In Search of
Aboriginal
Astronomy
Were the Aboriginal Australians the world's
first astronomers? By Ray Norris
WHEN
THE BRITISH
First Fleet arrived in Austra-
lia in 1788, their navigators probably knew less about the
southern sky than many of the Aboriginal people who they
drove from their land. Sadly, nobody thought to ask. The
British settlers and convicts weren't interested in the many
rich and vibrant Aboriginal cultures, each with its own customs, folklore, and language. Only recently have most of us
appreciated the deep vein of astronomy threading through
the Aboriginal stories and ceremonies.
With hindsight, we shouldn't be surprised. To those living
in Australia thousands of years ago, under the magnificent
river of the Milky Way threading through a coal-black sky, the
heavens were an integral part of their world. It would have
been obvious that particular stars were visible only at certain
times of the year and would help navigation through the cool
of the night. Even more important would be the belief, shared
by most Aboriginal cultures, that the world was created
in the "Dreaming" by ancestral spirits who have
left their mark all around us. Those who can
understand these symbols have a complete
understanding of the world and the rules
by which one should live - a sort of user
manual for living. The night sky would
be an important chapter of this manual.
Since the 50,000 year-old Aboriginal
cultures are far older than Stonehenge
or the Pyramids, it is sometimes said
that "the Australian Aborigines were
the world's first astronomers". Is this
statement correct? Quite apart from
the assumption of a static culture, the
word "astronomy" implies more than just
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recognising a few stars. It implies a quest to understand
the patterns in the sky, the motion of the Sun and Moon,
phenomena like eclipses, and whether events in the sky are
connected to those on Earth. Can we find evidence for such
a deep interest amongst traditional Aboriginal people?
Sun, Moon, and eclipses
The Yolngu people, in the far north of Australia, tell how
Walu, the Sun-woman, lights a fire each morning, bringing us dawn. She decorates herself with red ochre, some of
which spills onto the clouds, colouring the sunrise. Then
she carries her blazing torch across the sky from east to
west, creating daylight. As she descends to the western
horizon, spilling red ochre at sunset, she extinguishes her
torch, and starts the long journey underground back to the
morning camp in the east.
The Moon, named Ngalindi in the Yolngu language, was
a fat lazy man (corresponding to the full Moon) with
two wives and two sons, whom he expected to feed
Far Left: The Yolngu
constellation of Djulpan,
known to Europeans as Orion.
Betelgeuse is the bow of a
canoe, Rigel the stern, and the
three stars of Or ion's belt are
the brothers sitting in it. The
Orion Nebula is the fish still
trailing in the water on its line.
Left: An engraving from Kuring-gai Chase National Park,
showing a man and woman
reaching up to a crescent.
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•
A morning star pole, created by Richard
Garrawurra. The tuft of Magpie-goose
feathers at the top represents Venus,
and the other feathers represent nearby
stars, and other clans.
Just a few kilometres from the
centre of Sydney lies Ku-ring-gai
Chase National Park, once home
to the Guringai people, who have
left behind thousands of beautiful
sacred rock engravings depicting the Dreaming ancestors, and
images of the animals and fish that
abound in and around the Park.
Some of these images show a
man and woman reaching up to
a boomerang in the sky. But is it
a boomerang? Boomerangs rarely
have pointed ends, and usually
have two straight lengths rather
than a single curved crescent. And
how often do a man and woman
and look after him. He became angry with his sons for not
sharing their food, and killed them. When his wives found
out, they attacked him with their axes, chopping bits off
him, giving us the waning Moon. While trying to escape
by following the Sun, he climbed a tall tree, but was mortally wounded, and died (the new Moon). After remaining
dead for 3 days, he rose again, growing fat and round (the
waxing Moon), until, after two weeks his wives attacked
him again. To this day, the cycle continues every month.
The Yolngu stories even explain why the Moon is
associated with tides. When the tides are high, the water
pours into the Moon as it rises, creating a full Moon. As
the water runs out of the Moon, the tides fall. Then the
tide rises once more, refilling the Moon. So, although the
mechanics are a little different from our modern version,
this story shows that traditional Yolngu people fully understood the relationship of the Moon to the tides.
This depth of knowledge is reflected in stories about
eclipses. The Warlpiri people say a solar eclipse happens
when the Sun-woman is hidden by the Moon-man as he
makes love to her. On the other hand, a lunar eclipse occurs
when the Moon-man is pursued and overtaken by the
Sun-woman. These two stories demonstrate that traditional
Aboriginal people had already figured out that eclipses were
caused by a conjunction between the Sun and Moon moving
on different paths across the sky, occasionally intersecting.
Nor is this understanding confined to the Warlpiri people.
