Australia: The Land Where Time Began |
||||||||||||||
The Aboriginal Australian Cosmic Landscape Part 2 – Plant Connections
with the Skyworld
There is frequent mention of the Skyworld in the recorded mythology of
Australian Aboriginal people as the upper part of a total landscape that
is linked with that of the Earth and the Underworld. In Aboriginal
Australia the heavens were perceived by the as a country that has the
same species of plants and animals that existed on the Earth below.
Large trees were seen in Aboriginal tradition as connecting the
terrestrial space with the sky above, and the movements of the celestial
bodies were linked with seasonal changes that they observed on Earth. In
this paper Clarke describes the links that are believed to exist between
the Skyworld and the Earth.
The “Skyworld” is referred to in the Australian ethnographic literature
as an Aboriginal concept of the heavens as a country with a separate
existence where the spirits of people and ancestors exist together with
the plants and animals that are familiar on Earth (Clarke, 1997; 2008b;
2009a; 2014b; Frederik, 2008; Hamacher, 2012; Haynes, 1992; 2009;
Isaacs, 1980; Johnson, 1998; 2005; Norris, 2007; Norris & Hamacher,
2009; 2014; Tindale, 2005). There is much consistency with the main
elements of the Skyworld, particularly it’s physical structure and the
acknowledged influence it has over the Earth, though the details of the
mythology pertaining to the Skyworld vary widely across Aboriginal
Australia. Within their environment Aboriginal hunter gatherers were
keen observers of changes within that environment, with the passage of
seasons signaled by such things as the movement of the celestial bodies
over time, shifts in weather and the flowering of calendar plants
(Clarke, 2009b; Davis, 1989, 1997).
This paper is the second installment of a study that aimed at drawing
out major ethnobotanical themes from the corpus of ethnoastronomical
records that were garnered from a diverse range Aboriginal Australian
cultures. It investigates the connectedness between the Skyworld and the
Earth, and the first paper (Clarke, 2014a) focused on the aesthetics
between the perception of Aboriginal peoples in Australia of the
heavens.
Data sources
A description of the ethnographic data sources that were used in the
current paper is provided in the previous part of this study, as well as
an account of the Aboriginal aesthetic that determines what is seen in
the sky (ibid). There are major biases, though there are an abundance of
ethnoastronomical and ethnobotanical data that is available in
Australia. In many areas scholars must rely mainly on anecdotal accounts
from settlers and colonial officials of the late 18th and
early 19th centuries who could compile information that was
gathered from Aboriginal people who survived the first wave of European
settlement.
In general, early missionaries who arrived in most areas some years
after the beginning of colonisation were more thorough with their
recordings of Aboriginal culture, though they were working before the
beginning of academic anthropology in Australia. Late in the 19th
century a generation of scholars who had close relationships with
Aboriginal communities emerged, though their work was restricted to a
few elderly informants who could remember when they lived as
hunter-gatherer.
By the early 20th century, scholars had realised that
Aboriginal people held a wealth of knowledge and experience in the
memories of Australian environments. A newspaper writer observed in 1904
in an article on weather forecasting that:
“It is astonishing, however, how
much weather wisdom has been developed in the world merely as the result
of long-continued observations of unscientific people. The man whose
life has been passed in certain localities has by reason of long
intimate personal communion with nature become endowed with a “gift”
that is not to be despised. There are some who would even prefer to
trust the instinct of the brute creation or the intuitive perception of
aboriginals, whose traditions of the sky are not the least remarkable
features of their native knowledge of the ways of nature. All this only
another way of emphasising the value of observation and deduction as the
stepping stones to knowledge”. (Anon., 1904b).
Alfred Howitt (1830-1908; Stanner, 1972; was born in Nottingham,
England, and emigrated to Australia in 1852, and settled in Melbourne.
Before becoming an explorer he was the manager of a sheep station and a
prospector.
Howitt became a natural scientist in later life and authority on the
Aboriginal people of southeastern Australia. Howitt believed that the
structure of many Aboriginal astronomical beliefs resonated with those
from Western Europe, claiming “It
seems that such pseudo-beliefs are an inheritance to us from our savage
ancestors, and from which we are not able to free ourselves.” In the
case of Aboriginal traditions, remarked that:
“The beliefs as to the stars, which I have noted, and the manner in
which they are named, seem to throw some light on the origin of the
names, and even on the legends of the constellations of the northern
Hemisphere.”
(Howitt, 1904: 434).
