SONGLINES AND NETWORKING.

SONGLINES AND WHATAPP NETWORKING.

(Peter Mulcahy & Josephine Mick)

The "Songline" is a dreamtime idea that was used to shape the truth of our ancestors. Here in Australia, the Ancestors created themselves from clay, one for each totemic species. Likewise, social network like WhatsApp is the new adjustment or modernised way of the songline, in which our networked narratives are shaped through different social media including WhatsApp. The songline used by our ancestors made it feasible for them to coordinate their route over the whole nation, provided they knew the song. This was clear with their firm belief that a song was both a map and a direction-finder, providing you know the song, you could always find your way across the country (Chatwain, 1987).

This belief was based on the premise that perception was a crucial part of a songline, and that as long as you stuck to the track, you would always find people who shared your dreaming, who were infact your family Chatwin,( 1987), pg.13) [….] The concept of social networking being a present day adaptation of the songline through our networked narratives has more similarities with the traditional concept of the songline, yet additionally varies. There are many similarities and differences between the songlines and the networked narrative of WhatsApp. However, according to Chatwin songlines had predominantly focused on perception and existence. He suggests that an ancestor would only exist to the songline of their totemic ancestor provided they know the song, or are able to identify it.

Another similarity of WhatsApp to a songline is that given that we exist in social and family groups that we see as advantageous in shaping our networked narrative. This implied we can discover our way over the social network given that we know the people we associate with. However, songline differ from the present day networked narrative as WhatsApp has the ability to explore outside your family as long as they have android mobile phones and happy to share their contact details, whereas songline to the Aboriginal people is mainly for a community of the same totemic ancestral descent.

Songlines unlike WhatsApp does not have the ability to choose its community. WhatsApp gives the user the ability to privatize their profile, giving option to choose who can see their status or profile from their family, friends and groups, or like global virtual world, WhatsApp users can also chose to open up their timeline to everyone on the contact details. Songline similarly to WhatsApp, gives the user the ability to create a community with the ability to invite others in. Songline likewise, is a totem which gives no choice to the individual neither the ability to choose another group or friends.

Despite of the similarities and differences between songline and social media like WhatsApp, my observation on present day’s beliefs on social networking sites has degraded our human qualities through being the creation of a computerized medium. Old social communications, like the Dreaming and Songlines, have a natural song about them that modern social media and networking sites are missing. (By Mollel)

Reference list

Chatwin, B. (1985).   The Songlines. Australian aborigines – Social life and customs.

            Jonathan Cape Limited, London.

Kuttainen, V. (2017). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Week 5: Stories of place: Story lines. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/

Wade, D (2008 September 30) The Dreamtime .Retrieved from http://blog.ted.com/wade_davis_repo/

Image. 

 http://justobjects.nl/gps-hiking-evolution-navigation/