SongRites Crying the Land to Life: A Journey into Yolngu Women’s Song Spirals

  • First Nations
  • Talks and Ideas
  • Studio
  • Run time - 60 minutes, no interval

Learn how Yolŋu Women protect culture through Song Spirals and stories

Join co-authors Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs and Djawandil Maymuru in conversation with Rosealee Pearson and Elizabeth Weiss for a powerful discussion on Song Spirals, the award-winning work by the Gay’wu Group of Women that received the 2020 Prime Minister's Award for Non-Fiction. Discover how this influential book has shaped Rosealee’s artistic practice and experience a rare glimpse into the deep connections between land, language, and identity.

This special event brings together Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, and Djawandil Maymuru (co-authors of Song Spirals: The Power of Women’s Songlines by the Gay’wu Group of Women), Rosalee Pearson and Elizabeth Weiss for an in-depth conversation about Yolŋu women’s cultural leadership.

Through the lens of Song Spirals, an award-winning collaboration, the speakers will explore how songlines are a vital means of passing down ancestral knowledge, stories, and laws. With song as a vessel, Yolŋu women hold and share deep connections to Country, identity, and language. This session will uncover the collaborative process behind the book, the intergenerational wisdom that shaped it, and the strength found in women’s cultural custodianship.

This special event offers a unique and moving perspective on how story, song, and land are intimately woven together.

The Sydney Opera House thanks Event Sponsor Sydney Harbour Federation Trust and Idealist donors R O Albert Family and Dr Russell & Jane Kift for their generous support of SongRites.

A very special thank you to Yuwaalaraay Wirringgaa artist Lucy Simpson for the creation of our DanceRites artwork.

Presented by Sydney Opera House

Event details

To read Song Spirals is to change the way you see, think and feel this country.

Clare Wright, award-winning historian and author

Meet the speakers

Event sponsor

  • Harbour Trust

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Attending this event

Plan your visit

Address

Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Getting to the venue

The Opera House is a 7-10 minute walk from Circular Quay, and is easily accessible by car, train, ferry, lightrail, bus, bike and on foot.

Location and access

Studio

The Studio is located in the north-western corner of Sydney Opera House, best accessed through the Western Foyers.

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