Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Vol. 142, p. 15–23, 2009 ISSN 0035-9173/09/020015–9 $4.00/1 Pre-contact Astronomy ragbir bhathal Abstract: This paper examines a representative selection of the Aboriginal bark paintings featuring astronomical themes or motives that were collected in 1948 during the American- Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land in north Australia. These paintings were studied in an effort to obtain an insight into the pre-contact social-cultural astronomy of the Aboriginal people of Australia who have lived on the Australian continent for over 40 000 years. Keywords: American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land, Aboriginal astron- omy, Aboriginal art, celestial objects. INTRODUCTION tralia. One of the reasons for the Common- wealth Government supporting the expedition About 60 years ago, in 1948 an epic journey was that it was anxious to foster good relations was undertaken by members of the American- between Australia and the US following World Australian Scientific Expedition (AAS Expedi- II and the other was to establish scientific tion) to Arnhem Land in north Australia to cooperation between Australia and the US. study Aboriginal society before it disappeared under the onslaught of modern technology and The Collection the culture of an invading European civilisation. It was believed at that time that the Aborig- The expedition was organised and led by ines were a dying race and it was important Charles Mountford, a film maker and lecturer to save and record the tangible evidence of who worked for the Commonwealth Govern- their culture and society. The leader of the ment of Australia and an Honarary Assistant scientific expedition referred to Arnhem Land in Ethonology at the South Australian Museum. as still being in the Stone Age (Mountford The bulk of the bark paintings and ethnographic 1949). It was seen as the last frontier. The material were collected from the three base philosophy that guided the collections of the camps at Groote Eylandt, Yirrkala in north- material culture of the Aboriginal people of east Arnhem Land and Oenpelli in western Arnhem Land was based on Social Darwinist Arnhem Land. They also visited Milingimbi views which were prevalent in the 19th and early Island, Chasm Island and Winchelsa Island but twentieth centuries thinking among intellectuals for shorter periods. The expedition lasted from from the metropolitan centres of learning. They May to early November 1948. Mountford’s held the view that there was an evolutionary collection strategy was to set up a ‘shop’ in a ladder in the progress of human beings and big tent and ask the local people to bring goods cultures (Griffiths 1996). The Aborigines were which they wanted to trade. It is not known considered to be on the bottom rung of this what he paid them but he obtained interpreta- ladder. tions of the items the people brought to him. The official aims of the expedition were to In the case of the bark paintings, Mountford observe the every day life of the Aborigines (1956) asked the Aboriginal people to make of Arnhem Land, to determine where they paintings for him. He says that he seldom originally came from, to learn how they coped suggested a subject. At the end of the day, the with their environment and to obtain specimens artists brought their work to his tent, related of their material culture (Mountford 1949). the associated myth, and explained the mean- The expedition was funded by the National ings of the designs. However, in the case of the Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution astronomical paintings, Mountford suggested and the Commonwealth Government of Aus- the subjects to be painted. 16 BHATHAL Thus, the astronomical folklore was col- white. On Groote Eylandt the black came from lected within the perspective of the European the carbon of dry batteries discarded by the astronomical knowledge system and his limited Air Force after the war. The paintings have knowledge of astronomy. In fact, in his book a mixture of the early style of cross-hatching, “Brown Men and Red Sand” (Mountford 1949), broken lines, parallel lines, circles and circles wrote that although in the early days among the with radiating lines. The artists used three Aborigines he could recognise Orion, Scorpio kinds of brushes, viz: a narrow strip of bark, and the Southern Cross, he found that the chewed at one end for making broad lines, a thin other constellations such as Argo, Delphinus, cylindrical stick with the ends slightly burred Hercules and others were beyond him. His for making dots and a brush made from a few knowledge of the sky was backed with little fibres of palm leaf to make fine lines. information. This is one of the reasons why the The expedition was a great success. In addi- information collected on the astronomy of the tion to collecting 