Once upon a time in a land far far away....
By Nicola Battaglene
Image 1: Facebook media image (Pandagila, 2017)
The development and evolution of computer technology, has revolutionised the way people communicate with each other. Long before the invention of the internet and Facebook, people would come together and connect by sharing stories and information.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, have used yarning through stories or the ‘Dreamtime’ to pass on knowledge. Dreamtime stories have also maintained the links between the land, body and spirit. Sheppard states “Dreaming stories were told through methods such as rock paintings, dance and songlines” (as cited in Bacon, 2013, p. 137).
Chatwin (1987, p. 13) notes that songlines were used by Aboriginal people to navigate across the land, songs acting as a map, created from stories passed through the Dreamtime ancestors. The shift from oral to written communication, combined with the transformation in technology, has created a transformation in culture (Kuttainen, 2017).
As a modern society, we embrace each new technological advance and method of communicating. It seems that a combination of globalisation, consumerism and the availability of the internet, has created a technology dependency.
The days of people coming together in the flesh, to share stories, are disappearing. Interacting with screens, the convenience of mobile text messages, emails and Facebook messenger, are favoured over face-to-face contact. Our relationships are becoming more virtual.
As a modern society, we embrace each new technological advance and method of communicating. It seems that a combination of globalisation, consumerism and the availability of the internet, has created a technology dependency.
The days of people coming together in the flesh, to share stories, are disappearing. Interacting with screens, the convenience of mobile text messages, emails and Facebook messenger, are favoured over face-to-face contact. Our relationships are becoming more virtual.
Facebook has provided us with a social media platform for story-telling. A virtual social network, where people post their stories, network narratives that are shared with other Facebook users. There are different ways of showcasing these stories. A variety of page templates, such as business templates for professional services or community pages, designed to target specific groups of people with similar interests.
When we tell our story, the words we use and the language we speak, determines what direction we will go. We can create a gateway that allows us to move across the virtual landscape, creating social networks and connections. Within the world of Facebook, we can create our own songlines.
Aboriginal songlines are similar to the network narrative we share on Facebook. They are a navigation tool and way of engaging, communicating, and sharing information with one another. The difference is, they are not written and cannot be viewed in the same sense as stories on social media. I believe that songlines are so much more than a virtual social network can ever be. It is hard to think of something that could outlast a cultural belief system of oral stories, that has survived over forty thousand years. No one knows for sure how long computer technology will last.
Today, the latest digital technology is being used to access social media in Aboriginal communities. Smart phones that have internet connection, have enabled people in rural or remote regions without computers, to communicate on Facebook. It has been described as the modern equivalent of songlines.
In reality, we can see that engaging face-to-face with others is becoming rare. New generations of people are growing up, never knowing a world without the internet and social media. I think that if we can utilise the ongoing evolution of technology, we can maintain the connection with our history and carry our stories into future.
References
Bacon, V. (2013). Yarning and listening: yarning and learning through stories. In B. Bennett, S. Green, S. Gilbert, & D. Bessarab (Eds.), Our Voices: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Work (pp. 136-165). South Yarra, Australia: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chatwin, B. (1987). The Songlines. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au.
Kuttainen, V. (2017). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place. lecture five: Stories of Place: Story Lines. [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au.
Our Land Council. (2017). Social media and songlines: young people, land rights and identity. Retrieved from http://ourmob.org.au/social-media/
Pandagila. (2017). Facebook media image. Retrieved from http://www.pandagila.com/membuat-foto-liburan-instagram-anda-tampak-menarik/
No comments:
Post a Comment