This exhibition, a collaboration between the National Museum of Australia and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, brings the epic Seven Sisters narrative—an enduring saga of resilience, desire and escape—into dialogue with India’s own traditions of aakhyaan, where knowledge is embodied, performed and passed across generations. In this story, seven ancestral women journey across three vast deserts while being pursued by the sorcerer Wati Nyiru, their experiences expressed through paintings, sculptures, performances, moving images and immersive installations created on Country by artists from the APY, Ngaanyatjarra and Martu communities.

Developed through an Indigenous-led process, Songlines introduces what is known as a “third archive”—a framework where Indigenous and Western knowledge systems coexist. Here, knowledge extends beyond text: Country becomes the archive; the body becomes the medium; the song becomes the map. This mode of storytelling resonates with Indian indigenous worldviews, where land and memory are intimately connected.

The exhibition presents the Seven Sisters’ journeys through tjanpi (grass) sculptures, multi-channel films and vivid paintings. Tjukurpa symbols—lines, circles and tracks—serve as visual cues linking narrative, place and law.

In Delhi, Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters offers a meeting point between two ancient knowledge traditions, inviting visitors to reflect on how stories shape relationships with land, community and cultural heritage, while opening up new ways of imagining shared futures.