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For an Australian Aborigine, his country is like an immense musical score. Wherever he steps, he can sing songs that bring out the landscape, grant territorial rights, enable symbolic bartering and allow the singer's soul to be expressed.
The whole territory is furrowed by lines that correspond to songs where the verses reveal the geology and topography they cross. These songs are “oral maps” which, in a culture without written language, but with a strong tradition of memorizing knowledge, is probably the best way to transmit and preserve the way of orientation. “They are the maps of Australia with various levels encompassing mythical, ecological, historical and oral knowledge that are encoded in its history.”
Journeys, the subject of many Aboriginal stories, are described by explaining what happened at each place along the way. By listening to the stories, Aboriginal people learn about the local geography and strengthen their ties to their land, their group and their heritage.
This very special concept of territorial knowledge and deep connection with nature is the starting point and common thread for SONGLINES.
We will rely on the current aboriginal art to develop the graphic image of the collection, emphasizing the textures, the linear work and the manual stroke of the prints. Myths, rituals, legends and aboriginal cosmovision are the inspirational references for the different environments of the autumn winter 2024 collection.
We hope you like it as much as we do.
Immerse yourself in the magic of Australia with our SONGLINES collection. Inspired by the ancient Aboriginal tradition of 'oral maps', each garment is a journey through mythical landscapes and deep connections with nature. The vibrant colors, unique textures and patterns of our Fall Winter 2024 collection will transport you to a world full of history and spirituality. When you wear SONGLINES, you're not just wearing a garment, you're connecting with an ancient culture and celebrating the beauty of our planet.
We hope you like it as much as we do.
Songlines
Places, stories, origins, the songlines or the traces of the song, are the sonorous maps that the aborigines used to know the land, to guide them in it, to honor it and to “sing” it.
For years they treasured knowledge about the environment, about life, about the human being. This knowledge was inscribed in songlines, lines of songs, verses that not only covered the terrain, but were an oral encyclopedia about animals, plants and astronomy. Ultimately, the songlines wove the soul of those early ancestors.
Dingo
For an Aboriginal Australian, we are all related from birth to different animals, plants..... We are brothers and sisters of the world. Whether you are a bird, a snake, a fish, a dog or a kangaroo, we are all one red blood. This is what they call “interspecies kinship”, an interesting concept rooted in their culture, which is what we deal with in the Dingo environment.
In the aboriginal cosmovision, it is said that the Dingoes are mystical beings that wander between worlds and constantly change their appearance, becoming people and vice versa. Sacred animals, ancestors of all human beings, they are the ones who give us our faces, our posture, and the return that circulates through our bodies.
Dreamtime
All stories always begin with the well-known “once upon a time” and the aboriginal stories of oral transmission are no exception. Thus begin the stories that tell of a time beyond time, of that genesis of the sacred or that “glorious time of beginnings”.
Aboriginal people believe that the world began during a mythical period called the Dreamtime. During this time, powerful ancestral beings sleeping beneath the ground emerged from the earth. They created the landscape, the plants, the flowers, established the laws by which people lived, and taught them how to survive.
They also established the right relationships between the many aboriginal clan groups, between the people and the plants and the land.
Aboriginal Art
Art in Australia, as anywhere else in the world, has its origins in prehistoric times. However, in this country Aboriginal art is still very present in modern culture and is part of the Australian identity.
The quality and variety of art produced by indigenous Australians today reflects the richness and diversity of Aboriginal culture and the different tribes, languages, dialects and geographical locations where it is developed. Art occupies a very important place in the lives of Aboriginal people, connecting the past with the present, man with the land and the supernatural with reality.
The modern painting movement has been a reflection of songlines. Traditionally, songlines were about language, song, dance and ceremony. Much of this was, and still is, sacred secrecy and therefore not visible to outsiders.
The resulting art has a spiritual and cultural content that appeals to people even when they do not understand the meaning or the details of the story behind it.
Seven Sisters
The Pleiades have long been the source of countless stories. Astronomers say that worldwide myths about the 'seven sisters' stars can be traced back 100,000 years. It may be that the oldest stories told by humans are about these stars...
In the northern sky in December there is a cluster of stars known as the Pleiades, or the “seven sisters”. But if we look closely we will count six stars.
Like mythologies such as the Greek mythology that tells of the Pleiades, this song line tells how the Seven Sisters are pursued by an evil spirit named Wati Nyiru or Yurlu to make them his wives, but the women flee and become a constellation of stars. “In that chase they create the shapes of the different parts of Australia. For example, they created the streams when they danced and the mountains and trees when they rested.”
Ritual
Aboriginal people recreate the stories contained in their myths in various rituals. Recreation through rituals is as important as the legend itself. Rituals include activities such as singing, dancing and painting, which, according to the Aborigines, nurture the land, the people and the ancestral beings. The people involved in the ritual invoke the ancestors. The individuals performing the ritual invoke the ancestral beings and then sing a song to return them to their place of emergence.
Aboriginal rituals also include the creation of mythological designs, such as body paintings, earth paintings, rock paintings and engravings found throughout Australia. Aboriginal people decorate sacred objects and weapons to represent certain myths. They chant a myth to attach it to the object being decorated. When a sacred object or place is touched, struck or rubbed, it releases the spirit that inhabits it. These rituals are preserved and repeated to establish ties between past, present and future generations.
Songlines
Aboriginal Australians created songlines, a network of “singing maps” that allowed them to navigate their land, understand their environment and pass on their knowledge from generation to generation. These songlines were an oral encyclopedia ranging from geography to spirituality, forming the heart of their ancestral culture.
Dingo
The aboriginal worldview is based on a deep respect for all living things. They believe in a universal kinship that connects humans, animals and plants. The dingo, as a mystical being, plays a crucial role in this worldview, as it is considered a common ancestor.
Dreamtime
Aboriginal people believe that the world was created by powerful ancestral beings during the “Dreamtime”. These beings established the relationships between people, nature and the different clans, creating a cosmic order that still guides their people.
Aboriginal Art
Australian Aboriginal art is much more than an artistic expression; it is a bridge between the past and the present, connecting indigenous people to their land and their ancestors. The paintings, based on oral maps, convey sacred stories and ancestral knowledge.
Seven Sisters
Australian Aboriginal mythology tells of the Pleiades as seven sisters who fled from an evil spirit and transformed themselves into stars. Their movements as they escaped shaped the Australian landscape, according to legend.
Ritual
Aboriginal rituals are a fundamental manifestation of their culture and spirituality. Through them, Aboriginal people honor their ancestors by creating mythological designs on their bodies, strengthen their ties to the land and keep their rich cultural tradition alive.
