"Bridging the Gap" through Australian Cultural Astronomy

TL;DR

This paper explores how Indigenous Australians have historically observed and integrated celestial phenomena into their oral traditions for navigation, time-keeping, and social practices over 50,000 years.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of Aboriginal astronomical knowledge and its role in cultural practices, based on historical records and oral traditions.

Findings

Recorded observations of celestial events in oral traditions

Use of stars and lunar cycles for time-keeping and navigation

Astronomical measurements aligned with solar and lunar cycles

Abstract

For more than 50,000 years, Indigenous Australians have incorporated celestial events into their oral traditions and used the motions of celestial bodies for navigation, time-keeping, food economics, and social structure. In this paper, we explore the ways in which Aboriginal people made careful observations of the sky, measurements of celestial bodies, and incorporated astronomical events into complex oral traditions by searching for written records of time-keeping using celestial bodies, the use of rising and setting stars as indicators of special events, recorded observations of variable stars, the solar cycle, and lunar phases (including ocean tides and eclipses) in oral tradition, as well as astronomical measurements of the equinox, solstice, and cardinal points.