Barnaby Norris
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By Ray Norris
into the
On a warm autumn evening, go
k, and
bush where the sky is really dar
Milky
admire the awesome band of the
m
Way stretching across the sky fro
ple
peo
l
horizon to horizon. Aborigina
l us
from the Top End of Australia tel
her
that it is a mighty river, and eit
res
side of it can be seen the campfi
.
— nebulae — of their ancestors
PAGE 16 » THE HELIX
(a possum
Now look at the Southern Cross
g people
ron
in a tree, according to the Boo
d to the
of Victoria) and find the dark clou
Coalsack
left of it. That cloud is called the
ace of new
hpl
birt
by astronomers, and is the
, it’s part
ups
gro
stars, but to many Aboriginal
lsack is the
of the ‘Emu in the Sky’. The Coa
y to its left
head of the emu. Stretching awa
dark neck,
g
lon
its
you should be able to see
made
all
,
round body, and finally the legs
s.
star It’s a
of the dark spaces between the
’ve seen it, the
spectacular sight and once you
e again.
Milky Way will never look the sam
The ancient cultures of Aboriginal
Australians have a strong
astronomical component, linking
their stories and ceremonies
intimately with the sky, often
in beautiful and fascinating ways.
‘Constellations’ such as the Emu in
the Sky are formed from the dark
places between the visible stars.
Songs and stories about the Sun,
Moon, planets and stars connect
ceremony and law to celestial
cycles, providing essential tools
for navigation, calendars, and life.
We know that Aboriginal cultures
stretch back continuously some
fifty thousand years, long before
Stonehenge and the pyramids
were built. So were Aboriginal
Australians the world’s first
astronomers?
Close to Sydney is Ku-ring-gai
Chase National Park, where the
Guringai people lived until the
British occupation of Australia.
The Guringai people were known
for their beautiful rock engravings,
showing people, animals, creator
spirits, and strange symbols such
as crescents, whose meaning is
unknown but may be astronomical.
A finely engraved emu in Ku-ringgai Chase National Park trails its
legs in a position never seen in a
real-life emu, but which is exactly
that of the Emu in the Sky. The
Aboriginal artists also oriented the
engraving to line up with the Emu in
the Sky at just the time of year when
real-life emus are laying their eggs.
The cycle of the Moon-man
Aboriginal stories [Who is ‘They’]
also tell how Ngalindi, the Moonman, was originally a fat and lazy
man (the full Moon) who demanded
that his wives and sons feed him.
His wives attacked him with their
axes, cutting chunks out of him
(the waning Moon). Finally he died,
and remained dead for three days
(the new Moon). But then he came
back to life, grew fat and round (the
waxing Moon), and continues the
cycle for ever. Other stories explain
how the Moon causes the tides, and
even how eclipses are caused. For
thousands of years, while some other
cultures superstitiously feared that
the Sun had died, Aboriginal people
knew that eclipses were caused by a
conjunction of the Sun and Moon!
In Victoria, there’s even a stone
circle (Wurdi Youang) which seems
to have been built to show the
position of the setting Sun at the
equinox and solstices. And at Ngaut
Ngaut, near Adelaide, is a set of
engravings said to record lunar
cycles. Unfortunately, the people
who built these are long since gone,
so we can only speculate on how
they used this information.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Archaeoastronomy:
how past people have
understood the sky
For over 50 000 years Aboriginal people
have built up their knowledge of the
movements of the Sun, Moon and stars
to complement their relationship with
the natural world. This picture is part
of the Shared Sky exhibition at the
National Gallery of Victoria.
Unknown
active in Australia (1940s)
Mankokkarrng (The Southern Cross) 1948
earth pigments on paper on cardboard
45.5 x 58.5 cm (Image and sheet)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Presented by the Commonwealth
Government, 1956
Stories in the sky
So were the Aboriginal Australians
the world’s first astronomers? We
can’t yet answer that, but the quest
to do so is becoming a vigorous
research field. And it’s fun. We can’t
help being intrigued by the beauty
and mystery of the sky, whatever
our ancestry, and we all love to
swap stories about it.
Want more? Visit:
www.atnf.csiro.au/research/
AboriginalAstronomy
In most Aboriginal cultures,
the Moon is male and the Sun
is female. The Yolngu people
from the Top End of Australia
tell how Walu, the Sunwoman, carries her blazing
torch across the sky from east
to west, creating daylight.
After descending to the
western horizon, she travels
back under the Earth to her
morning camp in the east.
THE HELIX » PAGE 17