The Milky Way arcs across the vast Australian night sky, a disk-shaped, spiral galaxy containing billions of stars and planets. For Australia’s Aboriginal peoples it is a fresco abounding with images, portents and narratives that chronicles the creation of the universe, lays down laws and moral codes, stipulates kinships and societal relationships, and possesses a wealth of information on the natural world.
It’s hardly surprising then, that traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, living under a dazzling canopy of constellations, would have absorbed the night skies into their cultural, social and spiritual life. The position of the stars, the motion of the planets, and astronomical events such as comets, meteorites and eclipses have informed their cosmology and traditions – known as the “Dreaming”.
Closer examination of Aboriginal legends and narratives, which have been developed, refined and promulgated since the arrival of the “first people” as long as 50,000 years ago – is uncovering the extent and complexity of interconnections between the celestial and terrestrial spheres observed by Aboriginal peoples.
Research is revealing that within these ancient customs and traditions, which have been passed down through the generations for millennia, is a complex and functional astronomical knowledge used by Aboriginal people to navigate...