Anthropologists, astronomers, linguists and museum-based scholars
recorded Aboriginal ethnoastronomical data during the 20th
century.
Trees that connected the Earth with the sky
The cultural landscape is a concept for geographers that encompass the
physical as well as cultural aspects of the human construction and
perception of space (Baker, 1999; Clarke, 1994). The heavens are part of
the space that is experienced by people. Interpretations of the sky must
be understood in terms of the cosmological traditions that explain the
making of the world in Aboriginal Australia. The concept, that there had
been a period of creation during which totemic spiritual ancestors
carried out heroic deeds, moulded and imparted spiritual power to the
land, and formulated customs for their descendants to follow, is
fundamental to Aboriginal religious beliefs (Clarke, 2003; Hiatt, 1975;
Sutton, 1988). These ancestors often took the form of animals and birds,
though many were also plants, atmosphere and cosmological phenomena or
even diseases of humans. As the ancestral beings crossed the land during
the Creation period and the paths they made became ancestral tracks, or
song lines, connecting mythological sites where, according to Aboriginal
tradition certain events had taken place. As the Creation period was
closing, according to Aboriginal belief, many of these spiritual
ancestors travelled up into the heavens, and because of this
anthropologists have referred to them as ‘Sky-heroes’ (e.g. Elkin, 1964:
252-254). It was believed that as ancestors they would continue to
influence life on Earth and that is why Aboriginal people on Earth
looked for omens in the heavens (Clarke, 1997; 2009a; Hamacher & Norris,
2010; 2011a; 2011b; Johnson, 1998).
The regions of the Earth, Skyworld and Underworld were connected to the
extent that travel from one to the other was easy between them all
during the Creation period. The ancestors could reach the heavens by
climbing to the tops of tall trees or by walking to the summits of high
hills. Sometimes the ascent to the Skyworld involved helping up by
whirlwinds, ropes and fast-growing trees. E.g., the Kamilaroi people of
the central northern region of New South Wales believed that female
ancestors became a cluster stars (the Pleiades) when the 2 pine (Callitris
species) they were cutting bark from started growing higher and
higher until they pushed the bark cutters into the sky (Greenway, 1901).
·
According to an Aboriginal tradition from this region a star cluster
called the Mundewur, which is
an S-shaped line of stars in Ophiuchus (formerly serpentarius) that is
situated between the northern Crown of Scorpius, which represented “…
the notches cut into the bark of a tree to enable a blackfellow to climb
it.” (Ridley, 1875: 142).
·
The Alawa people from southeast Arnhem Land of the Northern Territory
have a Creation myth in which 2 of their ancestors reached the Skyworld,
where they are seen as part of the Pleiades, by climbing a large
northern stringybark tree (Eucalyptus
tetrodonta) that was growing on Earth (Berndt & Berndt, 1989).
Sometimes, the Skyworld was where the ancestors escaped to after their
creative activities on Earth, and in other cases the ancestors were
tricked into entering the Skyworld where they were stranded.
·
A detailed version of a myth from the Wimmera district of western
Victoria that explains the connection between terrestrial space and the
sky (Bulmer, 1855-1908 [1999]). According to his account people who were
on Earth during the Creative period could reach the Skyworld to collect
the abundant lerp (sometimes called manna) that is found in trees. They
did this by climbing the winding steps on a very tall pine tree
Callitris spp., which
grew on the bank of the Richardson River. Access to the tree was
controlled by Jeon, an old man, and he had a pack of dogs he lent to
foragers. On one occasion the men who were gathering lerp in the sky
were not successful, so they secretly killed one of the dogs, which was
Jeeon’s favourite. Jeon realised what they had done and wanted to punish
them. So, before the men ventured into the Skyworld again, Jeon made an
instrument that allowed him to bore into the taproot of the pine tree
where he concealed a fire. When these foragers were about to return to
Earth they heard the tree cracking. After 2 unsuccessful attempts to
descend to Earth, they returned to the top of the pine tree just in time
to see the main section of the tree fall. Bulmer’s informant said the
top of the tree can still be seen in the Milky Way towards the south,
while the men were forced to remain in the Skyworld are adjacent stars
near a dark spot.
·
In western Victoria other ethnographers recorded the account of tree
connections between Earth and the Skyworld. According to an Aboriginal
tradition that was recorded in the Kara Kara district “…a regular
highway between the Earth and the upper regions …” that was formed by a
large pine tree that grew on Earth and whose branches crossed into the
sky (Mathews, 1904: 281-282).
