In Search of Aboriginal Astronomy Were the the world's first astronomers? By Ray Norris

WHEN THE BRITISH First Fleet arrived in Austra• recognising a few stars. It implies a quest to understand lia in 1788, their navigators probably knew less about the the patterns in the sky, the motion of the Sun and Moon, southern sky than many of the Aboriginal people who they phenomena like eclipses, and whether events in the sky are drove from their land. Sadly, nobody thought to ask. The connected to those on Earth. Can we find evidence for such British settlers and convicts weren't interested in the many a deep interest amongst traditional Aboriginal people? rich and vibrant Aboriginal cultures, each with its own cus• toms, folklore, and language. Only recently have most of us Sun, Moon, and eclipses appreciated the deep vein of astronomy threading through The people, in the far north of , tell how the Aboriginal stories and ceremonies. Walu, the Sun-woman, lights a fire each morning, bring• With hindsight, we shouldn't be surprised. To those living ing us dawn. She decorates herself with red ochre, some of in Australia thousands of years ago, under the magnificent which spills onto the clouds, colouring the sunrise. Then river of the Milky Way threading through a coal-black sky, the she carries her blazing torch across the sky from east to heavens were an integral part of their world. It would have west, creating daylight. As she descends to the western been obvious that particular stars were visible only at certain horizon, spilling red ochre at sunset, she extinguishes her times of the year and would help navigation through the cool torch, and starts the long journey underground back to the of the night. Even more important would be the belief, shared morning camp in the east. by most Aboriginal cultures, that the world was created The Moon, named Ngalindi in the Yolngu language, was in the "Dreaming" by ancestral spirits who have a fat lazy man (corresponding to the full Moon) with left their mark all around us. Those who can two wives and two sons, whom he expected to feed understand these symbols have a complete understanding of the world and the rules Far Left: The Yolngu by which one should live - a sort of user constellation of Djulpan, manual for living. The night sky would known to Europeans as Orion. be an important chapter of this manual. Betelgeuse is the bow of a Since the 50,000 year-old Aboriginal canoe, Rigel the stern, and the cultures are far older than Stonehenge three stars of Or ion's belt are or the Pyramids, it is sometimes said the brothers sitting in it. The Orion Nebula is the fish still that "the Australian Aborigines were the world's first astronomers". Is this trailing in the water on its line. Left: An engraving from Ku• statement correct? Quite apart from ring-gai Chase National Park, the assumption of a static culture, the showing a man and woman word "astronomy" implies more than just reaching up to a crescent.

20 MarchjApri12008 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE AUSTRALIAN SI(Y & TELESCOPE March/April 2008 21 • 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 depict- ing 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 reach up towards a boomerang and look after him. He became angry with his sons for not sailing above their heads? It seems sharing their food, and killed them. When his wives found to me that these shapes are much out, they attacked him with their axes, chopping bits off more likely to be the crescent him, giving us the waning Moon. While trying to escape Moon. Perhaps it may even depict by following the Sun, he climbed a tall tree, but was mor• an eclipse, which may then explain tally wounded, and died (the new Moon). After remaining why the man is standing in front dead for 3 days, he rose again, growing fat and round (the of the woman, partly obscuring waxing Moon), until, after two weeks his wives attacked her - a feature unusual in these him again. To this day, the cycle continues every month. rock carvings. The Yolngu stories even explain why the Moon is Stars and Calendars associated with tides. When the tides are high, the water pours into the Moon as it rises, creating a full Moon. As Bill Yidumduma Harney of the the water runs out of the Moon, the tides fall. Then the once told me tide rises once more, refilling the Moon. So, although the "the law is written in the stars." As an elder, he teaches mechanics are a little different from our modern version, children how to read the sky, reminding them of the stories this story shows that traditional Yolngu people fully under• and laws that govern Aboriginal life. For example, the stars stood the relationship of the Moon to the tides. we call Orion are seen by Yolngu people as a canoe bearing This depth of knowledge is reflected in stories about three brothers who were banished to the sky for illegally eat• eclipses. The say a solar eclipse happens ing a forbidden fish. when the Sun-woman is hidden by the Moon-man as he Close by is the group of stars we call the Seven Sisters, or makes love to her. On the other hand, a lunar eclipse occurs the Pleiades. In the traditions of several Aboriginal groups, when the Moon-man is pursued and overtaken by the the Pleiades are a group of sisters chased by a young man Sun-woman. These two stories demonstrate that traditional in Orion. This similarity between Aboriginal and Greek Aboriginal people had already figured out that eclipses were mythology persuaded early anthropologists that there must caused by a conjunction between the Sun and Moon moving have been extensive prehistoric cultural contact between on different paths across the sky, occasionally intersecting. Aboriginal and European people. Today, we are pretty Nor is this understanding confined to the Warlpiri people. certain that no such contact took place. Instead, Aboriginal The eccentric Englishwoman Daisy Bates, living in the people independently devised the stories - a sort of cultural desert in her starched blouse and lace-up boots, recounted convergent evolution. Perhaps this isn't so surprising, when primly how, during the solar eclipse of 1922, the Wirangu you see the group of pretty starlets pursued by the mighty people told her that the eclipse was caused when the Sun stars of Orion. and Moon became "guri-arra - husband and wife together." Aboriginal calendars tend to be more complex than Euro-

