The Indigenous Weather Knowledge Project:

1
(No Transcript)
2
The Indigenous Weather Knowledge Project

• John L McBride
• Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre Melbourne

www.bom.gov.au/iwk/ J.mcbride_at_bom.gov.au
3
The Indigenous Weather Knowledge Project

• Purpose is to recognise the value of the
  knowledge of weather and climate held by the
  Indigenous people of Australia and the Torres
  Strait Islands
• IWK is a joint project involving the Indigenous
  communities, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
  Islander Commission (ATSIC), the Bureau of
  Meteorology, and Monash Universitys Centre for
  Australian Indigenous Studies (CAIS) and School
  of Geography and Environmental Science.

4
http//www.bom.gov.au

• The Bureau of Meteorology website is the normal
  mode of public access for weather services, for
  climate services, for educational material, and
  for media releases
• One of the most popular Websites in the country
• More than 60,000 hits per day
• Strong student interest

5
http//www.bom.gov.au

• When a member of the public accesses the Bureau
  website, besides having available forecast,
  warnings, and climate information, recognition is
  given to the knowledge collected by the original
  inhabitants of this country over 10s of
  thousands of years

6

• The Website
• Using information collected, further develop
• the IWK website as an important national
  resource.
• Formal Research
• Collection, synthesis and interpretation of
• Indigenous knowledge on specific weather
• events and patterns, seasonal and inter-annual
• climate variability, and longer-term climate
• change - to show how indigenous Australians
• understand and interpret their climatic
• environment and how this helps in connection
• to place
• Includes both archival and direct communication
  with the holders of the knowledge.

7

• Significance of the Project
• Has potential to yield useful information on
  managing the Australian environment
• Will show how knowledge of this type is an
  important component of indigenous identity and
  connection to place
• Will foster the development of an appreciation of
  Indigenous knowledge and culture in the wider
  community (ie promote traditional knowledge as
  being as equally valid as scientific knowledge)
• Recognises the importance of ethical issues, in
  the context that past scientific studies have
  often not sought permission from the original
  Indigenous owners for use of their cultural
  heritage.

8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18

• Collection of Indigenous Knowledge includes
  several stages
• Acquiring the knowledge
• Obtaining permission
• Returning the knowledge to the traditional owners
• Maintaining a relationship
• We want to do everything right Before we put
  anything on our website, we obtain permissions
  from the Council of Elders from the community
  that owns that knowledge.
• We are not stupid If your community is having
  problems (deaths, petrol-sniffing, etc.), we
  shall go away come back when you are ready

19
Visit to Bwgcolman Community School, Palm Island
20
Visit to Indigenous Radio Station 4K1G, Townsville
21
Visit to Laura Cultural Festival, Cape York
22
Laura Cultural Festival

• Learned some of the terminology and
  infrastructure of this type of work
• Procedural Text knowledge as to how to follow
  the signs of the changing seasons to collect
  fruit, move shelter etc
• Before Time text Stories and myths legends from
  past time
• Songwork recording the songs, transcribing the
  text, etc.

23
Laura Cultural Festival

• Aboriginal people have guidelines to the weather.
  The guidelines are the flowers and the trees.
  When the weather pattern changes, it goes from
  this way to the other way, it is time to plant.
  When you plant, you need to know which way the
  energy is going.
• Right now the wattle flower is out. It is a
  gentle, sensitive flower. It needs limited
  sunlight. It tells you winter is coming. So you
  observe the weather. The changing pattern of the
  weather guides you as to how to collect food.

• Wilfred Gordon (Willie), an elder of the
  Nugal-warra

24
Why am I here?

• I want you to join us
• Give us your ideas
• School Projects
• The students can question the elders
• What are the old stories about how rain started?
  How did the old people know when the wet season
  started? Did they call it the wet season?
• Use the site to tell people about all the
  different aboriginal languages

25
Why am I here?

• Use the site to get people interested in the
  spirituality
• Use the site to show how the indigenous people
  were at one with nature
• Weather told us when to hunt
• When to burn
• When to make shelter
• Move away from seasonal calendars
• Weather and burning
• Climate and plants, climate and animals
• We could write a book
• Seasons and burning Hunting and gathering
  following the weather When the rain didnt come,
  etc.

26

• This project has had a lot of interest in the
  press

27
Readers Digest Article
28
Time Magazine Article
29

• THEY RING US UP, AND THEY ASK US
• HOW ARE YOU GOING TO USE THIS INFORMATION?
• Will it improve the weather forecasts?

30

• Maybe we can use this site to teach us westerners
  that knowledge is not always to be used.
• Teach us about the ancestral beings who set up
  laws and customs for us to follow.
• Hear the words of somone like Bill Neidjie

31

• First there is Dooruk, the emu, with the dust of
  the red Earth Mother still on his feet. He comes
  to remind us to protect the land, to always put
  back as much as we take
• Then there is Kopoo, the red kangaroo..
• And Mungoogarlie the goanna

32

• But the animals of our Earth Mother come to say
  more than this. They come to say that our
  creator, that Rainbow Serpent, she get weak with
  anger and grief for what we are doing to this
  earth.

33
Weather is about survival. If we keep an eye on
the weather, we get food and we survive. You
cant write the weather down in stone These
things can change, because of our actions, like
cutting down the forest. The patterns will
change. . Willie Gordon