NOVA

(man sings) -

Narrator

In the Northern Territory of Australia, Yidumduma Bill Harney, an elder of the Wardaman people, is singing an ancient song about the creation of the world. (man sings) All these song line trails that were made, happening all the way right back from the beginning of everything, to people, to people, to people, all the way right back billion years ago, to million years, come down to hundred years, and now come back, right up to us. And we know all the songs now. That is why we will never throw that creation song away. We've still got it there today. (birds chirping) (soft music) In a songline trail there is the knowledge that is given to you from the old people in what they call songline trails, for naming all the different sites, the plants, trees, mountains, water hole and all of that. Like a map, it is a map, in your mind. It all links up. (soft music) -

Narrator

Aboriginal culture has been handed down orally through poetry and song for tens of thousands of years, without the need to write anything down. So, the first question about writing is, why did our ancestors feel the need for it? What prompted them to start recording things not for the ear, but for the eye? Images, of course, are part of all human cultures. In the site now where we are sitting down, it's called a Moon Dreaming Site. That's a moon that you can see there, that's the half moon, and the Aboriginal name is called Jabali, and that's the headdress he used. (birds chirping) -

Narrator

In the Wardaman creation story, all the plants and animals of the world were once people, the Wardaman's ancestors, wandering across a formless muddy land, until the creation dog let out a mighty howl. When he sang out "koooo" like this, the dog is the one whose sound made everything change. He changed the whole world, and this country now, from the soft high mound became a rock and all these people become a tree and changed all into different animal, kangaroos, dingoes, whatever you can make, lizards, snakes and all. -

Narrator

As the mud hardened, some of the ancestors passed into the rock, leaving traces of that moment creation. That was the mud, and people come along and put their foot there. See? And that's how it is there. He was in the mud, now he's in the rock. Human footprints. Human there. There is a dog there. Then there is all human footprints all over, you can see it. Then the shadow of the old moon, he went into all of the rock as well, during the creation time. (man sings) -

Narrator

At the Moon Dreaming Site, Bill can sing to his ancestors, for these are not representations of them, these are the ancestors, gone into the rock. (man sings) But Bill sings for memory. These images, powerful as they are, cannot tell him which words to use. For images to do that, they would have to gain a new power, the power to represent something else. (soft music)