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AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE MarchjApri12008 23 Summer solstice Equinox 1I'1I1101,"« The view across the Wurdi Youang stone arrangement 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, 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 orienta• tions, but a sceptic might still raise some doubts. First, the outliers are only accurate to a few degrees all in the Tiwi language. - could these alignments have occurred by chance? Second, Sadly, this myth about innumeracy in Aboriginal although the stones of the circle are large and embedded in cultures persists even amongst people who should know the rock, the outliers are small and could have been moved. better, even though other anthropologists have carefully Third, besides the outliers indicating the solstices and documented the various Aboriginal number systems. Such equinox, there is an additional outlier whose significance ingrained attitudes state equally misleadingly that Aborigi• is unknown. One piece of additional evidence to support nal people "don't measure things" or "don't ask questions", Morieson's suggestion was discovered while making the and so would not be interested in careful astronomical composite picture shown above: the solstices are not indi• measurements. I prefer to stick to the evidence. cated solely by the outliers, but also by the fairly straight Which brings me to the "Stonehenge Hypothesis". Can lines of the ring of stones itself. we find any evidence amongst Aboriginal cultures that The best way to confirm this astronomical hypothesis careful observations were made, records kept, or structures would be to find another site with similar astronomical set up to point to the rising and setting places of heavenly alignments. We know of other stone arrangements in bodies? Victoria which point towards the cardinal points (north, Maybe. On the dreamy banks of the Murray River, south, east, and west) and so it's pretty certain that the north of Adelaide, is a site called "Ngaut Ngaut", where Aboriginal people hereabouts knew these directions the Nganguraku people engraved images of the Sun accurately, presumably by observing celestial bodies, since and Moon. Next to these engravings are a series of dots they didn't have compasses. But are there other sites which and lines carved in the rock. The traditional owners say point to the position of the solstice, or equinox? We're these depict the "cycles of the Moon". How do they know? working on it. Such knowledge is usually passed through generations So back to the big question: were Aboriginal people from father to son, and from elder to novice at initiation doing astronomy hundreds or thousands of years ago? The ceremonies. However, these ceremonies were banned, growing body of evidence is that traditional Aboriginal along with the Nganguraku language, by Christian mis• people were deeply fascinated by the sky and the motion sionaries over a hundred years ago, so only this fragment of the bodies across it, and their astronomical knowledge of culture has survived. The rich record engraved on the was far richer and deeper than is usually appreciated. So in walls of Ngaut Ngaut has so far defied that sense, yes. However, the evidence attempts at decoding. Perhaps one day for actual measurements or records we'll succeed, but for the moment we Acknowledgement remains unproven, although the clues This project is dedicated to the hundreds of must label it as intriguing, but not are sufficiently tantalising to fuel the thousands of who lost hunt for more. The search continues. conclusive, evidence of Aboriginal their lives after the British arrival in Australia astronomy. in 1788. I am indebted to the Indigenous What about structures that mark groups who have welcomed us onto their land, Ray Norris is an astrophysicist at the rising and setting positions? The and I especially thank the elders and people of Australia Telescope National Facility the Yolngu community at Yirrkala, Northern Wurdi Youang stone arrangement in in Sydney. When he's not exploring Territory. I also thank my collaborators Hugh Victoria is an impressive egg-shaped Cairns, Paul Curnow, lan Maclean, John Morie• Aboriginal astronomy, his areas of ring of stones, about 50 metres in son, Barnaby Norris, and Cilia Norris. research include the Australia Telescope diameter, with its major axis almost Large Area Survey (ATLAS).

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