Written by Carmelo Amalfi Wednesday, 18 November 2009 14:22
INDIGENOUS Australian astronomy includes many mythological figures associated with the creation of the sky and constellations.
The Boorong people of western Victoria believed the sun, ‘Gnowee’, was made by Pupperimbul, one of the Nurrumbunguttias, or old spirits of men and women, who were removed to the heavens before man was created.
The Nurrumbunguittas were cold at night so they made fires to warm themselves and cook their food. The earth had been in perpetual darkness until Pupperimbul threw an emu egg into space where it burst and flooded the sky with light.
When the great flood came, many Nurrumbunguittas were drowned while others were carried off into the sky where they became stars and gods.
The Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains believe celestial bodies such as the stars once lived on the earth, where they lived partly as men and partly as animals.
Eventually, they ascended into the stars.
Indigenous Australians across Australia shared a similar cosmology in which the universe had four tiers. Earth is a flat disc surrounded by water and covered by a solid sky dome.
Beyond the dome is a land of beautiful flowers that never fade, abundant food and rivers where the spirits of the dead are carried. Observers on the earth see them as stars shining through holes in the cover.
The nature of the sky dome varies. People from the Great Australian Bight area in South Australia told Australian anthropologist Daisy Bates that the sky was held up by a great tree, Warda.
Other groups believe it is supported by trees, guarded by an old man or held from above by the stars and the emu, whose nest sits in the Coal Sack.
Beneath the earth is a lower world through which the sun travels on her nightly journey from west to east. People from the Great Australian Bight area believed this lower world was the place where the spirits or unborn children lived.
Far from being a medieval hell, the underworld is believed to consist of two high stony ranges separated by a deep valley along which the Sun-woman travels on her journey from west to east.
When the floodwaters receded, the children of the star gods went back to the earth and became the first men and women.
The old spirits of the Nurrumbunguttias are still alive. It is because of them that there are storms, darkness and evil spirits in the world today.
