> Ahhh Kasper - the word songline refers to a White understanding of a
> complex Indigenous (Australian Aboriginal) system of communications,
> kinship rules and beliefs - a 'system' insofar as that is the only word
> we have in English to try and grasp another culture's world. It was used
> by Bruce Chatwin in the novel "The Songlines", a book that was popular
> for a time among people here and overseas who had obviously never been
> near Indigenous culture in this country, and were clinging to a
> sickening amalgam of hand-picked slices of Rousseau and ideas of a Gaia.
>
> caleb
Thanks, Caleb for this! Against much educated 'White' praise, I tried to
read the Chatwin and found myself repelled. Without putting a finger on why.
You do it, well.
Stephen V
http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
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