Songlines

Chatwin, B., (1988), The Songlines, London: Macmillan Publishers.

p2
Aboriginal creation myths tell of the legendary totemic beings who had wandered over the continent in the Dreamtime, singing out the name of everything that crossed their path-birds,animals, plants. rocks, water-holes-and so singing the world into existence.
p3
Now, in a Europe of mindless materialism, his 'old men' seemed wiser and more thoughtful than ever
p13
the Aboriginals had an earthbound philosophy. the earth gave life to a man; gave him his food, language and intelligence; and the earth took him back when he died. a man's own country' even an empty strech of spinifex, was itself a sacred ikon that must remain unscarred.
'to wound the earth ...is to wound yourself, and if others wound the earth , they are wounding you.
p13
the Aboriginals...were a people who trod lightly over the earth; and the less they took from the earth, the less they had to give in returm.
p17
Aboriginals could not belive the country existed until they could see and sing it...'to exist' is 'to be perceived'.