I lalo o le susulu malosi o fetu ma le masina, e faapena le faata'ali'oga o le soifuaga o tagata muamua i 'ele'ele o Ausetalia i le faitau afe o tausaga.
Mai le faata'ali'oga o fetu ma paneta o le Milky Way ma le tele o suiga i foliga o le masina - e tele mea e mafai ona silasila iai i le malamalama o tagata muamua.
E mafai ona molimauina le tele o fetu fepulafi i le po ma suiga i le tele ma le malamalama o le masina ma le la.
O le va'ai fetu o le su'esu'ega o mea i le vanimonimo ma le maninoa, ma o se vaega o le soifuaga o tagata muamua le va'ai i fetu ma le vanimonimo e fetaula'i ma lo latou soifuaga i le 'ele'ele ma le lalolagi.
Mo tagata Aboriginal ma Torres Strait Islands, o le vanimonimo e maua mai ai le malamalama ma o se vaega o tala tu'u gutu ma tu'u taliga e fetaula'i mai e auala i tala tu'u, pese, sauniga ma ata vali.
Moon over the Sydney Harbour Bridge – image Eclipse Chasers.
“For more than 60,000 years First Nations people have looked up to the sky, it helps us understand the world around us, using our observation of the stars, the planets, the moon, the sun and the atmosphere, to predict weather changes and tides, to navigate on land and water, and to plan food gatherings, hunting, trading or ceremony, as well as pass down stories through the generations,” Aunty Joanne explains.
O le poto ma le malamalama i fetu ma le vanimonimo, o se auala mo tagata muamua e iloa ai le laolagi o loo aumau ma nonofo ai, atoa ma o latou tiute tau'ave ma matafaioi i le lalolagi.
“We have a saying – everything that’s up there is down here. So you can find your community, song lines, important ceremonial sites and other way-finding points using the stars – but the stars alone, need a little bit of help for you to understand everything, so knowing your dance, knowing your language, and your area's connection to your piece of country - validates everything,” Aunty Joanne says.
O le alii o Duane Hamacher o le Associate Professor i le Cultural Astronomy i le School of Physics a le University of Melbourne. e galulue faatasi ma tagata Aboriginal ma Torres Strait Islands i le faamauina o le malamalama o tagata muamua i le vanimonimo.
The elders explain that everything in the sky is connected to the land. So, if you want to know how the world around us works, you must look to the stars.Duane Hamacher.
“Humans have always held a close connection with the sky. The stars help us understand space and time. They inform law and science. They serve as a map and a timepiece. And they function as a powerful memory space, enabling people to pass down knowledge – uncorrupted - for thousands of years,” Duane Hamacher.
O mea uma i le vanimonimo e iai o latou uiga ma faamoemoe. E pei o le minoi o le La ma le Masina, atoa ai ma fetu - e faitau iai suiga i le siosiomaga, e pei o le tau malulu ma mafanafana, fesui'aiga o le tau ma le tau e totoina ai la'au ma galuega faatino i faato'aga manu.
The Australian sky at night - Image Ken Cheung.
“If you want to know when it is going to rain, look up. If you want to mark out the behaviour cycles of animals or know when to plant or harvest gardens or food sources, look up. You must learn to read the stars and your environment to understand what it is telling you.”
O le va'aiga i se atoaga o le lalolagi ma le siosiomaga, o se vaega sili ona taua i le tu ma aganu'u a tagata Aboriginal ma Torres Strait Islands, na saunoa ai Duane Hamacher.
“In the Torres Strait, elders teach how to observe the ways stars twinkle. If you can read them - which means observing and interpreting changes in their properties, such as their colour, sharpness, or how fast they twinkle – you will learn important things about the atmosphere. This can tell you if a storm is coming or if the trade-winds are shifting,” Duane Hamacher.
O po uma lava, e feosofi fetu i le itu i Sasa'e o le itulagi, e 4 minute e vave atu ai nai lo aso na tuana'i ai. I le tausaga atoa, e atoa ai le faata'ali'oga e atoa ai le faata'ali'o o le paneta Lalolagi ma le La.
O le faata'ali'oga lenei e tutusa ma suiga i le 'ele'ele. E pei ona faaalia e Aunty Joanne, o le Emu i le Vanimonimo, poo le Dark Emu, o se fuifui o fetu ua lauiloa i le Milky Way.
“What I like about the Emu in the sky is it shows others how First Nations people use the dark patches in the sky as much as the stars, but also because it mirrors the behaviour of the terrestrial emu, so whatever we see the terrestrial emu doing on the land, we also see that information paralleled in the sky.”
The Dark Emu rising - Image Geoffrey Wyatt.
“As the months pass, the Dark Emu is high overhead by June and July. This is the time male emus are sitting on the eggs. When the Emu shifts around to being perpendicular to the southwestern horizon in August and September, the chicks begin hatching.”
O le Emu i le va'ai fetu a tagata muamua, e faamauina ai nisi o faamatalaga taua faasaienisi.
“Gunaikurnai elders of southern Victoria tell how the Moon man was hunting an emu. The emu tried to escape by running across a tree that was laying over a river. But it slipped and fell into the water. Today you can see the story illustrated in the sky. The silhouette of the emu lies in the sky river - the Milky Way or Warrambool,” Duane Hamacher.
“The Yarran tree lying across the river is the Southern Cross, next to the head of the emu. When the Moon man comes out, the emu hides away from the hunter. This is describing how the natural light pollution of the Moon, whose bright light washes out the detail in the Milky Way, makes the emu difficult to see.”
Aunty Joanne Selfe - Image supplied. Associate Professor Duane Hamacher, image – Amanda Fordyce.
“Across much of northern Australia, bright meteors are related to evil spirits beings. Meteors represent these long spindly entities that fly across the sky. In the Torres Strait, bright meteors are called Maier. Elders explain that they represent the spirits of people who've just passed away, traveling across the sky like a rocket to Beig, the land of the dead,”
In First Nation’s astronomy, the origins of the universe go back, way way back to the Tjukurrpa. Westerners refer to that as the Dreaming, but basically, it’s the time long long ago, when all of what exists came to be.Aunty Joanne
“But what’s interesting in this history is that neither time nor history as we understand it is involved in the meaning, you see we have a concept – and that’s called everywhen, and just as a spirit people roamed the earth and made the mountains, the river and the sky and all the celestial objects that we see around us, it lets you have a glimpse into an understanding that we are in fact co-creators of the universe in which we live - the observer and the observed are the same," Aunty Joanne explains.
O se auala lea e feso'ota'i ai le malamalama o tagata muamua i fetu ma le vanimonimo i aso anamua, aso nei ma le lumana'i.
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