Margo Neale
Series 2 Episode 6
Mapping Songlines with Margo Neale
Series 2 Episode 6
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Welcome to What’s Your Map?
Every society has myths and legends that are passed down through the generations, some of which can be read in features of the landscape. In this episode, Professor Margo Neale guides Jerry around the story of the Seven Sisters: a Songline from Australia. She delves into the intricate symbolism of her map, revealing that it charts not just physical spaces, but also spiritual and ancestral connections within Australian Indigenous culture.
Margo Neale recently retired as the Head of the National Museum of Australia's Indigenous Knowledges Curatorial Centre, and is an Adjunct Professor of the Australian National University's Centre for Indigenous History.
In this episode of What's Your Map?, Margo and Jerry discuss Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters), a painting created by the Indigenous Australian artists Tjungkara Ken, Yaritji Young, Maringka Tunkin, Freda Brady and Sandra Ken.
Seven Sisters is a dynamic representation of the journey of the Seven Sisters, mythical figures pursued by a lustful sorcerer. Each symbol and colour represents different facets of their journey, teaching us about kinship, gender relations, survival, and cultural values—a narrative deeply embedded in the landscape.
To zoom in to a high-definition image of the artwork during the podcast, click on the image below:
Credit: "Kungkarangkalpa – Seven Sisters". Tjala Arts (2015) by Tjungkara Ken, Yaritji Young, Maringka Tunkin, Freda Brady and Sandra Ken. © The artists. Licensed by Viscopy 2025, Photo: National Museum Australia. Source: theconversation.com
Kungkarangkalpa - Seven Sisters (2015) is a multi-dimensional artwork that represents a whole world view. It has been created based upon the “Songlines”, or ancient Aboriginal knowledge systems that are visualised as physical routes, or “dream tracks”.
The Songlines link important locations and hold information for everything from the origin stories of the First Australians and their cultural values, to vital practical advice for survival and navigation, such as the location of water. Each Songline is saturated with deep ancestral and spiritual meaning, along with important geographical, astronomical, medical and cultural learnings.
This ‘map’ transcends the Western cartographic understanding of what a map is. It originates from an oral society, where knowledge is passed from person to person via spoken word, music, dance or through art.
This beautiful artwork tells the epic saga of the Seven Sisters Songlines in which a sorcerer and shapeshifter pursues the Sisters across the country and the constellations of Orion and Taurus. As the Sisters travel in an attempt to escape from the shapeshifter, they encounter different parts of the land, leaving parts of their stories in the natural formations. The narrative of this painting educates its viewers about social morals, gender relations, and caretaking roles, while simultaneously teaching people about how to live and respect the land upon which they reside.
Follow the Seven Sisters as they weave across the land in Margo’s description on the podcast. The journey starts in the top right of the painting with the Seven Sisters (represented by multi-coloured roundels) in Iarka, a large salt-pan.
This vibrant painting was created in 2015 - fittingly by five sisters: Tjungkara Ken, Yaritji Young, Maringka Tunkin, Freda Brady and Sandra Ken, who are part of Tjala Arts, an artist studio in Amata in South Australia.
Credit: NASA, ESA, AURA, Caltech, Palomar Observatory. The science team consists of D. Soderblom and E. Nelan (STScI), F. Benedict and B. Arthur (U. Texas), and B. Jones (Lick Observatory). Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
The origin story depicted in Kungkarangkalpa features The Pleiades, also known as The Seven Sisters, a striking, blue-coloured star cluster situated in the northwest of the constellation Taurus.
Because of their prominence and visibility between December and March in the Southern Hemisphere, and October and April in the Northern Hemisphere, the Pleiades have been observed by people on Earth for millennia, and feature in ancient written and oral histories from all over the world.
Credit: Nebra Sky Disc, c. 1800 - 1600 BCE. Frank Vincentz. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
Their earliest known depiction of the Pleiades is on the Nebra Sky Disk, circa (1800-1600 BCE). This Disk is interpreted to show the Sun, a crescent Moon and stars, with the cluster of seven stars identified as the Pleiades. It is a seemingly portable astronomical device measuring just over 30cm in diameter. It was found in Germany and dates back to the Early Bronze Age! This artefact is considered one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century.
In Western astrology and deriving from Greek mythology, the Seven Sisters are said to have been ‘pursued’ across the night sky by the constellation Orion.
Taurus and the Pleiades taking on Orion, in Andreas Cellarius' Celestial Chart of the Northern Hemisphere (1661)
About Professor Margo Neale
Adjunct Professor Margo Neale is the former Head of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges, Senior Indigenous Curator and Principal Advisor to the Director at the National Museum of Australia.
She was the inaugural Director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program and the Gallery of First Australians at the Museum, after previously working at the National Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales where she co-established and curated the first Indigenous gallery, Yiribana.
At the Queensland Art Gallery, she was the inaugural Curator, establishing the first Indigenous Art Department.
Margo is a co-recipient of seven Australian Research Council grants in collaboration with the ANU, Monash, Yale and the University of Victoria. She has published widely across disciplines including social history, art and culture in the Asia–Pacific region, and Aboriginal Australia.
She is the author, co-author or editor of 12 books including the Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture and the recent Thames & Hudson book on Songlines. She has curated major pioneering exhibitions such as Australia’s largest international solo exhibition for an Australian artist, Emily Kame Kngwarreye which was also the first national touring exhibition for an Aboriginal artist, the first major national touring exhibition for urban-based artist, Lin Onus and the Vatican’s collection of Aboriginal art and artefacts for the canonization of Saint Mary McKillop.
Her award-winning Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters exhibition is an international touring show visiting major venues in Europe, UK, USA, and Asia.
An artists visualisation of The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters in Western Mythology. Credit: Elihu Vedder, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
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