The Australian Aboriginal People: How to Misunderstand Their Science

TL;DR

This paper challenges misconceptions about Aboriginal people's scientific knowledge, highlighting their sophisticated understanding of astronomy and practical observation skills that rival modern scientific methods.

Contribution

It reveals the depth of Aboriginal astronomical knowledge and argues for incorporating their observational practices into science education.

Findings

Aboriginal people understood star cycles and celestial motions.

They used observation for practical and predictive purposes.

Misconceptions about their civilization are fundamentally incorrect.

Abstract

Just one generation ago, schoolkids were taught that Aboriginal people couldn't count beyond five, wandered the desert scavenging for food, had no civilization or religion, had no agriculture, couldn't navigate, didn't build houses, and peacefully acquiesced when Western Civilisation rescued them in 1788. How did we get it so wrong? Here I show that traditional Aboriginal people knew a great deal about the sky, knew the cycles of movements of the stars and the complex motions of the sun, moon and planets. I argue that school students studying science today could learn much from the way that pre-contact Aboriginal people used observation to build a self-consistent picture of the world around them, with predictive power and practical applications.