Night Skies of Aboriginal Australia: A NoctuaryAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, beliefs and practices associated with the night sky - astonomy; cosmology - sky dome and its support, access to the sky world and the land of the dead; star stories; seasonal calendars - illustrates calendars from Miriam, Mabuiag and Mwalang Islands, Gagadju and Yaraldi; marine and terrestrial navigation; sky maps from the Torres Strait; mythology - sun, moon, stars - Pleiades (seven sisters stories), Milky Way, Magellanic Clouds, dark areas (emu stories); recent Aboriginal writing about the night sky; review of literature on Aboriginal astronomy; sky maps and kinship relations - Aranda and other traditions; association with healing and magic; astronomical knowledge - star movements, eclipses, halos, Aurora Australis, comets, meteorites, earthshine, crepuscular rays; illustrations of bark paintings depicting celestial phenomena; contact history and the changing mythology of the sky; Appendix 1 - constellations and associated mythology. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Aboriginal Aboriginal groups According activity Alpha Altair ancestral appearance Aquilae Aranda Arnhem Land associated astronomy Australia Bark became becomes believed belong Berndt Beta bird brothers camp canoe celestial Centauri Central ceremonies constellation cultural cycle dark dark patch dead death early earth European example fall fire fish follow Groote Eylandt groups healers heroes human indicated initiation Islands killed knowledge known light lived Luritja Magellanic Clouds male Mathews meaning Milky moon morning star Mountford move myths narratives natural night sky northern observations Origin Orion particular person phenomena plants Pleiades rain rainbow represented ritual River Scorpii season seen significant Sisters social societies South Wales Southern Cross spear spirits stars story Tagai thought Torres Strait tracks traditional tree universe Venus Victorian Western wind woman women young
Bibliographic information
| Title | Night Skies of Aboriginal Australia: A Noctuary Oceania monographs, ISSN 1030-6412 |
| Author | Dianne Johnson |
| Publisher | University of Sydney, 1998 |
| Original from | Indiana University |
| Digitized | 13 Aug 2009 |
| ISBN | 186451356X, 9781864513561 |
| Length | 147 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |