Songlines and Social Codes

The workshop begins by leading through the exhibition, on the trails of the ‘Seven Sisters’, with the help of objects provided by the Australian curators: a stone-cutting tool, a digging stick, a boomerang and an animal sculpture. After their tour, the students create their own songline by drawing, painting and dancing. They transform the experiences of their own social codes into unscripted visual messages.

The students are encouraged to reflect upon their social behaviour on the way from their school to the Humboldt Forum. Their interactions with each other, signals of distance and closeness, the need for attention and respect are thus creatively transmitted onto an artwork.

Inquisitively, playfully and through teamwork, the students explore forms of expression of the Indigenous communities, embodying knowledge passed down from generation to generation. This opens the students’ minds to new ways of perceiving everyday life, which do not usually get addressed.