‘As long as we can see the sky, we can see our stories’: Indigenous Australians first to discover variable stars – ABC News
Some of the earliest astronomy on the planet happened right here in Australia and the science of Indigenous astronomy is still relevant today.
Key points:
- Indigenous astronomy is believed to have preceded that of ancient Greece and Egypt by millennia
- Variable stars have only been known about in Western astronomy for about 200 years, but Indigenous history charts them going back thousands of years
- The Magellanic Clouds, a satellite galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, are known as the Ancestors Camp
Kamilaroi woman and Monash University student astrophysicist Krystal De Napoli said that many early discoveries in Australian Indigenous astronomy preceded modern science by thousands of years.
“Places like Egypt and Greece are often quoted as being where scientific thought began, but amazing things were discovered here too,” she said.
“One of my favourites is variable stars — we’ve known about them in Western astronomy for maybe 200 years, and yet when we look into Indigenous oral traditions there are descriptions of variable stars going back thousands of years.
“With variable stars there are subtle changes in their brightness over days and years, so it’s something that takes a considerable amount of observation to determine their existence.
“Indigenous astronomers were able to see this change, and not only see this change, but describe it in a way that has the relative dimming of the different stars described over time.
“I feel like it is something Australia should be really proud of, to be able to tell to the world we are the birthplace of one of these bits of knowledge and there’s many examples like this.”
Lake Tyers a perfect observatory
Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust in eastern Victoria is the perfect observatory — a hill with a view of the universe.
Gunai man Wayne Thorpe lives and studies the stars here, where he is a traditional custodian of the land.
He shared some of the traditional stories of the skies.
“We’re standing under the Ancestors Camp in the Magellanic Clouds, see them there, sitting around their campfires,” Mr Thorpe said.
The Magellanic Clouds are a satellite galaxy orbiting the Milky Way.
There are conflicting reports about when the Magellanic Clouds were first recorded in history.
Mr Thorpe pointed to the Fishing Line, also known as Scorpius, on the other side of the Southern Cross, it is a hook flicking into a dark part of our galaxy.
“That’s where the good fishing must be!” he joked.
“When I look at the stars, it makes me want to tell a story, up there, it’s a reflection of our dreaming.”
Our stories in the stars
“It’s like the ancestors have painted the images in the stars,” Mr Thorpe said.
Indigenous discoveries in astronomy
- The Earth is round: Indigenous astronomers were able to track the way that the night sky shifts as their relative latitude would change. This indicated the spherical, curved nature of the planet and its sky, understanding the connection between latitude on the ground and declination in the sky
- Supernova: Indigenous astronomical traditions have recorded and described supernova (exploding star) occurrences dating back over 2,000 years
- Moon haloes: Indigenous Australians realised the connection of moon halo appearances in the sky with incoming rainfall, and were then able to use them to predict inclement weather
- Planets: Known as the wandering stars, Indigenous astronomers were able to differentiate the planets from the stars not only due to their ‘wandering’ nature, but also by the way they twinkled differently from stars and by the way they followed the Sun’s path across the sky
By Monash University astrophysicist Krystal De Napoli.
“Our markings are like our writing, like if you understand the alphabet.
“When I look up at the stars I read them and read our stories.
“In our paintings and nature and the stars, if you can read them, you can read the deeper meaning of them.”
Wayne Thorpe talked about the role of the night sky in preserving his culture.
Unlike on the land, where ancient land can be cleared and cultural trees chopped down, “it’s a little bit harder to chop the stars down”, he said.
“As long as we can see the sky we can see our stories.”
Ms De Napoli said some of the oldest observatories in the world are in Australia.
“Here on Kulin Nation land in Wathaurong country we have the Wurdi Youang stone arrangement, a traditional Aboriginal observatory,” she said.
“The Wurdi Youang stone arrangement is similar to Stonehenge, we can use it to track certain astronomical features throughout the time of the year.
“And what’s really incredible is it seems it’s older than Stonehenge.”
Reconnecting with his Indigenous culture through astronomy is an ongoing journey of discovery for Wayne Thorpe.
“We’re still learning, still restoring our culture, restoring our connection to these things,” he said.
“Learning the essence of them, the dreaming of it all … and it gives us hope for ourselves, our lives, our families and our future.”
Topics: indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, astronomy-space, lake-tyers-beach-3909
