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Aboriginal Astronomy
Australian Aboriginal astronomy has been passed down orally, through ceremonies, and in their artwork of many kinds. The astronomical systems passed down thus show a depth of understanding of the movement of celestial objects which allowed them to use them as a practical means for creating calendars and for navigating across the continent and waters of Australia. There is a diversity of astronomical traditions in Australia, each with its own particular expression of cosmology. However, there appear to be common themes and systems between the groups. Due to the long history of Australian Aboriginal astronomy, the Aboriginal peoples have been described as "world's first astronomers" on several occasions. Many of the constellations were given names based on their shapes, just as traditional western astronomy does, such as the Pleiades, Orion and the Milky Way, with others, such as Emu in the Sky, describes the dark patches rather than the points lit by the stars. Contemporary Indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oral Tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985), reported statements from present generation which "specifies that the message must be oral statements spoken, sung or called out on musical instruments only"; "There must be transmission by word of mouth over at least a generation". He points out, "Our definition is a working definition for the use of historians. Sociologists, linguists or scholars of the verbal arts propose their own, which in, e.g., sociology, stresses common knowledge. In linguistics, features that distinguish the language from common dialogue (linguists), and in the verbal arts features of form and content that define art (folklorists)."Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: "Methodology and African Pre-history", 1990, ''UNESCO International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Rift (astronomy)
In astronomy, the Great Rift (sometimes called the Dark Rift or less commonly the Dark River) is a dark band caused by interstellar clouds of cosmic dust that significantly obscure ( extinguish) the center and most radial sectors of the Milky Way galaxy from Earth's perspective. In dark, clear night skies, the rift appears as clear as the bright bulge of stars around the Galactic Center does to the naked eye or binoculars. The rift is largely between the Solar System (which is close to the inner edge of the Orion Arm) and the next arm, inward, the Sagittarius Arm. The clouds are an obstruction to millions of the galaxy's stars detected at visible wavelengths, which compose a bright hazy band appearing 30° wide and arching through the night sky. The clouds within our radial sector of the galaxy span about from Earth. The clouds are estimated to contain about 1 million solar masses of plasma and dust. Properties To the naked eye, the Great Rift appears as a dark lane that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yolngu
The Yolngu or Yolŋu ( or ) are an aggregation of Aboriginal Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. ''Yolngu'' means "person" in the Yolŋu languages. The terms Murngin, Wulamba, Yalnumata, Murrgin and Yulangor were formerly used by some anthropologists for the Yolngu. All Yolngu clans are affiliated with either the Dhuwa (also spelt Dua) or the Yirritja moiety. Prominent Dhuwa clans include the Rirratjiŋu and Gälpu clans of the Dangu people, while the Gumatj clan is the most prominent in the Yirritja moiety. Name The ethnonym Murrgin gained currency after its extensive use in a book by the American anthropologist W. Lloyd Warner, whose study of the Yolngu, ''A Black Civilization: a Social Study of an Australian Tribe'' (1937) quickly assumed the status of an ethnographical classic, considered by R. Lauriston Sharp the "first adequately rounded out descriptive picture of an Australian Aboriginal community." Norman ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian One-dollar Coin
The Australian one-dollar coin is the second most valuable circulation denomination coin of the Australian dollar after the two-dollar coin; there are also non-circulating legal-tender coins of higher denominations (five-, ten-, and two-hundred-dollar coins). It was first issued on 14 May 1984 to replace the one-dollar note which was then in circulation, although plans to introduce a dollar coin had existed since the mid-1970s. The first year of minting saw 186.3 million of the coins produced at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra. Four portraits of Queen Elizabeth II have featured on the obverse, the 1984 head of Queen Elizabeth II by Arnold Machin; between 1985 and 1998, the head by Raphael Maklouf; between 1999 and 2009, the head by Ian Rank-Broadley; and since 2019, the effigy of Elizabeth II by artist Jody Clark has been released into circulation. The coin features an inscription on its obverse of AUSTRALIA on the right-hand side and ELIZABETH II on the left-hand sid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limited Edition
The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition or expanded edition are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, recorded music and films, and video games, but now including clothing, cars, fine wine, and whisky, among other products. A limited edition is restricted in the number of copies produced, although in fact the number may be very low or very high. Suzuki (2008) defines limited edition products as those “sold in a state that makes them difficult to obtain because of companies limiting their availability to a certain period, quantity, region, or channel". A special edition implies there is extra material of some kind included. The term is frequently used on DVD film releases, often when the so-called "special" edition is actually the only version released. Collector's edition Collector's edition may just be another term for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Australian Mint
The Royal Australian Mint is the national mint of Australia, and the primary production facility for the country’s circulating coins. The mint is a Commonwealth Government entity operating within the portfolio of the Treasury, and is situated in the Australian capital city of Canberra, in the suburb of Deakin. The current facility was opened in 1965 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Before the opening of the Australian Mint, Australian coins were struck at the Sydney Mint, Melbourne Mint and Perth Mint. As such, the Royal Australian Mint was the first mint in Australia to be independent of the British Royal Mint, in the United Kingdom, which was a British government entity. (Of the three older Australian mints, only Perth Mint has remained; it was a subsidiary of the UK Royal Mint until 1970.) Foundations and history Planning for the mint started in 1959 when it was proposed to move the Melbourne branch of the Royal Mint to Canberra, with a large site in the Canberr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wiradjuri
