Emu Sky Beginnings with Zena Cumpston
Western interpretations of astronomy focuses mainly on the bright objects in the sky – the stars. Constellations ... such as the Southern Cross or Orion’s belt are imagined by drawing lines between the stars, like a dot-to-dot exercise. Aboriginal astronomy on the other hand also takes into account the ‘negative spaces’ of the sky.
Michelle Quach, Aboriginal Astronomy: Navigating Seasons by the Stars on Unimelb Science
To some, the stars clustered around the 'Coalsack nebula' in the Milky Way look a bit like a shadowy smudge. But to most Aboriginal Australians, it's better known as the Emu in the Sky.
Aboriginal Astronomy and its interplay with modern ways of reading the sky have shifted into focus in recent years, as research from various communities across the country is shared to gather parallels and differences. Stories of the sky have expanded the ways we think about the land we are connected to.
Barkandji researcher and curator Zena Cumpston has used the Emu in the Sky as inspiration for an exhibition she is creating at Melbourne University's Old Quad in partnership with Science Gallery Melbourne and the Herbarium at Melbourne University.
Below she shares some of her research process and thoughts generating ideas for the exhibition.
Emu in the Sky, or the Coalsack Nebula, as it appears in the sky in Australia
Reflecting on the mad collection of early Australian ‘Scientists’, who documented, studied, classified and experimented with our plants, I wondered why they couldn't see that a wealth of knowledge about these plants existed already. There was 60,000+ years of careful observation that they failed to realise, record, respect or engage with in any proper way.
This 'blind spot' all these Science people have when it comes to our science, our knowledge embedded in Country, reminded me of the black mass which makes the 'Emu in the Sky'. The emu is essentially a void but it is this 'nothing' which makes the form which tells so much.
It's the idea that what you see depends on how you look at it, your own understanding of what is there allow you to see the emu and all the wealth of information she holds, not the blank void.
This map shows Australia broken up into Aboriginal Nations. Each colour represents a different Nation, each with several different languages and dialects, their own Law, ecology, and cultural practice.
I am a Barkandji woman. My Barkandji Country is western New South Wales but not far from the South Australian border.
I have never lived on my Country. I have always been a visitor. My Mum would take us regularly to Menindee and Broken Hill (where she grew up) to visit our relatives. I loved these trips in our massive, green 1974 Falcon station wagon ‘The green garbage machine’. I loved the freedom of being on the road with Mum, the first sight of the red earth of my Country.
I love to be with family, having a great feed and catching up with everyone's news. It is extra special when we gather on Country because I always learn so much about the history of my family when I visit. Too often our get together's happen because there is a funeral so I cherish even more the times when we can come together without that heaviness to share food and stories. Last time we visited all the kids got up and sang in Barkandji language which was very moving. We also made Johnny cakes (damper) on the fire which my children love. Johnny cakes hot off the fire with melted butter is the best feed ever and always tastes better if you are down by the river.
This is me with Mum at Winnathee Station in 1994, yabbying. Yum. Yum. Yum.
Country is our Mother. She is living and she speaks to us and keeps us safe.
Recently our Barka (Darling River) has been in a terrible state and it has been traumatic for Barkandji mob and all the many Aboriginal communities whose culture is intimately tied to this waterway. As Aboriginal people we are custodians of Country and it is our responsibility to keep her safe and healthy. Since colonisation fulfilling this responsibility which is at the core of our culture has been very, very difficult.
We have custodianship responsibilities that stretch to the sky to the ground and encompass everything in between. Whilst we as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are very diverse we have many over arching beliefs which sit at the core of our culture and Caring for Country is foundation to our ways of seeing and being. All of our cultural practices have been formed over the longest time imaginable and ensure that Country and people and all living things stay in balance. Our rules of engagement and activities do not look to clocks or calendars. Instead we look for the signs and signals in nature, in the stars, in the world around us to keep us in balance, Country gives us maps for living.
This is some of my family in Menindee in 2017. I am bottom right holding one of my sons. This isn’t everyone who came to dinner that night as lots had left already before we thought to take a picture.
Early on, when I was thinking about the ‘Emu Sky’ story a powerful vision came to me.
I saw an important item, perhaps the most important item in Aboriginal women’s practices for gathering food for their communities. I saw lots of this item, suspended. I felt they were looking at me. “Start here” they said.
Uncle Badger is a master carver, a story teller, an artist, an activist. I call him ‘Uncle’ because in Aboriginal culture that is how we show respect to our Elders.
And so I began by asking my Barkandji Elder Uncle Badger Bates to make these items for me as a way to both start the story from my own Country, and to assert the importance of women in this story about our plant knowledges.
Uncle Badger learnt to carve when he was eight years old from his Granny, Granny Moysey. Granny Moysey brought Uncle Badger up, all along our Barka (Darling River). Granny Moysey was a miikitya nhuungku, which is means ‘clever woman’. She was a speaker of many languages and an incredibly powerful and knowledgeable person. She travelled and lived along the Barka her entire life. Her knowledge of Country was so vast and so deep. She knew all the stories of every place she went. Granny Moysey was brought up by her grandparents Kitty and Jacky Knight who were born before European contact. She passed away in 1976.
Uncle Badger Bates talks about his artworks for Tarnanthi at Art Gallery South Australia, 2019.
When I think of Uncle Badger’s incredible carving I think about how it was Granny Moysey who taught him, and that it was her grandparents who taught her and probably their grandparents who taught them.
And so it goes, back through time, the deep, deep time of our living culture as Aboriginal people. I see Uncle Badger's carvings and art works as our ancestors speaking directly through him. He uses many of the same skills, techniques and stories.
Happily he passes and shares these incredible skills with many young Barkandji people who are learning to carve in the tradition way. There are two really exciting up-and-coming young carvers I know about from my Country who have worked with Uncle Badger, Barkandji artist David Doyle and Ngiyampaa artist Anthony Mulundji Hayward.
Although I am doing a lot of research related to the show, it is through the artists and art works commissioned that the story of ‘Emu Sky’ will unfold.
I am honoured that commissioning some of Uncle Badger’s work marks the beginning of this journey for me. The exhibition is like a massive puzzle and slowly I see the pieces coming together.
We have found ways to tell local Aboriginal stories with Elders and artists and there are so many exciting possibilities being teased out. I want this to be a show that keeps people coming back.
I am telling this story, in my way, from my heart.
Zena Cumpston is a Barkandji woman who is passionate about all aspects of representation in relation to First Peoples. Cumpston is a Research Fellow in Urban Environments at the Clean Air Urban Landscapes Hub at Melbourne University, working across several projects related to Koorie History, sustainability and ecology. Her work focuses on Aboriginal History and representation with much of her past work as a researcher being in the field of Aboriginal Visual History. Her current role combines her passion for Koori History with a love of gardening and ecology.