The eccentric Englishwoman Daisy Bates, living in the
desert in her starched blouse and lace-up boots, recounted
primly how, during the solar eclipse of 1922, the Wirangu
people told her that the eclipse was caused when the Sun
and Moon became "guri-arra - husband and wife together."
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reach up towards a boomerang
sailing above their heads? It seems
to me that these shapes are much
more likely to be the crescent
Moon. Perhaps it may even depict
an eclipse, which may then explain
why the man is standing in front
of the woman, partly obscuring
her - a feature unusual in these
rock carvings.
Stars and Calendars
Bill Yidumduma Harney of the
Wardaman people once told me
"the law is written in the stars." As an elder, he teaches
children how to read the sky, reminding them of the stories
and laws that govern Aboriginal life. For example, the stars
we call Orion are seen by Yolngu people as a canoe bearing
three brothers who were banished to the sky for illegally eating a forbidden fish.
Close by is the group of stars we call the Seven Sisters, or
the Pleiades. In the traditions of several Aboriginal groups,
the Pleiades are a group of sisters chased by a young man
in Orion. This similarity between Aboriginal and Greek
mythology persuaded early anthropologists that there must
have been extensive prehistoric cultural contact between
Aboriginal and European people. Today, we are pretty
certain that no such contact took place. Instead, Aboriginal
people independently devised the stories - a sort of cultural
convergent evolution. Perhaps this isn't so surprising, when
you see the group of pretty starlets pursued by the mighty
stars of Orion.
Aboriginal calendars tend to be more complex than Euro-
pean ones, and are often based on six seasons, sometimes
marked by the heliacal rising of stars. For example, the Pitjantjatjara people mark the start of Nyinnga (winter) by the
rising of the Pleiades in the dawn sky. Just as importantly,
the appearance of a star or constellation can signal the time
to move to a new food source. The appearance of the Mallee-fowl constellation (Lyra) in March warns the Boorong
people in Victoria that the Mallee-fowl are about to build
their nests, and her disappearance in October tells them
that the eggs are laid and are ready to be collected.
Some sky patterns are marked by dark clouds rather
than stars. Next to the Southern Cross (a possum in a
tree, according to the Boorong people) is the dark cloud of
interstellar dust that we call the Coalsack. To the Wardaman
sky is what astronomers would call zodiacal light, caused
by dust in the plane of the solar system. In today's polluted
skies it's hidden from most of us, but is still easily visible in
the clear dark skies and low latitude of northern Australia.
We can learn two important things from the Morning
Star ceremony. One is that Yolngu tradition includes the
knowledge that Venus never moves far from the Sun, which
is explained by a rope binding the two bodies together - a
bond that Isaac Newton later called "gravity". The other is
that since the Morning-Star ceremony needs to be planned,
and Venus rises before dawn only at certain times of the
year, Yolngu people also keep track of the path of Venus
well enough to predict when to hold the Morning Star
Ceremony.
people, it's the head of a lawman keeping an eye on us, but
Astronomical Measurements
to many other groups right across Australia, it's one of the
best known Aboriginal constellations - the Emu in the Sky.
Occasionally I am told something like: "Of course, the
The Coalsack is its head, and its neck, body, and legs stretch
Aborigines don't do astronomy - they can't even count
beyond five." This belief is even supported by one of my
along the Milky Way right through Scorpius. It's a spectacular sight - far better than the contrived European constellaanthropology textbooks which confidently asserts that no
Aboriginal language has a word for a number greater than
tions that most of us grew up with. Once you've seen it, the
four. So I was fascinated to watch a group of Tiwi kids playMilky Way will never look the same again.
In Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a rock engraving
ing in a waterhole, competing to see who could hold their
of an emu, which looks much more like the Emu in the Sky
breath longest underwater. They started counting: "Natinga,
than a real emu. A few years ago, Sydney academic Hugh
Jirara, Jiraterima ..." What would happen when they reached
Cairns pointed out that the engraving is oriented to line up
five? Would they abandon the game? Switch to English? Of
with the Emu in the Sky. Astonishingly, the Emu in the Sky
course not. They kept counting all the way up to about 70,
stands above her portrait, in the correct
orientation, at just the time when the
Yolngu tradition includes the knowledge that Venus
real-life emus are laying their eggs.
The Planets
never
moves far from the Sun
The silvery glow of Venus, the Morning Star, must be one of the most
spectacular sights in the sky. Yolngu
people call her Banumbirr, and tell
how she came across the sea from the
east in the Dreaming, naming animals
and landscape. After crossing the
shoreline, she continued westwards
across the land, creating one of the
"songlines" which are still important
in Aboriginal cultures.