·
It was similarly stated (Howitt, 1904: 433) that in the Wimmera district
of the same region: There was a legend among the Wotjobaluk of a pine
tree which ascended up through the sky (Wurra-wurra) to the place beyond
which Mamen-gorak [‘father’, ‘ours’] lived. At that time the people
ascended by this tree to gather manna, which implied that trees grew
there like the Eucalypt, such as
Eucalyptus viminalis.
This shed the so called manna in the Wotjobaluk country.
According to Clarke the theme of large trees as ladders between Earth
and the Skyworld is widespread throughout Aboriginal Australia. From
southeastern Central Australia, it was recorded (Howitt, 1904: 433)
that:
·
Another of the Dieri [Diyari] and Tirari [Thirrari] accounts for the
fossil remains that were found at Lake Eyre, which they called
Kadimarkara, as having been creatures which in the old times of the
Murra-murras [Creation ancestors], climbed down from the sky to the
Earth by the huge Eucalyptus trees on which it rested which grew on the
western side of Lake Eyre.
Some of the fossils recovered from Lake Eyre, for which the region is
well known, have been found to be
Diprotodon, a species
from the megafauna of the Pleistocene (Pledge & Tedford, 1990).
There are variations with the mechanisms that stranded the ancestors in
the Skyworld in the recorded stories of Aboriginal Australia. They were
prevented from returning to Earth at the end of the Creation because of
a tree being as a ‘ladder’ had been either burnt or cut down, sometimes
by force of trickery, according to the narratives of some stories. E.g.
it was claimed by a tradition among the Clarence River people of coastal
New South Wales (Mathews, 1904:280) that:
·
Among the Womboang division Alpha Tauri [Aldebaran] was a young man
called Karambal, who absconded with another man’s wife. The injured
husband pursued him, and he took refuge in a tall tree. The pursuer
piled wood around the bole of the tree, which he then set on fire, and
Karambal was carried up by the fierce flames into the sky, where he
still has the colour of fire.
·
Occasionally the tree ‘ladder’ was a means of escape from Earth.
According to a tradition among the Kamilaroi people, during the Creation
2 girls were caught by a man called Wurunna who forced them to cut bark
for him (Sveiby & Skuthorpe, 2006).
The first blow of the stone axe caused the tree they had climbed
to grow upwards rapidly away from Wurunna, and their 5 sisters saved
them by pulling them up into the Skyworld where, together with their
sisters, they became the Mirrai Mirrai (Pleiades).
·
In some myths the Moon ancestor also suffered the fate of being stranded
in the Skyworld. In mythology among the Nukunu from the southern
Flinders Ranges of South Australia, the Moon was tricked into entering
the Skyworld:
·
The Moon (Pira) was greedy with meat and wouldn’t share it with others,
the crowd decided to get rid of him, so they coaxed him to climb a tree
to get [edible] grubs, coaxing him up higher and higher until they could
hardly see him. They cut the tree down and the Moon hung up in the sky.
Moon said ‘I’ll give the light to the people who walk at night. I’ll die
then come to life again’ (Mountford, cited Hercus, 1992: 16-17).
·
In a similar tradition from the Adnyamathanha people of the northern
Flinders Ranges, Vira Wurlka the Moon man climbed a river red gum to
gather witchetty grubs for 2 nephews (sister’s sons), who made the tree
grow higher until it reached the sky (Tunbridge, 1988). Vira Wurlka was
stranded in the Skyworld when the nephews shrank the tree. When he
gradually dies and becomes smaller the lunar phases are produced.
·
In a myth from the Endeavour River area, northern Queensland, Warigan
the Moon man climbed a tree using a climbing cane, but the Ngalan, the
Sun, set the bark on fire (Tindale, 1938 ms). That is how the Moon
received its ashen face.
Large trees are topographic features for Aboriginal people, representing
tangible evidence of the actions of their spirit ancestors during the
Creation. Often, prominent trees are seen as creations of the ancestors.
·
In the mythology of the Lower Murray, e.g., the sheoak (Casuarina
stricta) tree is significant,
as it is the tree the supreme male ancestor
Ngurunderi created and then
sat under before he ascended to the Skyworld (Berndt et
al., 1993).
