“Listening to Country : Songlines, knowledge, and Indigenous Sovereignty” - In conversation with Prof Marcia Langton at Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters exhibition

In this lecture, Professor Marcia Langton explores the profound concept of “Listening to Country” as a foundation of Indigenous knowledge systems and cultural sovereignty. Drawing on the ancient and living traditions of Songlines, she examines how knowledge is embedded in land, language, story, and ceremony, and how these interconnected systems have guided law, governance, and ecological care for tens of thousands of years.

Professor Langton reflects on Songlines not only as routes across Country, but as sophisticated intellectual frameworks through which history, science, ethics, and identity are transmitted across generations. She considers how listening—to land, to ancestors, and to Indigenous voices—offers alternative ways of understanding place, responsibility, and relationality in a contemporary world shaped by colonial disruption and environmental crisis.

The lecture also addresses Indigenous sovereignty as an ongoing practice grounded in cultural authority, custodianship, and self-determination. Through critical insights and lived experience, Professor Langton challenges audiences to rethink dominant narratives of nationhood, knowledge production, and ownership of land. This lecture invites deep reflection on the power of Indigenous epistemologies and the urgent need to respect, protect, and learn from them in shaping more just and sustainable futures.

Speaker Bio -

Professor Marcia Langton AO is an anthropologist and geographer, and since 2000 has held the Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne. She has produced a large body of knowledge in the areas of political and legal anthropology, Indigenous agreements and engagement with the minerals industry, and Indigenous culture and art. Her role in the Empowered Communities project under contract to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and as a member of the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians are evidence of Professor Langton's academic reputation, policy commitment, and impact, alongside her role as a prominent public intellectual.

Her 2012 Boyer lecture series titled The Quiet Revolution: Indigenous People and the Resources Boom is one of her recent contributions to public debate and added to her influence and reputation in government and private sector circles. In 1993 she was made a member of the Order of Australia in recognition of her work in anthropology and the advocacy of Aboriginal rights.

Professor Langton is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a Fellow of Trinity College, Melbourne and an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College at the University of Queensland. In 2016 Professor Langton was honoured as a University of Melbourne Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor. In further recognition as one of Australia’s most respected Indigenous Academics Professor Langton has in 2017 been appointed as the first Associate Provost at the University of Melbourne.