Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have watched these skies for tens of thousands of years — the oldest continuous astronomical traditions on Earth. Across hundreds of nations and languages, the stars carry law, story, navigation and the seasons.
Like the Inca an ocean away, many Aboriginal peoples read the dark shapes of the Milky Way as much as the bright stars. The greatest is the Emu in the Sky — its head the dark Coalsack beside the Southern Cross, its long neck and body the dust-lanes running down to Scorpius.
Among the bright figures are the Seven Sisters (the Pleiades) — a story told right across Australia and, astonishingly, around the world, perhaps for 100,000 years; the canoe of three brothers (Orion); and the Southern Cross, watched over by the ancestor Mirrabooka.
Bright-star figures (gold) and the dark shapes of the Milky Way (the Emu). Tap a kind to light up its figures.
← swipe the strip sideways →
| Kind | Figure | Western |
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Pick a figure — bright ones from their stars, the Emu as the shadow it casts on the Milky Way.
The Emu turns through the year. In April–May the Emu appears after dusk stretched across the sky like a running bird — the sign that emus are laying, and eggs can be gathered. By June–July she sits low over the horizon like an emu on a nest. Later in the year she sinks and fades — the eggs have hatched, the waterholes run dry.
This is one of the clearest examples of a practical sky-calendar anywhere: the orientation of a shape made of darkness, read to time a food harvest, for thousands of years.
The Seven Sisters. The story of the sisters (the Pleiades) pursued by a man or men (Orion) is told across Australia — and around the world. Researchers suggest the shared tale may descend from a single story over 100,000 years old, carried out of Africa.
Aboriginal Australia comprises hundreds of distinct nations, each with its own sky-knowledge; this is a small, widely-shared and respectfully-chosen selection, drawn from published research (e.g. the work of Ray Norris, Duane Hamacher and Aboriginal knowledge-holders on Kamilaroi/Euahlayi and Yolngu astronomy). Bright figures use Hipparcos J2000 star positions; the Emu is drawn as a shaded silhouette at the approximate position of the Milky Way's dark clouds (its true extent is far larger than any outline). Shared-star links use the same coordinates as The Chinese Sky and The Indian Sky. Live view: Aboriginal Sky Tonight.