Like our previous guest, Lynne Kelly, in part 1 of this series on Songlines, Margo Neale is a pioneer. Margo is of Aboriginal & Irish descent, from the Kulin nation with Gumbayngirr clan connections. And she’s the lead curator of the extraordinary exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, that has made such an incredible mark on Australia, and is about start its high-profile world tour. At the same time, the First Knowledges book series Margo is bringing together has started with an instant best-seller - Songlines: The Power & the Promise, which Margo co-wrote with Lynne.

The second book in the series, on design, is out now, and the following one (by Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe) steps straight into the thick of what’s become known in Australia as ‘The Dark Emu debate’ (triggered by Pascoe’s book). That’s the pointy end of our reckoning with our still largely unconscious Western colonial worldview. And it’s doing it in a way that might just help us finally transcend entrenched feuds, and reveal to more of us the enormous benefits on offer in combining our respective knowledge systems - the most powerful knowledge systems ever known.

This is the nub of Margo and Lynne’s pioneering work. There’s something missing in our reconciliation processes, they say, and by extension with our understanding of how to be fully human in the world, intrinsic to regenerating country as the source of all life.

Margo Neale is Head of the National Museum of Australia’s Indigenous Knowledges Curatorial Centre. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Australian National University’s Centre for Indigenous History. In addition to former fame as a touring go-go dancer!

This chat was recorded at Kimberley Cottages & its Windjana Wellness Centre on 23 August 2021, with Margo at home near Braidwood NSW.

Title slide: Margo Neale (source). Find more photos on the episode website.

Music:
The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

Closing tune by Jeremiah Johnson.

Find more:
Tune into the Extra to this episode with Margo

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