The ‘ladders’ that lead to the Skyworld are often specified as tall pine
trees (Callitris
species) (e.g. Bulmer, 1855-1908 [1999]; Greenway, 1901; Howitt, 1904;
Mathews, 1904; Sveiby & Skuthorpe, 2006), possibly as a result of their
characteristic of having multiple branch levels from the ground to the
crown and due to their common location, on hilltops.
Clarke suggests that in arid areas long-lived trees such as river red
gums growing along creek beds or at waterholes are prominent features of
the landscape, therefore attracting significance in the local
mythologies (Clarke, 2014c).
·
There is a tradition among the Nukunu people from the southern Flinders
Ranges, South Australia, according to which
Atyilpa the western Quoll
ancestor carried an immense tree across their country (Hercus, 1992).
The tree, which is symbolic of a giant ceremonial pole, was carried
about in a bag then placed in the land. It was recorded by Hercus,
(1992: 13) that:
·
There were sites in the Nukunu country which marked the beginning of the
longest known continuous songline, the Urumbula which goes from Port
Augusta to the Gulf of Carpentaria. A huge tree was the main feature,
and it was so high that it was like a giant ceremonial pole which in
turn represented the Milky Way. The giant tree was close to Port Augusta
of the present. The oldest singers of the Urumbula say this tree was
destroyed long before their time, in the early days of European
settlement.
It was a large northern stringybark tree connected to the Skyworld in
traditions of southeast Arnhem Land, Northern Territory (Berndt &
Berndt, 1989). Most people were forced to remain on Earth while they
were alive at the close of the Creation period, as the Skyworld and the
Underworld were beyond their reach.
The order of life on Earth required the maintenance of this gap between
the terrestrial and sky regions since the end of creation.
·
In the Lower Murray region, particularly large trees and big sand dunes
were avoided as malevolent places because they attracted lightning
strikes due to their proximity to the clouds (Clarke, 1997; Harwood
cited by Tindale, 1930-1952; Daisy Bates; De Vries, 2008; Reece, 2007).
She recorded that there the vault of the heavens was supported by a
large tree, called Warda,
inland from the Great Australian Bight, that had to be protected at all
times (D. Bates, cited Isaacs, 1980).2
In Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra languages of the Western Desert …yilkari
warta … (idiom for ‘very distant’) literally means “…sky tree…”
(Glass & Hackett, 2003: 570). Spirit beings, many of whom took the forms
of birds that could fly, had retained the ability to move freely across
all parts of the total landscape (Clarke, 1999, 2007 b).
According to Elkin ‘doctors’ and ‘sorcerers’ in Aboriginal traditions
that travelled to the Skyworld used various methods, a ‘magic rope’, a
tree as a ‘ladder’ or ritual power to pass through space itself (Elkin,
1977). Duncan Stewart was an early colonist in South Australia whose
family were ‘supportive’ of the local Aboriginal population (MacGillivary,
2005). Duncan Stewart observed a ‘séance’ that was conducted by the
Bunganditj man Kootwor, who:
·
… was supposed to go up into the clouds at night, to induce “those
above” to go down and show themselves to the credulous blacks. … Kootwor
– the doctor or medium – obtained from “those above” not only dances to
amuse, but food, good damper, tobacco, etc., the latter often being
dropped into their camp during the night, or found close by in the
morning. (Stewart,, c.1870 to c. 1883 [1977: 67]
Stewart needed to be well hidden among the Aboriginal observers, because
it was said he might be struck by lightning from above. In order to
achieve his ascent the ‘doctor’ climbed a tree and then “…the sky people
lowered a rope for him to be hauled up by.” (Stewart, c.1870 – c.1883
[197: 90]). In this region it was reported that a healer gained
knowledge through crossing into the heavens by climbing a tree (Smith,
1880). Similar accounts were reported from southwestern Victoria of
Aboriginal ‘doctors’and ‘sorcerers ‘claiming to be regular visitors to
the Skyworld (Dawson, 1881).
The floral and celestial influences over the Earth
It was acknowledged by European recorders that a role was played in
classical Aboriginal tradition by heavenly bodies in the making of the
Earth and a terrestrial landscape. E.g., in a Creation account that is
not localised in the record, though probably relates to the east coast
of Australia, it was stated by an anonymous writer in a newspaper that:
·
In the beginning black men wore wings and chased winged game; they were
prosperous, but grew weary for a place to rest their feet, so they
begged the help of the stars and other heavenly bodied. Each sent a
contribution toward a settlement [Earth]. The stars sent rocks and sand,
the moon sent water for sea, rivers and springs, the evening star
[possibly Venus] sent rich soil for growing things, the sun sent animals
and plants, and the wings were dropped at once for the sole of a foot to
rest on. (Anon., 1904a).
