Key Points
- Anthony Albanese has launched an interactive Aboriginal art exhibit in Phnom Penh.
- The exhibition tells the story of the Seven Sisters.
- Cambodian princess Her Royal Highness Norodom Arunrasmy was a special guest at the launch.
After a day of summit sessions and one-on-one diplomatic talks with , Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travelled to Phnom Penh to launch an interactive Indigenous art exhibit.
Mr Albanese was joined by members of the local government and a Cambodian princess at the ribbon cutting for the Walking Through a Songline pop-up exhibition.
The exhibition reimagines artworks from the deserts of the Martu, the Ngaanyatjarra and the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara peoples of Australia, and an immersive tent tells the story of .
Mr Albanese said such public artworks help show the depths of Indigenous cultures in Australia to the rest of the world.
"Songlines, or dreaming tracks, map the routes of ancestral beings as they travelled across Australia, creating the land and its people as they went," he said.
"They are profound expressions of identity. They are pathways of knowledge."
The Seven Sisters Tjukurrpa - or Dreaming - tells the story of the women being chased by a man, leaving traces on the land to help find food and water, as well as outlining cultural protocols.
"These stories are written in landscape, or stretched across the sky, told in the light of the stars and the velvet darkness between them," Mr Albanese said.
Walking Through a Songline was on show at the Museum of Sydney earlier this year. Source: Supplied / The Museum of Sydney
She told SBS News that the experience of going inside the multimedia art space allowed her to reflect on Australia’s history and the power of First Nations culture.
"I know that Cambodia's own stories have similarly been passed down through generations," Mr Albanese said.
"There is something deeply moving about experiencing Songlines here in Cambodia."
Mr Albanese said it was one facet of the ongoing exchange between the two countries.
He has vowed to use his time in the top job to to directly consult on laws that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people.
