Ancient Australian Saga Arrives in India: Inside the Seven Sisters Exhibition

The first major National Museum of Australia exhibition to tour India features a dramatic chase across the Australian deserts and showcases the ways that ancient knowledge, story, song, dance, culture and protocols are woven into the landscape and are grounded by tjukurrpa-Aboriginal Law.

The exhibition in New Delhi will be the fifth international destination for 'Songlines', which debuted in Canberra in 2017 and has since toured to the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Finland, according to a release from the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art.

A world's first in scale and complexity, this epic exhibition highlights five sections of the Indigenous Western and Central Desert 'Songlines' through nearly 300 paintings and objects, song, dance, photography and multimedia, to narrate the story of the Seven Sisters, as they fled along ancestral routes, across deserts, pursued relentlessly by a sorcerer.

National Museum of Australia director, Katherine McMahon, said she is proud to take such a culturally significant exhibition in India.

"After its successful tour of Europe, we are delighted to bring Australia's cultural treasures closer to home, and to India, where ancient connections are deeply shared," said Katherine McMahon as quoted in the press note.

"First Nations Australians have sustained the world's oldest living culture for more than 65,000 years and Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters is a powerful and moving example of the Museum's decades-long collaboration with Indigenous communities. We are proud to play our part in taking a First Nations exhibition of this scale and significance to global audiences," added McMahon as quoted in a press note.

Kiran Nadar, founder and chairperson, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), said, "The opening of the 'Songlines' exhibition in India marks a significant milestone in our ongoing commitment to cross-cultural dialogue and public engagement with art."

She added, "Developed by the National Museum of Australia, this expansive and immersive presentation brings to life the powerful narratives of the Seven Sisters songline, an epic story deeply rooted in Indigenous Australian culture. By merging ancient storytelling traditions with cutting-edge technology, the exhibition invites audiences in India to experience a journey that transcends geography and time. Through collaborations like these, we aim to deepen understanding and appreciation of shared human heritage, celebrating the timeless wisdom of communities and their connection to the land."

National Museum of Australia Deputy Director First Nations, Dr Jilda Andrews, said Songlines is an invitation to share in and celebrate the importance of culture for the future.

"The culturally rich landscape of India offers a unique opportunity to share our ancient knowledge and practices in a new contemporary context," said Dr Andrews as quoted in a press note.

"Songlines are vast and characterise Indigenous life on the Australian continent as grounded, connected and richly expressive - Songlines are the connective threads that vein our Country. Songlines are epic stories that are imprinted across the landscape through creeks, waterholes, rocks, caves, trees and mountains. They are mirrored in the constellations visible in the night's sky and they are recalled through story, song, dance, ceremony and cultural practice," added Dr Andrews.

Seven years in the making, 'Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters' is an Australian Aboriginal saga that portrays the dramatic story of creation, desire, flight and survival through the journey of female ancestral beings pursued by a powerful, shape-shifting male figure, according to a press note.

By following the exhibition's trail of magnificent art and installations that function as portals to place, visitors effectively 'walk' the songlines.

These are both complex spiritual pathways and vehicles for naming and locating waterholes and food sources critical for survival in the desert.

The exhibition features the world's highest-resolution travelling DomeLab, which immerses visitors in images of the Seven Sisters rock art from the remote Cave Hill site in South Australia, animated artworks, and the transit of the Orion constellation and the Pleiades star cluster, the release said.

Standing beneath the 7-metre-wide domed ceiling, visitors are transported to Seven Sisters sites on the songlines, it said.

- ANI