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It's NAIDOC week in Australia, a week to honour and celebrate the culture and history of the Indigenous people of this land. In that spirit, I have prepared a list of links to info on Indigenous astronomy and star lore. It's a deep and fascinating subject! (thread)
(please note I am not an Indigenous Australian - these are just resources I have found helpful in my own studies on this subject. I hope in sharing this information with you that I can honour these traditions and pay my respects to the custodians of this knowledge)
For starters here's a fact sheet from Museums Victoria. It sets out some of the key differences between the way Europeans tend to view the sky and the way Indigenous Australians would traditionally view the sky. Helpful for orienting your mind. https://museumsvictoria.com.au/scienceworks/visiting/melbourne-planetarium/fact-sheets/australian-aboriginal-astronomy/
Here's an article from NITV about how Indigenous Australians tracked the motion of the planets against the backdrop of the fixed stars. https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2018/08/16/how-aboriginal-traditions-describe-complex-motions-planets
This NITV article features astrophysicist and Wiradjuri woman Kirsten Banks, and mentions in passing the iconic "Emu in the Sky" that you can see in the image in my first tweet. https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2018/08/16/aboriginal-astronomy-science-mapping-sky-and-seasons
This website is a treasure trove of information and links about Indigenous astronomy and star lore: http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/
This page has links to a LOT of academic papers on the topic of Indigenous astronomy. I'll set out a few select papers that I found fascinating below but here's the full list: http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/research/papers/
This paper discusses the planets in Indigenous astronomy:
http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Hamacher-Banks-2019-Aboriginal-Planets.pdf
http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Hamacher-Banks-2019-Aboriginal-Planets.pdf
This paper, with the enchanting title "Dancing with the Stars," discusses the influence of astronomy and star lore in traditional dances in the Torres Strait islands in the North East of Australia: http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Hamacher-Dancing-with-Stars.pdf
This paper goes deep on the topic of the Emu in the Sky: http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Fuller-2014-Kamilaroi-Emu-in-Sky.pdf
And lastly here's a paper on the topic of solar and lunar eclipses in Indigenous astronomy traditions: http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Hamacher-2011-Aboriginal-Eclipses.pdf
I hope this thread has inspired you to learn more about this fascinating topic and has given you a renewed respect and appreciation for Indigenous traditions of astronomy and star lore.
