By Michael Doran
On Sunday 17 March, Hearth Galleries will present an afternoon of Aboriginal Cosmology at its Healesville Gallery, commencing at 3pm.
Dr Ewen Jarvis, curator at Yering Station Art Gallery will be in conversation with astronomer Dr Duane Hamacher and astrophysics student Krystal De Napoli on the the mysteries of the cosmos and its link into Aboriginal culture.
Hearth Galleries Creative Director, Chris Joy sees the discussion as linking the connection between deep time and space, as depicted in the current ‘Infinite’ exhibition at Hearth, and the concept of ‘connection to country’.
“The discussion will provide insight to the depth of understanding Aboriginal people had and have of their world,” she said. “The interview will discuss the role of Aboriginal art as another way of understanding Aboriginal cosmologies.”
“My hope is that the conversation will integrate the often disparate subject areas of science, art, anthropology and ecology in furthering our understandings of the role Aboriginal cosmologies play in social cohesion and land management,” she said.
Dr Duane W. Hamacher is an astronomer and Senior ARC Discovery Early Career Research Fellow at the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre. His research seeks to understand how Indigenous people developed and encoded scientific information in their Knowledge Systems. This involves developing methodologies for reconstructing damaged or fragmented astronomical knowledge, working closely with Aboriginal and Islander communities.
Astrophysics student and Kamilaroi woman Krystal De Napoli is researching the ways in which Indigenous Australians observe the night sky. She said it was important to recognise that Australia was founded upon tens of thousands of years of really strong scientific knowledge and this knowledge was strongly passed through the communities, as it was important for everyone to be able to understand their food and environment.
Hearth Galleries is at 208 Maroondah Highway in Healesville and details are at www.christinejoycuration.com.au
