Empirical mathematics in Australian Indigenous Smoke Telegraphy

TL;DR

This paper explores the sophisticated empirical mathematics of Australian Indigenous smoke telegraphy, highlighting its cultural significance and its parallels with Western mathematical development.

Contribution

It presents an original analysis of Indigenous smoke telegraphy, integrating cross-cultural mathematical heritage into university curricula to diversify mathematical education.

Findings

Indigenous smoke telegraphy involved symmetries and frequency coding.

The practice demonstrated understanding of fluid dynamics.

It predates Western mathematical developments in these areas.

Abstract

Mathematics curriculums at most universities tend to perpetuate a belief that higher mathematics is historically and culturally European. First Nations and minority students may not see their identities and cultures reflected in the discipline, yet university mathematics educators are keen to diversify and broaden the appeal of their courses. This article presents an investigation on the mathematics of smoke telegraphy, as a contribution to inlaying cross-cultural mathematical heritage in the curriculum. Across Indigenous societies of Australia the technology and practice of smoke telegraphy was developed to a sophisticated level over millennia to fill a need for long-distance communications. Through an original bibliographic and archival analysis, we show that smoke signalling and telegraphy used empirical mathematics of symmetries, frequency coding, and understanding of fluid dynamics. We juxtapose this applied mathematical knowledge, within context, against the timeline of Western understanding and development of these strands of mathematics.