“The Good Spirit in the sky, was extremely busy keeping an eye on the Aboriginal people but found he could not watch them all the time. He decided that he needed the assistance of someone to help him in the guardianship of his people. He chose a man named Mirrabooka, who was not only loved by everyone but also looked after the welfare of his tribe. So, “Biami gave him a spirit form and placed him in the sky among the stars, and promised him eternal life. Biami gave Mirabooka lights for his hands and feet and stretched him across the sky, so that he could watch forever over the tribes he loved. And the tribes could look up to him from the Earth and see the stars which were Mirrabooka's eyes gazing down on them.” - https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/47/5/5.27/231805 - Reference link for content & quotes
The Dreaming & creation of the universe- “In Aboriginal astronomy the origin of the universe goes back to a time called the Dreaming. It is a remarkable concept which Spencer and Gillen immortalized as the “dreamtime” or “alcheringa” of the Arunta or Aranda tribe of central Australia (Spencer and Gillen 1889). According to Stanner: “A central meaning of the Dreaming is that of a sacred, heroic time long ago when man and nature came to be as they are; but neither ‘time’ nor ‘history’ as we understand them is involved in this meaning,” (Stanner 1979). The Dreaming is not only an ancient era of creation but continues even today in the spiritual lives of the Aboriginal people. All life - human, animal, bird or fish - is part of an ever-transforming system that can be traced back to the Spirit Ancestors who go about the Earth in an eternal time called the Dreaming. As these spirit people roamed the Earth they made the mountains, rivers, the sky with its celestial objects and all the other features we see in the natural environment around us. The Aborigines are in fact co-creators of the universe they live in. The observer and the observed are the same entity.” Beautiful
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the most conspicuous and well known constellation in the southern hemisphere, the Southern Cross, was known as the “Eagle's foot” “it was known to the central Australian Aborigines as joorr-joorr”.”
They classified stars with physical properties - “They were not only keen observers of the night sky but also took much delight in classifying the physical characteristics of the stars above them. For example, the Aborigines of central Australia divided the sky into two groups: the winter sky including Scorpius, Argo, Centaurus and the adjacent stars belonged to the nananduraka group; while the summer sky, of Orion, the Pleiades and Eridanus, belonged to the tanamildjan group (Mountford 1976). The Aranda of central Australia made a distinction between red, white, blue and yellow stars. The star Antares is classified as tataka indora, a very red star, while the stars of the V-shaped Hyades cluster, which are taken to be two groups of girls, are divided into a red group (tataka) and a white group (tjilkera). The tataka stars are said to be the daughters of the red star Aldebaran.”
Survival -“Just like the ancient Egyptians and other ancient peoples, the Aborigines associate the appearance of certain stars at different times of the year with the seasons and seasonal food cycles. When the Aborigines in Arnhem Land see Arcturus in the sky they know that it is time to harvest the spike rush or rakia which is used to make fish traps and baskets to carry food.” ”The stars of the Tagai foretold the seasons and gave the islanders a seasonal calendar that allowed them to regulate their cycle of fishing, agricultural, social, ritual and cultural activities. They also provided them with a cultural identity and laws to regulate their lives and codes of conduct. For example, when the Pleiades (Usiam) appeared in the sky it informed them that it was a sign of fair weather and time for sailing. It was also the turtle-mating season and a time to prepare the land for planting before the rains came. The stars thus were evidence of the fact that the islanders had been tilling their lands for generations.”
Survival - The positions of the sun, moon, and stars in relation to the Australian landscape provide Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with information to predict changes in the environment in relation to seasons, weather patterns and the behaviour of plants and animals. It is this relationship between the sky, people and country that enables Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to thrive with the Australian landscape, harvesting what they need and ensuring sustainability for future generations.
The objects and natural phenomena in the sky provide a blueprint for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to safely navigate long journeys across the lands, seas and waterways. The sky holds valuable information about food sources and livelihood, travel paths and optimum times to travel during the year. - https://www.indigenous.gov.au/teaching-guides/curricula-project/astronomy
The stars serve well for this function. Notable patterns of bright stars were used to represent important waypoints on the overland journey across country (Fig. 2). The star maps were not exact representations of the overland route. Rather, the relationship between the location of a star in relation to the other stars and corresponding landscape features represented, were committed to memory. The star map was used as a memory aid in teaching the route and the waypoints to the destination. Travellers would memorise the star map (in the Western constellations of Ares, Scorpius, and Sagittarius) while details about the journey were committed to songs the traveller would sing during their journey. - MUSIC and memory https://indigenousknowledge.research.unimelb.edu.au/resources/indigenous-astronomy,-geography,-and-star-maps
Storytelling - Through story, song and dance, knowledge to read the intricate map of the sky and landscape is transferred between generations. Passing oral histories also gives context about social order and relationships.
all the white squares represent the time aborigines have lived in Australia & the little chunk taken out of the bottom right hand corner represents the time Europeans have lived in Europe. Aborigines have lived in Australia for 45,000 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUIgkbExn6I