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. |
Contents
5 | 24 |
Seasonal Calendar of the Mabuiag and Muralag Island People | 30 |
The Tagai constellation | 42 |
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Common terms and phrases
Aboriginal astronomy ABORIGINAL CONSTELLATIONS Aboriginal groups Aboriginal mythological representation Achernar Alpha and Beta Alpha Aquilae Altair Alpha Aquilae ancestral hero APPENDIX 1 ABORIGINAL Aranda and Luritja Arcturus Arnhem Land associated Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings belong Berndt and Berndt Beta Centauri Beta Crucis Boorong brothers camp canoe celestial Central Australia Coal Sack constellation cosmos Crux Australis cultural dark patch Dawson earth Elkin European constellations example fire fish Gagadju Gamma Groote Eylandt healers Karadjeri Kimberley light Luritja Lyra Mabuiag Maegraith Magellanic Clouds Massola Mathews Meriam Milky Millingimbi Morning Star myths narratives Neidjie northern OCEANIA MONOGRAPH 47 Oenpelli Origin story Orion particular Piddington Pleiades Queensland rain rainbow represented ritual Roberts and Mountford Seasonal Calendar seen Seven Sisters shooting star sky phenomena European sky-world South Australia South Wales Southern Cross spear spirits Strehlow Tagai Torres Strait Islander totem Venus Victoria Western Desert western Victorian groups wind woman women Wotjobaluk yams Yirrkala