In an important and beautiful
"Morning Star Ceremony", Banumbirr
helps earthly Yolngu people communicate with their ancestors with the aid
of a "Morning Star Pole". After starting at dusk, the ceremony continues
through the night, reaching a climax
as Banumbirr rises before dawn.
Below her, say Yolngu people, is a rope
which carries the messages, and which
prevents her from ever rising high in
the sky. I suspect this faint line in the
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Summer solstice
The view across the Wurdi Youang stone arrangement
1I'1I11<r>01,"«
Equinox
showing the positions of the setting Sun at the solstices
and equinoxes. Composite image made from originals by
Ray Norris and John Morieson.
exactly East-West. It was built by the Wathaurung
people before European settlement, but all records
of its use have now been lost. At its western end,
all in the Tiwi language.
Sadly, this myth about innumeracy in Aboriginal
cultures persists even amongst people who should know
better, even though other anthropologists have carefully
documented the various Aboriginal number systems. Such
ingrained attitudes state equally misleadingly that Aboriginal people "don't measure things" or "don't ask questions",
and so would not be interested in careful astronomical
measurements. I prefer to stick to the evidence.
Which brings me to the "Stonehenge Hypothesis". Can
we find any evidence amongst Aboriginal cultures that
careful observations were made, records kept, or structures
set up to point to the rising and setting places of heavenly
bodies?
at the highest point of the ring, is an eye-catching
group of three waist-high stones. My colleague
John Morieson has pointed out that if you stand
at these three large stones, some small outlying
stones mark the position on the horizon where the
Sun sets on midwinter's day, on midsummer's day,
and at the equinox.
A recent survey has confirmed these orientations, but a sceptic might still raise some doubts.
First, the outliers are only accurate to a few degrees
- could these alignments have occurred by chance? Second,
although the stones of the circle are large and embedded in
the rock, the outliers are small and could have been moved.
Third, besides the outliers indicating the solstices and
equinox, there is an additional outlier whose significance
is unknown. One piece of additional evidence to support
Morieson's suggestion was discovered while making the
composite picture shown above: the solstices are not indicated solely by the outliers, but also by the fairly straight
lines of the ring of stones itself.
The best way to confirm this astronomical hypothesis
would be to find another site with similar astronomical
alignments. We know of other stone arrangements in
Victoria which point towards the cardinal points (north,
south, east, and west) and so it's pretty certain that the
Aboriginal people hereabouts knew these directions
accurately, presumably by observing celestial bodies, since
they didn't have compasses. But are there other sites which
point to the position of the solstice, or equinox? We're
working on it.
So back to the big question: were Aboriginal people
doing astronomy hundreds or thousands of years ago? The
growing body of evidence is that traditional Aboriginal
people were deeply fascinated by the sky and the motion
of the bodies across it, and their astronomical knowledge
was far richer and deeper than is usually appreciated. So in
that sense, yes. However, the evidence
for actual measurements or records
Maybe. On the dreamy banks of the Murray River,
north of Adelaide, is a site called "Ngaut Ngaut", where
the Nganguraku people engraved images of the Sun
and Moon. Next to these engravings are a series of dots
and lines carved in the rock. The traditional owners say
these depict the "cycles of the Moon". How do they know?
Such knowledge is usually passed through generations
from father to son, and from elder to novice at initiation
ceremonies. However, these ceremonies were banned,
along with the Nganguraku language, by Christian missionaries over a hundred years ago, so only this fragment
of culture has survived. The rich record engraved on the
walls of Ngaut Ngaut has so far defied
attempts at decoding. Perhaps one day
Acknowledgement
we'll succeed, but for the moment we
This project is dedicated
to the hundreds
of
must label it as intriguing, but not
thousands
of Indigenous
Australians who lost
their lives after the British arrival in Australia
conclusive, evidence of Aboriginal
in 1788. I am indebted to the Indigenous
astronomy.
What about structures that mark
groups who have welcomed
us onto their land,
rising and setting positions? The
Wurdi Youang stone arrangement in
Victoria is an impressive egg-shaped
ring of stones, about 50 metres in
diameter, with its major axis almost
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and I especially
thank the elders
the Yolngu community
Territory.
Cairns,
& TELESCOPE
and people
at Yirrkala,
Northern
I also thank my collaborators
Paul Curnow,
son, Barnaby
Norris,
lan Maclean,
of
Hugh
John Morie-
and Cilia Norris.
remains unproven, although the clues
are sufficiently tantalising to fuel the
hunt for more. The search continues.
Ray Norris is an astrophysicist at the
Australia Telescope National Facility
in Sydney. When he's not exploring
Aboriginal astronomy, his areas of
research include the Australia Telescope
Large Area Survey (ATLAS).