The Songlines

The Songlines is a 1987 book by Bruce Chatwin. The narrative combines fiction and non-fiction in a description of the Australian Outback and the people who live there. Chatwin is a travel writer who took a trip to the Outback for the purpose of researching Aboriginal songs. The book unfolds in a non-linear narrative with digressions about the nature of nomadic and settled ways of life.

The book begins with a biography of Arkady Volchok, a white Australian who lived with the Aboriginals and learned their language. He learned the rites and rituals of the Aboriginals, and the information was stolen by an anthropologist. Arkady left the Aboriginals and became a translator and a teacher to Bruce Chatwin, the author. Arkady tells Bruce about the sacred Aboriginal songs. The Aboriginals say that they sang the world into existence. When major changes such as the railroad occur in Aboriginal territory, they simply add the new things into their songs.

With Arkady as his guide, Bruce decides to head into the Outback to research these traditional songs. Though the Aboriginals are sworn to keep their secrets from outsiders, Arkady thinks he can get them to share with Bruce. The pair stops in a small town on the border of Gorge National Park, where he witnesses Aboriginals and white people alike mingling at a bar. Arkady tells Bruce about his parents who immigrated to Australia from Russia to escape political prosecution.



Bruce ventures into the Outback and meets several interesting characters. These include Kidder, an Aboriginal man who is a self-appointed keeper of culture and history, and Father Flynn, an Aboriginal who was identified as a candidate for the priesthood when he was still young. Father Flynn is the one who begins to teach Bruce about the Songlines, mystical lines that move across the Outback, connecting people and things. Bruce also meets the white priest Father Terrence, who tells him that he is following Jesus’ example by living a nomadic life preaching and teaching.

A brushfire breaks out in the Outback, but fortunately none of the people Bruce has met or their families are hurt. Bruce follows Arkady as he helps mediate a land dispute. On the way, he tells the story of the time the British tested an atomic bomb in the Outback. The story has found its way into the folklore of the Aboriginals.

Next, Bruce meets an Aboriginal landowner, called a kirda. The office of kirda is always passed down family lines, though rarely to direct descendants. This allows a wider range of families to have a say in decisions made on the land. This particular kirda is worried about ancestral graves being disturbed by the laying of a new railroad. Bruce also connects with Marion, Arkady’s girlfriend, who has promised to teach him about Aboriginal women.



In a small town, Bruce and Arkady meet a white policeman who calls the Aboriginals childlike and primitive. This enrages Arkady, who tells the policeman that the Aboriginals are obviously intelligent since their language is so complex. Unlike white people, they prefer to adapt to the world rather than force the world to change to meet their desires. The policeman dismisses what Arkady says once he learns that his parents are from Russia.

As Bruce continues on his journey, he meets other interesting people, including Lydia, a small-town teacher of Aboriginal students. Lydia is capable but often exhausted by her duties. She tells them the story of George, an Aboriginal man who was forced to flee the area after an initiation ceremony gone wrong. George was a talented musician and his band made it to number three on the charts, though after he fled, Lydia never heard from him again.

In the final few chapters of the book, Bruce discusses the philosophy of travel and nomadism. He tells stories and selects quotes from a wide range of sources, and uses the Biblical story of Cain and Able to illustrate the way civilization moved from nomadic to settled cultures. He then recounts a story of a violent hunt he went on in Australia and uses it to muse about the violence inherent in many of the Aboriginal ceremonies. He wonders if this violence is because Aboriginals generally live peacefully and do not have to contend with any apex predators. He then moves on to talk about Aboriginal language in the abstract, musing on the way these songs become universal memories that teach subsequent generations about history, myth and geography.



Bruce and his companions conclude their journey into the outback. Arkady’s divorce papers from his first wife have come through, so he is free to marry Marion. Arkady also helps negotiate a peaceful solution to the land dispute. The story ends with them giving a ride to an Aboriginal man who wants to visit his ancestral home. The man excitedly points out the geographical features in his native language as Bruce and Arkady help to reunite him with his ancestors.