• At the heart of Aboriginal history

On May 11th, the 4-3eme SI went to the Quai Branly in Paris to visit the new exhibition "Songlines, chant des pistes du désert australien". We had a guide who was very interesting and captivating ! We learned plenty of things.

The Aboriginal people were a group of people who lived in Australia before James Cook met them. They were nomadic people who were adapted to their environment. They were hunter-gatherers which meant they hunted and found their food.
One of the songlines presented was a story of 7 sisters who were always chased by Yurla, an evil men who wanted to catch and kill them.
The songlines also represented the roads the first people of Australia used.

We enjoyed this exhibition and the guide made it more interesting. Merci Serge !

• Songlines, a connection with the beyond

On the 11th of May, our class visited the exhibition presenting the Native people of Australia, the Aboriginals. It exposes their many different paintings, their culture, and their connection with the land, spirits, dreams, and how important their stories are to them. Their stories have a real impact on their society.

When we began the visit, the guide explained in great details their way of living. The Aboriginials were nomads, they marked the paths they were taking on their journeys in the sand, with drawings of Australia made with sticks. They were later given paint, so they could represent their drawings in a more understandable way to the Westerners. We also learned that they were hunter gatherers. Usually, the men hunted and the women gathered fruits, and vegetables. The Aboriginals arrived in Australia about 60 000 years ago, long before James Cook and his Englishmen arrived in Botany Bay, in 1770. The Aboriginals are the most ancient society still existing to this day, and are a mystery, as they already could craft boats 60 000 years ago, when they discovered the land. Over the years, they perfectly adapted to the dry, and desert like environment. They use drawings to represent the land, and organize their tribe, by representing where one’s plantations are, their paths, etc.

The guide then moved on to paintings made by the Aboriginals. The way they draw them, and what they mean is completely different then what we are able to see. Firstly, Aboriginal paintings are not art. Their use is purely practical, and absolutely necessary to their society’s survival, as they tell stories. They are used to remembering them, and tell them to the next generations. For example, many of their paintings represent the story of the seven sisters, and their adventures when being chased by the evil mage, Yourla. To them, these stories are the pillars that hold Australia together. They often find inspiration in the stars, through constellations such as Orion, which created the story of the seven sisters.

This exhibiton was extremely interesting, and the guide naviguited through Aboriginal culture in a comprehensive, clear way. The story of the Aboriginals is like no other, it shows a way of living completely different from cultures we know, in the way they are connected to the land they belong to.

• SONG-LINES, THE EXHIBITION

By Alexandre Alméras and Mayeul Cazin Clech
Visit by Serge

During our school trip at the Musée du Quai Branly, we learned about Aboriginal People of Australia’s myths and traditions.

At the beginning, the guide told us that Aboriginal people were nomads and that they were living in the desert by surviving with the rare vegetables, the meat that they hunted and the rare billabongs that could provide them with fresh water. He also taught us that during the 20th century, Aboriginal people underwent an ethnocide.

During this visit we discovered Aboriginal art, which is very different from Occidental art, in a physical, cultural or technical point of view. We call them song-lines. Originally they are drawn in the sand and the Aboriginal people dance, sing and do their rituals before erasing them and continuing to travel. The song-lines were used as maps and illustrations to the Aboriginal people’s myths which were transmitted from generation to generation orally.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Australian people discovered the song-lines during the Native Australian’s ethnocide. After that they started to order song-lines to Aboriginal artist but on canvas and with colourful paintings.

We also discovered the story of the seven sisters and the evil sorcerer Yurla. The seven sisters travelled from each side of Australia but were followed by Yurla, who had the power of metamorphosis. Yurla always tried to catch the sisters to do bad things to them.

To conclude, this exhibition was very interesting and rewarding for us. It was very well done and we learned a lot of new information. We discovered a new culture that was not very well known and we realized the ethnocide and its background that deeply touched Aboriginal Australia’s history and culture.

AOUIDA Yathreb , 4C
AUVILLAIN Anna 3C

• The SONGLINES

« Songlines » is the result of a ten-year research project involving Aboriginal communities, museum and university researches.

On the 11th of May, the class of 4eme and 3eme of SI went on a school trip to the Museum of Quai Branly Jacques Chirac. In this museum there was an exhibition that talked about « Songlines ». This exhibition takes us to the past, in the Australian desert in the trail of the seven sisters. Australia’s largest and important legendary story. The stories of Aboriginal people have passed down from one generation to another.

This exhibition is a collaboration with Aboriginal communities. This exhibition also has more than 200 pieces created by more than 100 artists. Each painting also tells a different story about the seven sisters.