Songlines: First Knowledges for Younger Readers

Margo Neale and Lynne Kelly are masterful storytellers and communicators – if you’ve already read the adult edition of Songlines, you’ll already understand exactly why and how. I’m delighted people who may be too young for the adult First Knowledges series now get the chance to enjoy the skill of these women, who are so good at their craft, in the First Knowledges for Younger Readers series.

Neale and Kelly show their young readers how songlines have helped the First Peoples of Australia share valuable knowledge across the land and through time. They begin with explaining what songlines are. Songlines are an ancient internet – a superhighway of knowledge and entertainment. Songlines helped people know which food was safe to eat, they tell stories of volcanoes and star constellations, and of the Olympics! Songlines are not just ways of recording the past, they also make it possible to tell the future all the important things to know about the present. It’s a lot of information to pass on!

Fortunately, Kelly does an excellent job of showing how even though 65,000 years ago Aboriginal people weren’t likely to know what the ‘hippocampus’ was, they knew enough about the human brain to know it’s not going to remember anything boring and it loves repetition. She breaks down the science behind remembering vast numbers of Songs, and even shows the reader how they can do the same.

Songlines is a fantastic and endlessly interesting book for all kids 8+.