
• Goorrandalng: Goorrandalng is a song and a story. The Goorrandalng song is about brolgas. It's from Granny Sheba Dignari's mother and is sung all the time for country, keeping it strong. Goorrandalng is also the name of the dreaming place, at Keep River National Park in the Northern Territory, where women can go to become pregnant. In the Goorrandalng dreamtime story, women went to the special place and turned into brolgas. (Running time: 10 minutes)
• Naji: Naji is a story from the Bugarregarre time, the dreamtime. The spirit beings came out of the ocean and woke up the silent, barren land as they moved from Dabberdabbergun in the west to the land of the rising sun, creating life and, importantly, water as they travel. This creation story comes to life through the use of re-enactments as Richard Hunter, an elder of the Goolarabooloo people, recounts the steps of his first people. (Running time: 9 minutes)
• Wurray: Yolngu men trace the epic dreamtime story of their great nomadic warrior, Wurray, across the wilderness of north-east Arnhem Land. (Running time: 12 minutes)

 Total running time: 88 minutes