The acknowledge source of fire was the Skyworld. It was recorded in the
Lake Condah area of western Victoria that:
·
A blackfellow threw a spear towards the clouds. To the spear a string
was attached. The man climbed up through the aid of the string and
brought fire to the earth from the sun. (Anon., 1888: 2).
Aboriginal people in Tasmania believed that “…fire was thrown down from
the heavens like stars by two blackfellows who were now stars, the twin
Stars, Castor and Pollux (Mercer, 1912).
In order to account for environmental rhythms of their country
Aboriginal people cited cosmological events (Appendix 1). E.g., Wilbur
Selwyn Chaseling, a missionary in the Northern Territory, recorded the
Yolngu tradition from northeast Arnhem Land that during the Creation
period the ancestor Jurrpan left his sons and their wives on Earth so
that he could live in the Heavens as the ‘evening star’ (Arcturus).3
From the Skyworld Jurrpan ordered his family to stay below near his
former camp and transform themselves into swamp food. Chaseling (1957:
150-151) stated that:
·
They did as they were told and changed themselves into the well-known ‘karkai’,
or swamp rush-corm [rakay, rakai,
Eliocharis dulsis].
Rarkai, a favourite food, spreads over large areas of swamp in the wet
season, then ripening after the water evaporates. Women gather the corms
late in the year, and can see Jurrpan in the western sky shining down on
his ripening swamp-children at sunset.
A tradition that has been recorded from a Kumbaingiri person in northern
coastal New South Wales incorporating the theme of rejuvenation, in
terms of the lunar phases as well as the growth of the vegetation
(McDougall, 1901).4 According to this tradition the Moon
ancestor once lived on Earth, where as a man he was speared and his
bowels spilt out onto the land. Wintarn (blady grass,
Imperata cylindrical and
Cummin-Guroon (ferns), who were 2 plant men, took pity on the Moon man
and carried him home. As a result of their kindness, the 2 plant men
never really die and are always, as plants, the first to regenerate
after fire or drought.
It was widely believed in Aboriginal Australia that certain species of
fungi retained power from their connection with the heavens. E.g., in
the Flinders Ranges in northern South Australia, in the language of the
Adnyamathanha puffballs (Podaxon
species) are known as vudlivuta,
literally ‘star-dust’.5 When one of these fungi is
deliberately kicked by a young man the yellow spores fill the air and
people say that he is “… pulling down stars.” (McEntee et
al., 1986: 13). Here to
´break the ´vudli´ means that
he is “ … falling in love.” In Central Australia, it was recorded
(Spencer & Gillen, 1904: 627)6 that:
·
Falling stars appear to be associated with the idea of evil in many
tribes. It is believed by the Arunta [Arrernte] that mushrooms and
toadstools are fallen stars, and look upon them as being endowed with
arungquilta (evil magic) and therefore don’t eat them.
In other parts of Australia species of fungi have been linked to
spirits. James Drummond, a Scottish-born naturalist and collector stated
that in the southwest of Western Australia he had been shown a glowing
fungus; “…to the natives when giving out light…They called it a chinga,
their name for spirit, and they were much afraid of it.” (Drummond, 1841
[cited Clarke, 2008a: 84]).7 According to Clarke the species
involved is a large luminous mushroom most likely
Omphalotus nidiformis
that glows naturally for 4-5 days after it is cut.8 In other
cultures outside Australia there is also association of fallen stars
with mushrooms (e.g. Beach, 1986; Hamacher & Norris, 2010).
The Seasonal calendar
The way people divide the year is shaped by culture and the way they
relate to seasonal changes within the landscape (Clarke, 2009b). There
is a wide variety of ways Aboriginal hunter-gatherers recognise the
annual cycles, ranging anywhere between 4 and 9 distinct seasons
(Clarke, 2003; Reid, 1995; Thomson, 1939). The onset of each season,
during which specific foraging practices would be employed, are
indicated by the combination of movements of stars and animals, weather
changes and the flowering of certain plants. It was remarked (Sutton,
1998: 371) that while Aboriginal religion is structured primarily around
·
… places where ancestral events occurred, as well as their relative
locations … time, in the
sense of seasons of the year or phases of the day or night caries a
great deal of symbolic power in Aboriginal classical thought.
