*"*Night watch
January 10, 2009
Page 1 of 6 | Single
page<http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/night-watch/2009/01/08/1231004194714.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1>
[image: Unknown; active in Australia (1940s). Mankokkarrng (The Southern
Cross), 1948; earth pigments on paper on cardboard, 45.5 x 58.5cm (Image and
sheet). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Presented by the
Commonwealth Government, 1956 (O.21-1956).]
Unknown; active in Australia (1940s). Mankokkarrng (The Southern Cross),
1948; earth pigments on paper on cardboard, 45.5 x 58.5cm (Image and sheet).
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Presented by the Commonwealth
Government, 1956 (O.21-1956).
*The International Year of Astronomy finds Andrew Stephens probing some
deep, dark mysteries.*
I SAW a nebula a few weeks ago, without being quite sure what it was. It was
way up in the night sky, an unbelievable distance away. Within moments of
being told it was a "stellar nursery" where baby stars were born, I was
besotted. Stargazing, that dreamy activity humans have always loved, sparks
the most profound of inquiries: what is the meaning of the universe?
The nebula, seen through a telescope at the Old Melbourne Observatory, is
called Orion, a stunning purple-pink field of luminous clouds, with bright
stars at its centre. It emanates gorgeous light and is amid the Saucepan, a
region where northern-hemisphere folk see a hunter (wearing Orion's Belt)
and where some Aboriginal tribes see an emu.
That is the thing about astronomy - it might seem like the sole province of
Western science, but it belongs to us all; you can become an instant
philosopher, a creative visionary. Indeed, the night sky has always provoked
reflection and contemplation since humans first tilted their heads upwards:
How, why did the universe come to be? How big is it? Is there any meaning in
its existence? Is it what we call God? And will we ever meet other
inhabitants of this vast, vast cosmos? At the observatory, I revisited such
questions while looking at the Orion Nebula, and at Jupiter and three of its
moons, and at greenhoused Venus (which my beloved describes as "Al Gore's
nightmare").
There is so much to see, so many ways to interpret it. Elsewhere in
Melbourne, Munya Andrews looks up regularly and sees her "girls". They are
utterly gorgeous, all seven of them. She met them many years ago through her
granny, out in the Kimberley, where the nights can be inky and the stars
voluptuous. As an adult, she wrote a magnificent, richly detailed book about
them, straddling astronomy, cultural studies and mythology.
"The girls" are stars forming a cluster in the constellation of Taurus. Some
tribes call them the Kungakungaranga ("I like saying that," smiles Andrews)
while some of the Kulin people of Victoria call them Karagurk, seven women
who carry fire at the end of their digging sticks. More commonly, they are
known as the Seven Sisters, or the Pleiades. Or boring old M45. But for
Andrews, a Bardi woman from the Kimberley, they will always be "the girls":
incredibly special, having influenced various indigenous cultures around the
world for many thousands of years, including her own lot in WA (...)*"*
http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/night-watch/2009/01/08/1231004194714.html
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