Indigenous astronomy

Indigenous Australians were well aware of the stars and planets and used their observations of them to signify important seasonal events. They also had their own names for stars and constellations and there are Creation stories associated with them. In the Creation stories, what we call the Milky Way is usually associated with abundance.

Indigenous peoples included dark spaces as features in the sky, something westerners would have problems seeing without telescopes. One notable feature for many Indigenous people is the ‘Emu in the sky’, a dark area which stretches across the southern sky alongside the Milky Way.

Activity: Indigenous astronomers

Links

^{Astronomy and Australian Indigenous People (Adele Pring) 
http://www.assa.org.au/nacaa/aaaip.pdf     
Aboriginal perspectives on planets 
http://www.aboriginaleducation.sa.edu.au/files/links/Aboriginal_perspectives_o_1.pdf}
The Sun and the Moon - some Aboriginal perspectives
 http://www.aboriginaleducation.sa.edu.au/files/links/The_Sun_and_Moon_Aborigin_1.pdf

^{Aboriginal astronomy 
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005462/abastro.html}   

The seven sisters point the way. 
http://www.abc.net.au/goldfields/stories/s933296.htm  
This is a radio report so it may not be on the web for long.

Paul Curnow's website, Starlore (especially Aboriginal skies)
http://ching.apana.org.au/~paulc/index.html