Aboriginal people aimed to hold their ceremonies in honour of the
ancestors at specific places of specific mythological significance over
many days during a period when there is plenty of food for the
participants, and have it end with a full Moon (Morphy, 1999).
The links that were perceived by Aboriginal people between the movements
of the heavenly bodies and the onset of seasons was widespread across
the Australian continent (e.g. Neidjie et
al., 1985; Stanbridge, 1857).
It was noted (Mathews, 1904: 279) that it was generally recognised that:
·
… the stars which occupy the northern sky in the cold winter evenings
travel on, and are succeeded by others in the following season, and that
these are then displaced by different constellations during the warm
evenings of summer.
In Tasmania, George Augustus Robinson, the Aboriginal protector, spent
15 years studying the Aboriginal inhabitants claimed that:
·
The Aborigines have considerable knowledge of the signs of the weather …
indeed they have numerous signs by which they judge and I have seldom
found them to err. Thus they are enabled to know when to build their
huts, to go to the coast for fish, travel &c. They also judge by the
stars and have names by which they distinguish them (G.A. Robinson, 1830
[Plomley, 1966: 300).9
Brian Gilmore Maegraith carried out anthropological research during
university vacations while studying medicine, after which he pursued
post-graduate studies at Oxford. He observed in Central Australia that:
·
The aborigine has differentiated between the 2 apparent motions of the
stars through the year, namely, the nightly movement from east to west
(similar to that of the sun in the day), and the great annual sift of
the constellations in the same direction. (Maegraith, 1932: 24).
Immediately outside Aboriginal Australia, the calendars have been
outlined of the horticultural people of the Torres Strait (Johnson,
1998; Sharp, 1993) which involve the movements of stars timed to a range
of environmental phenomena, such the fruiting of
native apples (Eugenia
species), and rampant growth of yams (Dioscorea
species) that need to be planted in gardens.
In tropical northern Australia, for the Tiwi the Upperworld of the sky
is similar to Earth with respect to land and the seasons; each of which
has a Dry and a Wet (Sims, 1978). The Upperworld was the home of
Pakataringa (Thunderstorm Man), Tomituka (Monsoonal Rains Woman) and
Pumaralli (Lightning Woman) during the Dry. These ancestors move further
up and into the Skyworld at the end of the Dry, and when doing so they
cause rain to fall on all the lower levels. Trees and plants in the
Upperworld use the raindrops passing through to carry spirits that will
grow into plants when they hit the parched Earth below. The stars and
the Moon and Sun ancestors live in the Skyworld, and plants are created
by the movement of ancestors who control the weather. In other parts of
northern Australia, the Rainbow serpent was believed to be the spirit
being in the sky that generated the annual monsoonal weather (Clarke,
2009b).
Hot seasons were associated in a generalised way with the ripening of
fruit. The Arrernte people of the Macdonald Ranges in arid Central
Australia, for instance, linked their hot, wet season,
Uterne, with the availability
of edible fruit from the wild passionfruit (Capparis
spinosa var.
nummularia), wild bananas
(Solanum
ellipticum), because the Sun has “… cooked them ripe.”
(Henderson & Dobson, 1994: 613-614). This season was also a good time
for drying wild tobacco (Nicotiana
species) leaf. In the Eastern Arrernte language of Central Australia,
the term, ampme, has the
meanings of “… to burn something …”, … to experience hot weather …” and
“ … to ripen fruit.” (Henderson & Dobson, 1994: 21). The Kukatja people
of the southeast Kimberley, Western Australia, similarly recognised that
the heat of the Sun is important for the edible fruit ripening. It was
remarked (Peile, 1997: 24) that for Kukatja, “The Sun (tjirntu)
is considered to be close to the Earth at dawn and further away at
sunset.”
The Wiradjuri people of the semiarid country of central New South Wales,
considered that there were 6 winds that were controlled by the ancestors
in the Skyworld (McKeown, 1938).10 They were said to be
divided equally between males and females, with the winds controlled by
the males being responsible for changing the season, which brought on
responses in the plants such as flowering and fruiting of the bumblebee
tree, the native orange (Capparis
mitchelii).
Aboriginal people in temperate Australia also recognised the Sun as
strongly influencing themselves as well as the plants and animals of
their country. E.g.,
·
in western Victoria, Nyaui the Sun clan had the Moon and the planet
Venus among its set of subordinate totems,11 which were
mainly plants and animals (Mathews, 1904).