13 500 plant specimens, 30 000 Aborigines in Arnhem Land is rather limited fish, 850 birds, 460 animals, the collection also and confined to those celestial objects and parts included 2 144 ethnographic artefacts, including of the sky that Mountford was familiar with. 484 bark paintings (Mountford 1956). For the Only three examples are provided by him of purpose of this study it is rather unfortunate the actual Aboriginal constellations. However, that at the end of the expedition the collection the information on these is not complete and of bark paintings was dispersed to various insti- the stars are not indentified by Mountford. tutions in Australia and the Smithsonian Insti- Furthermore, the provenance of the paintings tution in Washington in the US. Thirty six of leaves much to be desired. Whilst the loca- the bark paintings in the collection were on the tions where the paintings were collected from astronomy of the Aboriginal people. These were is provided, however the information on the also dispersed and as a consequence of this it has artists who painted the astronomical paintings been an extremely difficult task to locate them is incomplete. Mountford notes that when the in the various institutions. The astronomical supply of prepared sheets of bark at Yirrkalla paintings have a collective story to tell. Unfor- and Oenpelli became exhausted, he provided tunately this was not considered important by the artists with sheets of rough-surfaced grey the officials who sanctioned the distribution of and green paper (Mountford 1956). This ex- these works of art and in particular those on plains why some of the paintings are on paper. the astronomy of the Aboriginal people. This may have been due to the fact that the officials The interpretations that Mountford lacked knowledge of astronomy. This paper is recorded were very basic. Since the artists concerned only with the astronomical paintings. had to explain their paintings in broken English it may be the case that the recorded interpretations may be incomplete. He does Aboriginal Astronomy not tell us whether he checked the paintings In the 19th and early twentieth centuries a with the positions of the celestial bodies in number of writers (Stanbridge 1861, Smyth the night sky. He informs us that in the late 1878, Ridley 1875, Matthews 1905 and Mae- afternoon, when the Aboriginal artists had garith 1932) had collected information on the finished their work, he would sit among them astronomical stories and beliefs of the Aborig- listening to stories they had illustrated on sheets inal people. One of the significant things that of bark. Despite these short comings we have a emerges from these accounts is that astronomi- valuable collection of pre-contact stories of the cal knowledge was one of the principal branches night sky which are illustrated by paintings. of education among Aboriginal people (Daw- It is probably the single largest collection of son 1881). Another remarkable aspect of their astronomical paintings from an ancient culture. astronomy is that long before other civilisations The pigments used to paint the designs of had named the celestial objects the Aborigines the bark paintings were red, yellow, black and had given them names. For example, in Groote PRE-CONTACT ASTRONOMY 17 Eylandt, the Milky Way was known as Ataluma, The paintings are not just plain represen- the Coal Sack as Alakitja, Venus as Barnimbida, tations of the celestial objects that one sees in the Moon as Jumuria and the star Achenar the night sky. They are much more complex as Anguoa. In other localities the celestial and symbolic and thus they have to be inter- objects were known by different names. The preted by the artists since they have meanings astronomy of the Aboriginal people was based encoded in them. Unfortunately, Mountford on oral accounts that had been passed down does not provide us with a full context for all from one generation to another over the 40 000 the paintings and the social cultural aspects of years that they have lived on the Australian the astronomy of the Aboriginal people. continent. In the 1940s when the AAS Expedition took Sun and Moon place the Aborigines in north Australia were The Sun and Moon are the most conspicuous still enjoying the last vestiges of pre-contact celestial objects and hence play an important culture and society. Most of their cultural role in Aboriginal society and culture. Unlike heritage was intact although there were already other cultures the Sun in Aboriginal social inroads in spoiling their culture by Christian cultural astronomy is seen as a woman. Hence, missionaries. Thus, the bark paintings that it is given a lower status than the Moon which were collected provide us with the only exam- is considered a male. ples of the astronomical knowledge system of On Groote Eylandt the Sun-woman the Aboriginal people in visual form.