Powerpoint presentation

Indigenous People and Astronomy The Carina Nebula Learning Module

Credit: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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Starlight over the Church of the Good Shepherd, Tekapo, New Zealand. Photograph © Fraser Gunn

Pluto’s Haze in Bands of Blue, Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Earth's moon. Credit: Lick Observatory

This Babylonian tablet, written in cuneiform script, contains geometric calculations used to track the motions of Jupiter. Credit: The Trustees of the British Museum

The Emu in the Sky Astronomy Learning Module

The Emu in the Sky Astronomy Learning Module

The Emu in the Sky constellation, depicted on a rock formation in Ku-ring–gai–Chase National Park

Astronomy Learning Module

During April and May, it assumes the form of a running emu

Source: http://aboriginalastronomy.blogspot.com

In June and July, the appearance of the Emu changes, as the legs disappear. Source: http://aboriginalastronomy.blogspot.com

Photo of Mars taken when the planet was 50 million miles from Earth on May 12, 2016.

Credits: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)

Saturn on 20 June 2019 at approximately 1.36 billion km away.

Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley)

“…a deep understanding of the motion of objects in the sky, and this knowledge was used for practical purposes such as constructing calendars. There is also evidence that traditional Aboriginal Australians made careful records and measurements of cyclical phenomena, paid careful attention to unexpected phenomena such as eclipses and meteorite impacts, and could determine the cardinal points to an accuracy of a few degrees .’’

Ray P. Norris and Duane W. Hamacher

(2015) “Australian Aboriginal Astronomy – An Overview” Clive L. N. Ruggles (ed), Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, New York: Springer, p. 2215 .

Learning Module Astronomy Wurdi Youang Wurdi Youang

Wurdi Youang Astronomy Learning Module

Messier 100 in the constellation Coma Berenices, captured here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

Cultural Astronomy

Key findings

§ Indigenous peoples were familiar with the fundamental cycle of

day and night, the daytime path of the sun, and the unmoving pole of the night sky.

§ Cardinal directions, which emerge from the daily rotation of the

sky and the circular parade in which the stars march at night, were important to many groups. They were a key tool in wayfinding both on land and at sea.

§ The lunar phases were monitored, and each monthly cycle was

often associated with a seasonal change on earth.

§ The seasonal shift of sunrise, sunset, and the sun’s daily path was

known.

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Cultural Astronomy Astronomy Learning Module Key findings

§ Solstices were recognized, and the rising and setting points of the

summer and winter solstice sun sometimes established an alternate directional scheme.

§ Seasonal appearances and disappearances of stars were noted.

Constellations were contrived from conspicuous stars.

§ Unusual events like eclipses, bright comets, fireballs and meteor

showers attracted attention, and sometimes provoked ritual responses.

§ Planets were recognised by some indigenous communities, but

obviously explicit evidence of detailed indigenous knowledge of their cyclical behaviour is not always accessible.

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Astronomy Learning Module

Cultural Meanings

The narratives themselves emphasise the parallels between

personalized celestial bodies and their earthly counterparts.

A classic example of this, is the way Māori notions of whakapapa

(genealogy) incorporate both the animate and inanimate objects into a unified system of ancestral descent.

This way of humanizing natural phenomena and integrating them with kinship institutions and customs is evident in many other indigenous contexts.

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“The heavens are not generally perceived as passive and immutable, but filled with entities that are not only animate and can influence events but also capable of being affected by human action.’’

E.C. Krupp

(2008) “Astronomy in Native North America”

In Selin H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures

Springer, Dordrecht.

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Cultural Meanings

Astronomical narratives provide a degree of order and certainty; they engender a level of confidence about our place in the universe.

They cultivate a social norm based on respect for the inanimate as well as animate, since all partake of the same identity as humans themselves.

The narratives provide a justification for the customs, rites and

morality of the community, since these are reflected and enacted in the sky world.

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