Visible in the stars and landscape of Australia, the Seven Sisters songline is among the world’s oldest stories.
The ancient creation tale, represented in the sky by the Orion constellation and Pleiades star cluster, tells of an ancestral being – a sorcerer and shapeshifter – who pursues the seven sisters across the continent.
The story is at the centre of the exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, on display at Museokeskus Vapriikki, Finland’s 2017 “museum of the century” in Tampere.
The exhibition that year debuted at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and has previously travelled to London, Paris and Berlin.
But its iteration in Finland is the first time it is being treated as a cultural exchange, not just an exhibition, according to lead curator Margo Ngawa Neale.
“Visitors travel in the tracks of the curators and custodians who, in turn, travel in the tracks of the seven sisters in advance of their lustful pursuer,” she said.
“Visitors walk the songlines throughout the exhibition, where the paintings function as portals to places linked along them.”
The exhibition was the idea of senior Aboriginal women, who approached the National Museum of Australia wanting to preserve and protect their culture.
The result is song, dance, photography, multimedia pieces and more than 300 paintings and objects used to narrate the ancient story.
Tapaya Edwards, Pantjiti Lewis, Anawari Inpiti Mitchell, Julie Laidlaw Porter, Gladys Kuru Bidu and Corban Clause Williams have travelled to Finland as its cultural ambassadors.
Mr Edwards, who is from Amata in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands of northwest South Australia, said the Seven Sisters represents cultural knowledge and connection.
“The … story is our culture, it’s our song and dance and it’s been passed on for many, many years to our grandparents, until today,” he told AAP.
Mr Edwards said he’s honoured to share his culture and connect with Finland’s Indigenous Sami people and the wider Finnish population.
“I feel really pleased for people to take away, understand and feel the goodness of the songlines and to remember the songline is not gone,” he said.
“The songline has been there for generations, for millions of years until today and it’s still alive.”
Ms Neale, who has connections to the Kulin, Gumbaynggirr and Wiradjuri people, said highlights of the exhibition include the multimedia offerings, including lying beneath a seven metre dome projection space.
“It transitions you from the western world of the building to the deserts of central Australia and into the heart of the seven sisters’ story,” she said.
Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters is on display at Vapriikki until March 2025.
