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• 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 Yolngu people, in the far north of Australia, 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 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 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 Wardaman people 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 Warlpiri people 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- 22 MarchjApril2008 AUSTRALIAN SI<Y & TELESCOPE pean ones, and are often based on six seasons, sometimes sky is what astronomers would call zodiacal light, caused marked by the heliacal rising of stars. For example, the Pit• by dust in the plane of the solar system. In today's polluted jantjatjara people mark the start of Nyinnga (winter) by the skies it's hidden from most of us, but is still easily visible in rising of the Pleiades in the dawn sky. Just as importantly, the clear dark skies and low latitude of northern Australia. the appearance of a star or constellation can signal the time We can learn two important things from the Morning to move to a new food source. The appearance of the Mal• Star ceremony. One is that Yolngu tradition includes the lee-fowl constellation (Lyra) in March warns the Boorong knowledge that Venus never moves far from the Sun, which people in Victoria that the Mallee-fowl are about to build is explained by a rope binding the two bodies together - a their nests, and her disappearance in October tells them bond that Isaac Newton later called "gravity". The other is that the eggs are laid and are ready to be collected. that since the Morning-Star ceremony needs to be planned, Some sky patterns are marked by dark clouds rather and Venus rises before dawn only at certain times of the than stars. Next to the Southern Cross (a possum in a year, Yolngu people also keep track of the path of Venus tree, according to the Boorong people) is the dark cloud of well enough to predict when to hold the Morning Star interstellar dust that we call the Coalsack. To the Wardaman 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 along the Milky Way right through Scorpius. It's a spectacu• beyond five." This belief is even supported by one of my lar sight - far better than the contrived European constella• anthropology textbooks which confidently asserts that no tions that most of us grew up with.