Vapriikki, in cooperation with the Australian National Museum, brings a dose of sunshine to the grayness of Finnish autumn. The world’s oldest living culture is spread in front of the museum visitor through works of art, objects and video installations.
The centerpiece of Vapriikki’s extensive exhibition is the story of the seven sisters, known all over the world, which is one of Australia’s best-known lore stories, i.e. the so-called songlines. The songline stories of the mythical sleep time of the Aboriginal people are the origin stories of the Australian continent. They form a network of stories, customs and knowledge across the vast continent and thus tell Australian history from an Aboriginal perspective. The song lines therefore form a kind of map of the terrain drawn in the form of a story and tell how the ancestors of the Dream Age created each surface, taught how to use the products of each region and gave the communities rules of conduct. The story of the sisters is one of Australia’s most important songlines and is told through the works and objects in the exhibition. At the same time, we get to know the culture, customs and traditions of the aborigines, which are up to 100,000 years old.