Words to sing the world alive

‘Learning language is part of rebuilding our nation’: singing the world alive, one First Nations word at a time, Sandy Toussaint, Honorary Professor in Arts and Sciences UWA, November 27, 2024

A precious message for all Australians has been created by First Nations people with publication of Words to Sing the World Alive.

In a gentle, generous and learned collaboration between The Poet’s Voice,  and editor Jasmin McGaughey, 40 contributors collectively and individually bring together a work offering a deepened understanding of Indigenous Australia.

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Animals in the Skyworld

In Aboriginal traditions across Australia, the skyworld has topography similar to and every bit as real as the terrestrial landscape below. This realm is inhabited by plants, animals, and ancestral beings, each represented by celestial bodies, or other prominent features of the night sky, such as the prominent dark bands of the Milky Way.

http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/content/topics/animals/

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Whitening the Sky: light pollution as a form of cultural genocide
Duane W. Hamacher 1 , Krystal De Napoli 2 , and Bon Mott 3
1 ASTRO-3D Centre of Excellence, School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
2 School of Physics & Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton VIC, 3080, Australia
3 Faculty of Fine Arts & Music, University of Melbourne, Southbank, VIC, 3006, Australia.
* Correspondence: duane.hamacher@unimelb.edu.au
Stories of the Sky, Proceedings of the 18th Annual Sophia Centre Conference, edited by John McKim Malville. Lampeter, UK: Sophia Centre Press. 2023

LIGHT POLLUTION is actively destroying our ability to see the stars and disconnecting people from their deep-time connection to the sky, acting as a form of ongoing cultural and ecological genocide for Indigenous people around the world. Many traditional knowledge systems are based on the stars, and peoples’ ability to observe and interpret them for a range of practical, social, and scientific purposes is critical. Efforts to reduce, minimise, or eliminate light pollution are being achieved with varying degrees of success, but the increased use of blue-light emitting LEDs as a cost-effective solution is worsening problems related to human health, wildlife, and astronomical heritage for the benefit of capitalistic economic growth.    MORE HERE

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‘Everything is Country’: these 4 projects blend First Nations knowledge and science to rewrite our understanding of the past
https://theconversation.com/everything-is-country-these-4-projects-blend-first-nations-knowledge-and-science-to-rewrite-our-understanding-of-the-past-243578

   … From MMM Issue #48, Feb-Mar 2025