Editing Songline (section)

==Description==
The Dreaming, or the Dreamtime, has been described as "a sacred narrative of Creation that is seen as a continuous process that links Aboriginal people to their origins". [[Ancestor]]s are believed to play a large role in the establishment of [[Australian Aboriginal sacred site|sacred site]]s as they traversed the continent long ago. Animals were created in the Dreaming, and also played a part in creation of the lands and heavenly bodies. Songlines connect places and Creation events, and the ceremonies associated with those places. [[oral tradition|Oral history]] about places and the journeys are carried in song cycles, and each Aboriginal person has obligations to their birthplace. The songs become the basis of the ceremonies that are enacted in those specific places along the songlines.<ref name=japingkadream>{{cite web | title=What is the Connection Between the Dreamtime and Songlines? | website=Japingka Aboriginal Art Gallery | date=26 October 2017 | url=https://japingkaaboriginalart.com/articles/connection-dreamtime-songlines/ | access-date=16 January 2020}}</ref>

A songline has been called a "dreaming track", as it marks a route across the land or sky followed by one of the creator-beings or ancestors in the Dreaming.<ref name="CairnsHarney2003">{{citation|last1=Cairns|first1=Hugh|author2=Yidumduma Bill Harney|author-link2=Bill Yidumduma Harney|title=Dark Sparklers: Yidumduma's Wardaman Aboriginal Astronomy : Night Skies Northern Australia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTyQtAEACAAJ| year=2003|publisher=H.C. Cairns|isbn=978-0-9750908-0-0}}</ref><ref name=memory>{{cite web | title=Songlines: the Indigenous memory code|first1=Lynne |last1=Malcolm |first2=Olivia |last2=Willis | website=[[ABC Radio National]] | date=8 July 2016 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/songlines-indigenous-memory-code/7581788 | access-date=10 July 2021}}</ref>

A knowledgeable person is able to navigate across the land by repeating the words of the song, which describe the location of landmarks, [[billabong|waterholes]], and other natural phenomena. In some cases, the paths of the creator-beings are said to be evident from their marks, or [[petrosomatoglyph]]s, on the land, such as large depressions in the land which are said to be their footprints.{{cn|date=July 2021}}

By singing the songs in the appropriate sequence, Aboriginal people could navigate vast distances, often travelling through the deserts of Australia's interior. The continent of Australia contains an extensive system of songlines, some of which are of a few kilometres, whilst others traverse hundreds of kilometres through lands of [[List of Aboriginal Australian group names|many different Aboriginal peoples]] — peoples who may speak markedly different languages and have different cultural traditions.{{cn|date=July 2021}} One songline marks a {{convert|3,500|km|adj=on}} route connecting the [[Central Desert Region]] with the east coast, to the place now called [[Byron Bay]]. Desert peoples travelled to the ocean to observe fishing practices, and coastal people travelled inland to [[Aboriginal sacred site|sacred sites]] such as [[Uluru]] and [[Kata Tjuta]].<ref name=deadly>{{cite web | title=Songlines | website=Deadly Story =| url=https://www.deadlystory.com/page/culture/Life_Lore/Songlines/ | access-date=10 July 2021}}</ref>

Since a songline can span the lands of several different language groups, different parts of the song are said to be in those different languages. Languages are not a barrier because the melodic contour of the song describes the nature of the land over which the song passes. The [[rhythm]] is what is crucial to understanding the song. Listening to the song of the land is the same as walking on this songline and observing the land.{{cn|date=July 2021}} Songlines have been described as a "cultural passport" which, when sung in the language of a particular region and [[Australian Aboriginal English#Lexicon|mob]], show respect to the people of that country.<ref name=deadly/>

Neighbouring groups are connected because the song cycles criss-cross all over the continent. All Aboriginal groups traditionally share beliefs in the ancestors and related laws; people from different groups interacted with each other based on their obligations along the songlines.<ref name=Japingksongart>{{cite web | title=Why Songlines Are Important In Aboriginal Art | website=Japingka Aboriginal Art Gallery | date=24 February 2015 | url=https://japingkaaboriginalart.com/articles/songlines-important-aboriginal-art/ | access-date=16 January 2020}}</ref>  
 
In some cases, a songline has a particular direction, and walking the wrong way along a songline may be a [[Sacrilege|sacrilegious]] act (e.g. climbing up [[Uluru]] where the correct direction is down). Aboriginal people regard all land as sacred, and the songs must be continually sung to keep the land "alive".{{cn|date=July 2021}} Their "[[connection to country]]" describes a strong and complex relationship with the land of their ancestors, or "[[Australian Aboriginal English#Mob|mob]]".<ref>{{cite report| url=https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/approach2/indigenous_res005_0803.pdf| title=Relationships to country: Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people| date=March 2008|series= Res005 [Indigenous Perspectives]| publisher=Queensland Studies Authority| access-date= 9 July 2021}}</ref> [[Aboriginal Australian identity|Aboriginal identity]] often links to their [[Aboriginal Australian languages|language groups]] and [[traditional owners|traditional country of their ancestors]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Indigenous Australians: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people | website=[[AIATSIS]] | date=12 July 2020 | url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/indigenous-australians-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people | access-date=9 July 2021}}</ref> Songlines not only map routes across the continent and pass on culture, but also express connectedness to country.<ref>{{cite web | title=Songlines | website=Port Adelaide Enfield | date=17 January 2020 | url=https://www.cityofpae.sa.gov.au/explore/arts-and-culture/explore-atsi-culture/m2y/more-stories/songlines | access-date=10 July 2021|quote=Song-lines are about the connectedness of Aboriginal space and our part in it and how it connects us to our country and to other song-lines... So we have connection to the land through the spirit. (Pat Waria-Read).}}</ref>

Songlines are often passed down in families, passing on important knowledge and cultural values.<ref name=memory/>

Molyneaux and [[Piers Vitebsky|Vitebsky]] note that the Dreaming Spirits "also deposited the spirits of unborn children and determined the forms of human society", thereby establishing tribal law and [[totemic]] paradigms.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Molyneaux|first1=Brian Leigh|last2=Vitebsky|first2=Piers|author-link2=Piers Vitebsky|title=Sacred Earth, Sacred Stones: Spiritual Sites And Landscapes, Ancient Alignments, Earth Energy|publisher=Duncan Baird|location=London|year=2001|page=30|isbn=1-903296-07-2}}</ref>