Palaexpo - Roma © Antonio Politano

The name of the main character of The Songlines, interlocutor of the first person narrator, is Arkady Volchok. A thirty-three-year-old Australian of Russian origins, he helps the Aborigines by identifying the traditional landowners and making people tell him about the places linked to the Dreamtime, when the ancestors created the world with their songs. He translates the tribal law in the modern language of the State in order to prevent, in particular, the railway under construction between Alice and Darwin from violating the work of the heroes of the Creation. Travelling through Tennant Creek you get the impression of meeting a contemporary Arkady, twenty years later. Alberto Furlan, thirty-two years old, a degree in anthropology in Venice and a PhD in Aboriginal studies at Sidney University, has been working for one and a half year for the Central Land Council of the city, mapping by means of a GPS the places sacred to the Aborigines of the surrounding area. He listens, records, mediates. He represents their interests in the relations with the mining companies in particular. Not to let the sacred sites be involved in the extractive activities and, at the same time, to make the legitimate landowners obtain their economic rights (purchase of concessions, percentage on profits). Day Day, a 73 years old Aboriginal herdsman, living memory of the holy sites and their meaning, shows Alberto the place in the bush near Three Ways where, at the time of the creation, two female ancestors dug a hole in the rock to quench their thirst. The well is still there, between spinifex burnt down by the last fire and omnipresent eucalypts, sometimes still in use, as the wire to pull up the buckets of water left by its side

A.bc In Australia, sulle tracce di Chatwin 20 anni dopo Le Vie dei Canti Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma A.bc In Australia, in Chatwin's footsteps 20 years after The Songlines Palazzo Delle Esposizioni, Rome




	Nelle “Vie dei Canti” il personaggio principale, interlocutore dell’io narrante, si chiama Arkady Volchok. Australiano di origine russa, trentatreenne, aiuta gli aborigeni identificando i proprietari tradizionali della terra e facendosi raccontare i luoghi legati al Tempo del Sogno, quando gli antenati col loro canto crearono il mondo. Traduce la legge tribale nel linguaggio moderno dello stato per evitare, in particolare, che la linea ferroviaria in costruzione tra Alice e Darwin violi l’opera degli eroi della Creazione. Di passaggio a Tennant Creek, sembra d’incontrare un Arkady contemporaneo, vent’anni dopo. Alberto Furlan, laureato in Antropologia a Venezia e con un PhD in studi aborigeni all’Università di Sydney, 32 anni, lavora da un anno e mezzo per il Central Land Council della città mappando con il GPS i luoghi sacri agli aborigeni dell’area intorno. Ascolta, registra, media. Rappresenta i loro interessi nei rapporti con le compagnie minerarie, soprattutto. Sia per evitare che i siti sacri vengano coinvolti nelle attività estrattive, sia per far riconoscere adeguati diritti economici (acquisto concessioni, percentuale sui ricavati) ai legittimi proprietari della terra. Day Day, 73 anni, mandriano aborigeno, memoria vivente dei siti sacri e del loro significato, gli mostra nel bush vicino a Three Ways il luogo dove nel tempo della creazione due esseri ancestrali femminili scavarono la roccia per dissetarsi. Il pozzo è ancora lì, tra spinifex inceneriti dall’ultimo incendio ed eucalipti onnipresenti, a volte ancora sfruttato, come testimonia il filo di ferro usato per tirar su i secchi d’acqua lasciato lì di fianco	The name of the main character of The Songlines, interlocutor of the first person narrator, is Arkady Volchok. A thirty-three-year-old Australian of Russian origins, he helps the Aborigines by identifying the traditional landowners and making people tell him about the places linked to the Dreamtime, when the ancestors created the world with their songs. He translates the tribal law in the modern language of the State in order to prevent, in particular, the railway under construction between Alice and Darwin from violating the work of the heroes of the Creation. Travelling through Tennant Creek you get the impression of meeting a contemporary Arkady, twenty years later. Alberto Furlan, thirty-two years old, a degree in anthropology in Venice and a PhD in Aboriginal studies at Sidney University, has been working for one and a half year for the Central Land Council of the city, mapping by means of a GPS the places sacred to the Aborigines of the surrounding area. He listens, records, mediates. He represents their interests in the relations with the mining companies in particular. Not to let the sacred sites be involved in the extractive activities and, at the same time, to make the legitimate landowners obtain their economic rights (purchase of concessions, percentage on profits). Day Day, a 73 years old Aboriginal herdsman, living memory of the holy sites and their meaning, shows Alberto the place in the bush near Three Ways where, at the time of the creation, two female ancestors dug a hole in the rock to quench their thirst. The well is still there, between spinifex burnt down by the last fire and omnipresent eucalypts, sometimes still in use, as the wire to pull up the buckets of water left by its side