ARABANA SONGLINES

Arabana Songlines, a collaborative project between Arabana Community, The Mobile Language Team (University of Adelaide) and Ku Arts funded through the Australia Council for the Arts. 

Creatives and Elders from the Arabana community led this creative professional development project which supported the development and presentation of Virtual Reality vignettes. Elders were filmed as they travelled through their Country (Kati Thanda, Lake Eyre), telling ularaka (songlines), linking placenames to the land. Led by Arabana filmmaker Colleen Strangways, this project created an opportunity to document in-context linguistic and cultural elements for preservation, language revival and to share Arabana culture with the world. 

Presented during Tarnanthi 2021 at The Lab, Arabana Songlines took viewers on an immersive journey through the remote heart of Arabana country, Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre). Viewers sat with Elders as they shared knowledge of kutha ‘water’, the giver of life and heard the endangered Arabana language. 

“Our communities are dispersed. We are no longer together in one place, on country. Now, we can learn from Elders anywhere in the world using this 360-degree Virtual Reality technology” (Director, Colleen Strangways).

Arabana Songlines 

Directed by Colleen Strangways. Videography by Vivian Wong. 

Artwork by Lakota Milera-Weetra. Voiced by Arabana Elders Mervyn Dodd, Reggie Dodd and Martha Dodd. Cultural advice was provided by Elder Sydney Strangways.

‘Arabana Songlines’ contains Arabana language and cultural assets. Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property remains with the Arabana community. 

An initiative of the Mobile Language Team (University of Adelaide) and AnanguKu Arts.

This work was made possible through financial support from the Australia Council for the Arts and Tarnanthi 2021. 

The Lab first hosted ‘Arabana Songlines’ in 2021.

For enquires to host Arabana Songlines, please contact info@kuarts.com.au