Dianne Johnson
Published: 1998
Total Pages: 164
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, beliefs and practices associated with the night sky - astonomy; cosmology - sky dome and its support, access to the sky world and the land of the dead; star stories; seasonal calendars - illustrates calendars from Miriam, Mabuiag and Mwalang Islands, Gagadju and Yaraldi; marine and terrestrial navigation; sky maps from the Torres Strait; mythology - sun, moon, stars - Pleiades (seven sisters stories), Milky Way, Magellanic Clouds, dark areas (emu stories); recent Aboriginal writing about the night sky; review of literature on Aboriginal astronomy; sky maps and kinship relations - Aranda and other traditions; association with healing and magic; astronomical knowledge - star movements, eclipses, halos, Aurora Australis, comets, meteorites, earthshine, crepuscular rays; illustrations of bark paintings depicting celestial phenomena; contact history and the changing mythology of the sky; Appendix 1 - constellations and associated mythology.