Time in Yolngu Djang'kawu songs
Ian Keen, Australian National University
The paper explores the relationship between ancestral narratives, the language of ancestral songs, and the structure of other semiotic media in ceremonies associated with the Djang’kawu sisters in northeast Arnhem Land. Evocations of one group’s country and sacra in songs and designs adumbrate its relations to other groups with the same ancestor. There are homologies between condensations of temporality, space, and group identities in narratives, songs and ceremonies.
