As those of you who follow me closely know, Tree Girl is a frequent contributor to the conversation. Her’s is a rich and important voice in the conversation about identity and story. This blog post is rich, indeed. Happy reading!
This week has been NAIDOC week in Australia. NAIDOC stands for National Aboriginal & Islander Day of Celebration. It’s so big now that it’s not a day but a whole week, but no-one has changed the name. It’s probably the busiest time in Indigenous’ people’s calendars. There are a lot of events for children and families in the wider community to highlight Indigenous culture.
“Who’s your mob?’ is an Aboriginal English term for ‘who are your people?’ Aboriginal people ask “who’s your mob?” and in the next breath “where’s your Country?”.
In traditional times in Aboriginal Australia, knowledge was transmitted through song and dance and story and art, for survival. Australia has a very harsh landscape and how people survived here for 60,000+ years is testament to their ingenuity and determination. Although I think that the term “songlines” came into popular use through the British writer Bruce Chatwin and his 1986 book ‘The Songlines
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Dreaming the World 