Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander astronomy

Knowledge passed down

There are hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations, each with its own languages, stories and knowledge of the sky. This knowledge is passed on through stories, songs, dance, art and ceremony, and it's used in practical ways: to know when food is ready to harvest, when animals are breeding, when to travel and how to find the way. Some of this knowledge is sacred or restricted and only shared with certain people, so what is written here is only what communities have chosen to share publicly.

Scientists who study the astronomy of different cultures increasingly work alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge holders, and the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO have published seasonal calendars from several communities.

The Emu in the Sky

Most constellations in European tradition join up bright stars. One of the best-known Aboriginal constellations is made from the dark patches in the Milky Way: clouds of dust that block the starlight behind them. The emu's head is the Coalsack, a dark cloud next to the Southern Cross, and its long neck and body stretch along the Milky Way towards Scorpius.

In the traditions of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi peoples of north-western New South Wales, where it is called Gawarrgay, the emu's position in the evening sky changes through the year, and each position matches what real emus are doing on the ground.

The emu appears to move because the Earth is orbiting the Sun. At the same time each night, we face a slightly different direction in space, so the stars rise about four minutes earlier each night, or about two hours earlier each month. That makes the sky a reliable calendar.

More sky knowledge

• Tagai (Torres Strait). Torres Strait Islanders see a great fisherman named Tagai standing in a canoe. In his left hand he holds a fishing spear, represented by the Southern Cross, and his crew are stars in Scorpius and other constellations. Tagai's position in the sky signals the seasons, the winds and the right times for planting and fishing, and guides navigation between the islands.
• The Seven Sisters. The star cluster called the Pleiades is the subject of songlines that cross the whole continent, telling of seven sisters chased across the land by a man, who is often seen in the stars of Orion. Remarkably, Greek and many other cultures also tell of the Pleiades as sisters being pursued.
• The Moon and tides. Yolŋu people of north-east Arnhem Land have long connected the rise and fall of the tides with the phases of the Moon, describing how the size of the tides changes as the Moon fills and empties. In European science, the link between tides and the Moon was only explained by Newton in 1687.
• Changing stars. Some oral traditions describe the stars Betelgeuse and Antares getting brighter and dimmer. Western astronomers have measured that these red giant stars really are variable stars.
• Seasonal calendars. Many communities divide the year into more than four seasons based on weather, plants and animals. The D'harawal calendar from the Sydney region has six seasons, each signalled by events such as particular plants flowering. Several northern communities recognise six or more seasons that match the tropical wet and dry better than "summer" and "winter" do.