Seven Sisters Songlines

The Seven Sisters Songlines are among the most widely shared and enduring constellations of story, ceremony, and law in Aboriginal Australia. Centred on the star cluster known to Western astronomy as the Pleiades, these narratives map the Sisters’ travels across Country, encoding obligations to land, kin, and conduct. While each community holds its own language, names, and custodial rights, recurring motifs link deserts, ranges, coasts, and islands into a continent-spanning body of knowledge that is simultaneously astronomical chart, legal code, and ecological handbook.

Defining the Songlines

Songlines are networks of songs, stories, and ceremonies that follow the routes of Ancestor Beings. In the Seven Sisters traditions, the Sisters are pursued by a male figure who appears in the night sky near them (often aligned with Orion), and their journeys create and sanctify places along the way. As they travel, they establish waterholes, rock formations, camps, and law. The Songlines are not simply stories about stars; they are law-in-motion that instruct how to live properly with Country and with one another.

In many regions, the Seven Sisters narratives unite sky and earth: what is sung above is walked below.

Core Motifs and Legal Themes

• Pursuit and Protection: The Sisters evade an insistent pursuer, establishing rules around consent, avoidance relationships, and respect between kin categories.
• Creation of Place: As the Sisters camp, rest, or transform, they author water sources, shelter, and resource sites, marking them as story places with specific protocols.
• Transformation and Visibility: Episodes explain why some Sisters are brighter or “missing” to the eye, connecting sky appearance with moral outcomes and ceremony.
• Gendered Knowledge: Many aspects are held within women’s law; in some regions, complementary men’s knowledge sits alongside. Access is governed by age, status, and permission.
• Continuity of Law: The Songlines set precedent—how to travel, share, manage resources, and resolve conflict across and between countries.

Geographies of the Seven Sisters

The Sisters’ tracks thread across vast areas of the Western and Central Deserts, extending through Arrernte, Warlpiri, Martu, Anangu, and neighboring countries, and they continue into the Kimberley and other northern regions with local expressions. On the ground, story places include:

• Rock shelters and overhangs associated with rests, camps, or transformations.
• Waterholes and soaks established as refuges or as results of defensive actions.
• Stone arrangements and features used in ceremony or as teaching sites.
• Prominent landforms (ranges, domes, pinnacles) whose shapes recall episodes within the narrative.

These places are often linked by walking routes that mirror the Sisters’ sky path. Custodians maintain songs that “stitch” the route across language boundaries, enabling intercommunity exchange, safe passage, and mutual responsibilities for care of Country.

Astronomy, Seasons, and Ecological Knowledge

The Pleiades’ annual movements serve as a celestial calendar. In many regions, the cluster’s heliacal rising (its first appearance before dawn) announces seasonal shifts—cooler conditions in much of the continent—and cues for burning, travel, ceremony, and resource planning. Observations link sky events with cycles on Country:

• Timing for gathering plant foods such as yams, seeds, and fruits, and for monitoring the ripening or dormancy of key species.
• Indicators for animal breeding, movements, or fat cycles, aligning hunting rules with sustainable practice.
• Signals for controlled cultural burning to clean country, promote fresh growth, and protect travel corridors.
• Guidance for long-distance journeys, as star patterns pair with ground songlines to aid navigation.

Reading the Sisters alongside their pursuer and neighboring constellations integrates meteorology, land management, and social protocol into a single, coherent knowledge system.

Names, Languages, and Regional Expressions

While English uses “Seven Sisters” and “Pleiades,” Aboriginal names vary by language and country. Spellings differ across orthographies, and custodianship determines who may teach specific details. Commonly referenced names include:

• Kungkarangkalpa (often rendered Tjukurpa: Anangu Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara)
• Minyipuru (Martu, Western Desert)
• Napaljarri-warnu (Warlpiri)
• Yugarilya (Kukatja)
• Wati Nyiru or Nyiru (a name associated in parts of the Western Desert with the male pursuer often linked to Orion)

These labels signal overlapping but distinct law stories. Each community retains authority over its version, its places, and its modes of teaching.

Ceremony, Art, and Transmission

The Seven Sisters Songlines are embodied in ceremonial performance—song, dance, body designs, and painted or incised iconography. Designs convey camps, tracks, sandhills, and water sources, with dotted infill and pathway motifs indicating travel and transformation. Public artworks, including paintings titled with local names (for example, Minyipuru or Napaljarri-warnu), often present parts of stories that are appropriate to share, while restricted elements remain within initiated contexts. Storyholding is active: elders teach youth by travelling to sites, rehearsing songs in sequence, and aligning the night sky with the ground route.

Ethical Use and Cultural Protocols

• Seek permission from relevant custodians before visiting, mapping, filming, or publishing about story places.
• Assume that some song verses, ceremonial designs, and site details are restricted by gender, age, or initiation status.
• Use correct language names where possible and acknowledge country when referencing story places.
• Note that spellings and narratives vary; do not treat one account as universal.

Respecting protocols protects the integrity of law and ensures that stories remain living, situated knowledge rather than detached “myths.”

Intersections with Other Sky Beings

The Seven Sisters traditions connect to other sky narratives that also form law, calendars, and orientation systems. For a broader view of how sky, weather, and law interrelate, see related sections:

• Sun Woman and Moon Man
• Emu in the Sky
• Banumbirr, the Morning Star
• Namarrkon, the Lightning Man

Contemporary Contexts and Revivals

Contemporary custodians continue to maintain, teach, and adapt Seven Sisters knowledge. Songlines guide cultural revitalisation, on-Country education, and cross-cultural collaborations in museums, schools, ranger programmes, and universities. Digital mapping and exhibitions—led by communities—help protect story places and communicate public elements of the narrative, while authority remains with Traditional Owners.

Further Resources

• Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters (National Museum of Australia) – A landmark, community-led exhibition exploring multiple Seven Sisters narratives and custodial voices.
• AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia – A reference for locating language groups and understanding regional diversity.
• Australian Indigenous Astronomy (research hub) – Public-facing scholarship on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sky knowledge, including the Pleiades.

Note: External resources present public components only. Always defer to local custodians for authoritative guidance on protocols, language, and access.