·
The Narangga people of York Peninsula, South Australia, had a song to
ripen the quandongs (wild peaches,
Santalum acuminatum),
which translated as “Wild peaches hanging in the trees, the sun will
burn you (to the colour if fire), we will gather you (for food).”
Aboriginal people used songs and rituals to help hasten the production
of favoured foods.
A diversity of Aboriginal calendars resulted from the association
between specific plant phenomena within a local area and the observed
changes in the Skyworld. Yolngu people in northeast Arnhem Land began
harvesting the corms of spike-rush (water chestnut,
Eliocharis dulcis) when
Arcturus is seen in the sky at dawn in late November during the
Rarrandharr Dhuludur season,
which is the buildup to the Wet (Hamacher, 2012; Mountford, 1956).12
The season for gathering spike-rush corms in this region was also
signalled by the ‘lily star’, (probably spica), in reference to the
lotus (red lily,
Nelumbo nucifera), when
it appeared on the western horizon soon after sunset (Wells, 1973).13
The spike-rush, rakia (rakay)
in the Yolngu-matha language, is a large fleshy leaved sedge which is
prominent in the northern wetlands. It has tubers that are edible and
they are in the shape of a squashed marble, and they are gathered either
directly from the swamp beds or opportunistically from the crops of
magpie geese killed during hunting (Clarke, 2007a; 2012). The monsoonal
wet season is generally the time when the tubers are harvested, when
rains have stimulated growth. Stems of spike-rush were placed in the
earth ovens to generate steam for cooking (Clarke, 2012). Stars also
signal the start of the Dry season in northeast Arnhem Land, when
Djulpun (Orion’s belt) is visible on the western horizon during the
early night sky. This is the
Dharratharramirri season when the tall grasses from the Wet are
knocked over by the southern storms (Davis, 1989; 1997).
·
Across arid inland regions Aboriginal hunter-gatherers connected the
star movements with the seasons for hunting animals and birds and
collecting lizard eggs
·
In southwestern Queensland they also signalled the time for gathering
the aged sporocarps of nardoo (Marsilea drummondii), which were embedded
in dry the mud (E.K.V., 1884).
·
In southern parts of the Western Desert the rising of
Kungkarungkara, the Pleiades,
marks the nyinnga season from
May to September, which is cold and dry (Clarke, 2003; Mutitjulu
Community & Baker 1996).
At this time of year women previously collected vegetable foods, such as
grass seed, to sustain their group. In the western desert the seasonal
variation in the warmth of sunlight was explained as the Sun ancestor
having different road to travel along through the Skyworld (Mountford,
1976).
The timing of invertebrate food gathering activities was also dictated
by the calendar. In the Mallee region of Victoria the beginning of the
Gnallew (‘spring’) season for
gathering larvae of bittur,
the ‘wood ant’(termite), was signalled by
Marpeankurrk (Arcturus) being
in the north during the evening (Johnson, 1998; Stanbridge, 1857). It
was recorded that here the constellation of ‘Tourtchinboiong-gherra
(Coma Berenices, Berenice’s Hair)’ was a flock of small birds drinking
rainwater which has lodged in the fork of a tree.” (Stanbridge, 1861:
302).14 According to a qualification of this Coma Berenices
represented a tree hat had 3 main branches, and that at the junction
with the trunk there was a hollow where birds were drinking (MacPherson,
1881; Johnson, 1998; Massola, 1968). The appearance of this
constellation was symbolic of the dry summer weather, a time when such
sources of drinking water were crucial for the survival of humans. The
seasons dictated the choice of subsistence strategies for foraging
groups of Aboriginal people and influenced movement patterns.
Across the Adelaide Plains region the sudden surface appearance of fungi
may have been important because it signified the change in the season.
It was suggested (Ellis, 1976: 120)15 that here the recoded
term for ‘mushroom’, parnappi,
was related linguistically to
parna, “… a star indicating autumn
...”, and parnatti, “…
the Australian autumn, when the star
parna is seen.”
Parna has been identified as
Fomalhaut, which is based on its heliacal rising in mid-March during a
time of increased rainfall on the Adelaide Plains (Hamacher, 2012;
2015). The arrival of Parna
in the early autumn indicated to the Adelaide people the change of
season and was a sign that large, waterproof huts needed to be built in
the Adelaide foothills (J.P. Gell, 1842; [cited Clarke, 1990]). The
Aboriginal place name for a hilltop campsite at Morphett Vale, to the
south of Adelaide, was Parnangga, which was reported to be a reference
to the appearance of Pana (Tindale, c.1931-c.1991; see also Hamacher,
2015). To the east, the Murray River people living between Wellington
and Rufus River may also have made this seasonal association, with
Pidli being recorded as the
Ngaiawung term for “… mushroom, a star.” (Moorhouse, 1846 [1935].
