The Planets in Indigenous Australian Traditions

TL;DR

This paper explores Indigenous Australian astronomical knowledge, highlighting their observations of planets and motions, and discusses the limitations and recent discoveries in ethnographic records.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of Aboriginal planetary observations and addresses gaps in recorded knowledge through recent ethnographic fieldwork.

Findings

Aboriginal people observed planetary brightness and motions.

Records of planetary phenomena are incomplete and ethnographically biased.

New ethnographic data reveal previously unrecorded planetary knowledge.

Abstract

Studies in Australian Indigenous astronomical knowledge reveal few accounts of the visible planets in the sky. However, what information we do have tells us that Aboriginal people were close observers of planets and their motions, noting the relative brightness of the planets, their motions along the ecliptic, retrograde motion, the relationship between Venus and its proximity to the Sun, Venus' connection to the Sun through zodiacal light, and the synodic cycle of Venus, particularly as it transitions from the Evening Star to the Morning Star. The dearth of descriptions of planets in Aboriginal traditions may be due to the gross incompleteness of recorded astronomical traditions, and of ethnographic bias and misidentification in the anthropological record. Ethnographic fieldwork with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is revealing new, previously unrecorded knowledge about the planets and their related phenomena.