Gift to One Another: Interpreting Songlines Through the Relational Dynamics of Kuruwarri

ABSTRACT This dialogue between Warlpiri ceremonial leader and educator Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu and academic Samuel Curkpatrick explores important Warlpiri concepts related to social interconnectedness and responsibility. With characteristic narrative dexterity, Pawu develops concepts that originate within traditional Warlpiri thought and performance in provocative ways, interpreting ngurra-kurlu (home within), kuruwarri (system) and wantarri-tarri (travelling route) to generate insight within contemporary issues of cultural and national identity. Extending from Pawu’s appraisal of songlines as a form of hermeneutic activity, we consider how intersecting narratives of people and place allow meaningful relationships to be sustained and communities to be nourished by one another, in their mutual differences. The material presented in this discussion arose through a series of conversations between the authors, and through keynote presentations delivered by Pawu at the University of Divinity and Indigenous Knowledge Institute, University of Melbourne, in December 2021. The themes and narratives of this dialogue reflect Pawu’s teaching ethos, artistic direction, and approach to language and interpretation.