During the 1980s, when Clarke was conducting fieldwork in the Lower
Murray area, he noted that Ngarrindjeri residents of Raukkan (Point
McLeay) believed that it was not safe to swim in the nearby lake if what
is locally called the ‘dandelion’ (Arctotheca
calendula) was still in flower. It was believed that anyone who
swam in the lake at this time risked contracting ‘dandelion-fever’,
particularly if they were children (Clarke, 1994; 2014c). Generally,
Ngarrindjeri people did not know that this plant had been introduced by
Europeans from South Africa, probably early in the 19th
century. According to Clarke this tradition had some depth, as there was
an account recorded in the 1960s from s Ngarrindjeri woman, Annie
Rankine, which illustrated a link between the flowering season of this
species and the celestial movements of the Pleiades star cluster. She
said:
·
“My father [Clarence Long Milerum] used to tell us children of a special
group of stars which is called the Seven Sisters, and before they were
moving we weren’t allowed to swim because the dandelions were in bloom
then, and it was said that when the dandelions are out the water is
still too chill, and this is why our people are very strict and don’t
allow us to swim. When the flowers all died off and the stars moved over
a bit further, this is when we were allowed to swim because in that time
the dandelion flower which would cause a fever to anyone would not be
out to make us sick. (A Rankine, 1969 [cited Clarke, 1994: 123]).
Clarke suggests it is likely the ‘dandelion’ mentioned was originally
the yam-daisy (native dandelion,
Microseris lanceolate),
which had been locally scarce since scrub was cleared from the country
for farming (Clarke, 1994; see Fig. 11).
Events that were less predictable in the night sky were seen as
malevolent omens, though regular patterns of celestial movement were
linked to the known behaviour of ancestors. Bella Charlie, for instance,
of the Yanuwa people in the McArthur River area at the Gulf of
Carpentaria gave a description of the night sky, saying that:
·
“There is a lot of story here,
wunhaka. Then there is that dangerous star, shooting star, we call
him Baribari – he can make you sick, make you die. Dinny and Isaac can
block him, have song to stop him. (B. Charlie, quoted Bradley and Yanuwa
families, 2010: 161).”
As well as ritual to prevent bad things from happening, there were
rituals that were believed to have positive influences, such as
affecting short-term changes to the weather that was generated in the
Skyworld. It was tradition among Aboriginal people that certain
individuals were ‘rain-makers’, who had the ritual power to alter the
weather and bring rains to their country (Berndt, 1947; Clarke, 2009b;
Elkin, 1977; McCarthy, 1953). The Wiradjuri ‘medicine-men’ in central
New South Wales were believed to have had the ability to climb into the
Skyworld to obtain rain (Berndt, 1947).16
Discussion and concluding remarks
There were topographical features across Aboriginal Australia that the
people believed were portals to the Skyworld and Underworld from the
Earth. The entry into the Skyworld from Earth during the Creation period
was often perceived as being via the eastern horizon, though the
ancestors generally first travelled to the western horizon, and then
through the Underworld. In some cases, ancestors ascended by climbing
tall trees connecting the Earth with the Skyworld. Certain tall trees
remained as ‘ladders’ that allowed a variety of spirits and humans that
were specially trained to travel both ways between these sections of the
landscape, when the existing landscape was set at the close of the
Creation period. Therefore plants can be seen as having physical
properties that can be utilised within the psychic realm.
Celestial changes that were observed in the Skyworld were an analogue
for seasons occurring on Earth in Aboriginal Australia. Hunter-gatherers
were able to position themselves in the landscape to maximise
subsistence foraging and comfort through the use of calendars that
linked together such phenomena as the movements of stars, plant
flowering and weather changes. Calendars were also relevant to
ceremonial life, within which ancestors that were responsible for the
reproduction of the environment on Earth were honoured.
Clarke, P. (2015). "THE ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIAN COSMIC LANDSCAPE. PART 2:
PLANT CONNECTIONS WITH THE SKYWORLD." Journal of Astronomical History
and Heritage 18: 23-37. |
|
|||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Author: M.H.Monroe Email: admin@austhrutime.com Sources & Further reading |