The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, and many still use knowledge of hunting and gathering techniques as part of their customary life. In the 21st century, major Wiradjuri groups live in Condobolin, Peak Hill, Narrandera and Griffith. There are significant populations at Wagga Wagga and Leeton and smaller groups at West Wyalong, Parkes, Dubbo, Forbes, Cootamundra, Darlington Point, Cowra and Young. Name The Wiradjuri autonym is derived from , meaning "no" or "not", with the comitative suffix or meaning "having". That the Wiradjuri said , as opposed to some other word for "no", was seen as a distinctive feature of their speech, and several other tribes in New South Wales, to the west of the Great Dividing Range, are similarly named after their own words for "no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dark Emu
''Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?'' is a 2014 non-fiction book by Bruce Pascoe. It re-examines colonial accounts of Aboriginal people in Australia, and cites evidence of pre-colonial agriculture, engineering and building construction by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. A second edition, published under the title ''Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture'' was published in mid-2018, and a version of the book for younger readers, entitled ''Young Dark Emu: A Truer History'', was published in 2019. Both the first and the children's editions were shortlisted for major awards, and the former won two awards in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. The book has also proved very popular with the Australian public, selling 250,000 copies by mid-2021. Its strengths have been said to lie in the storytelling style, making it more accessible to the general reader than the more scholarly examinations of Aboriginal history in the pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bruce Pascoe
Bruce Pascoe (born 1947) is an Australian writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature. As well as his own name, Pascoe has written under the pen names Murray Gray and Leopold Glass. Pascoe identifies as Aboriginal. Since August 2020, he has been Enterprise Professor in Indigenous Agriculture at the University of Melbourne. Pascoe is best known for his work '' Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?'' (2014), in which he argues that traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples engaged in agriculture, engineering and permanent building construction, and that their practices provide possible models for future sustainable development in Australia. Early life and education Pascoe was born in Richmond, Victoria in 1947. He grew up in a poor working-class family; his father, Alf, was a carpenter, and his mother, Gloria Pascoe, went on to win a gold medal in lawn bowls at the 1980 Arnhem Paralympics. Pascoe spent his early ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wardaman People
The Wardaman people are a small group of Aboriginal Australians living about South-West of Katherine, on Menngen Aboriginal Land Trust in the Northern Territory of Australia. Language Wardaman is a non- Pama-Nyungan language. Though close to being a moribund language, it was, as late as the early 1990s, one of the most widely spoken Aboriginal languages in Katherine, with an estimated 30 speakers and perhaps 200 or more people who could understand it if spoken. Country The Wardaman controlled, according to Norman Tindale, some of territory from the headwaters of the southern branches of the upper Flora River, and westwards as far as the Victoria River Depot. Their southern limits lay around Jasper Gorge. The Wardaman presence, attested in post-contact times, at Delamere is historically recent. History of contact European contact with Wardaman and related peoples like the Dagoman and Yangman was characterized from the outset by considerable violence. Eventually, as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daramulan
In Aboriginal cultures of south-east Australia, Daramulum (variations: Darhumulan, Daramulan, Dhurramoolun or Dharramaalan) (“one legged”, from dharra 'leg, thigh' + maal 'one' + -an suffix) is a sky hero associated with Baiame, and an emu-wife. He is a shapeshifter. Engravings of Daramulum are sometimes accompanied by indentations that may represent star groups. Daramulum is depicted on rock art off Elvina Track in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, near to a carving of his emu-wife. He is depicted in semi-profile, with one arm, an emu-back (i.e. pointed buttocks), and a large foot. His voice can be heard through the medium of the bullroarer which is whirled through the air during initiation ceremonies. He now lives in the trees of the bush, particularly in the burls or growths which are found on the trunks of trees, and only leaves them for initiation ceremonies. The bullroarer must be cut from a tree which contains his spirit for it to work. For the Guringai, Daramulum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guringai
Kuringgai (also spelled Ku-ring-gai, Kuring-gai, Guringai, Kuriggai) (,) is an ethnonym misapplied to an Indigenous Australian people who once occupied the territory between the southern borders of the Gamilaraay and the area around Sydney, and a historical people with its own distinctive language, located in part of that territory. Origins of the ethnonym In 1892, ethnologist John Fraser edited and republished the work of Lancelot Edward Threlkeld on the language of the Awabakal people, ''An Australian Grammar'', with lengthy additions. In his "Map of New South Wales as occupied by the native tribes" and text accompanying it, he coined the term ''Kuringgai'' to refer to a hypothetical people he believed inhabited a large stretch of the central coastline of New South Wales. He regarded the language described by Threlkeld as a dialect of a larger language, variations of which were spoken by many other tribes in New South Wales, and, in order to define this perceived langua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
