![]() ![]() Rare astronomical events were viewed as bad omens by cultures around the world. To Aboriginal communities across New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, auroral displays represented blood that was shed by warriors fighting a great battle in the sky, or by spirits of the dead rising to the heavens.Ĭelestial events that appear red are often linked to blood, including meteors and eclipses.Ī total lunar eclipse turns the moon red (sometimes called a blood-moon), which was seen by some communities as the spirit of a dead man rising from his grave. The red hue of some aurorae is commonly associated with blood and death. In this context, fear of an aurora was utilised to control behaviour and social standards. The breaking of traditional laws would result in an armed party coming to kill the lawbreakers when they least expect it. ![]() The Dieri also believe an aurora is a warning that someone is being punished for breaking traditional laws, which causes great fear. This is similar to an Algonquin story from North America. They wanted to educate the public around the issues of the Black GST. The southern lights let people know they will one day return. Indigenous activists and supporters camped in the Domain Gardens and brought the Sacred Fire from Lake Eyre and the Aboriginal Embassy in for the duration of the Games and beyond. These ancestors sailed southward in their canoes and settled on a land of ice in the far south. The Maori of Aotearoa/New Zealand saw aurorae (Tahunui-a-rangi) as the campfires of ancestors reflected in the sky. The Dieri and Ngarrindjeri of South Australia see aurora as fires created by sky spirits.Īs far north as southwestern Queensland, Aboriginal people saw the phenomenon as “feast fires” of the Oola Pikka - ghostly beings who spoke to Elders through the aurora. To the Gunai of eastern Victoria, they’re bushfires in the spirit world and an omen of a coming catastrophe. To the Gunditjmara of western Victoria, they’re Puae buae (“ashes”). Fire in the skyĪboriginal people commonly saw aurorae as fires in the cosmos. They are quite different from Inuit traditions of the Aurora Borealis, which are more festive. Aboriginal people associate aurorae with fire, death, blood, and omens, sharing many similarities with Native American communities. This study seeks to understand the historical suppression of Anishinaabe spirituality among the Métis and its more recent reconnection that breaks down the colonial divisions between their cultures.Aurorae are significant in Australian Indigenous astronomical traditions. Using a methodology rooted in Anishinaabe knowledge and principles along with select Euro-Canadian research practices and tools, Fiola’s work is a model for indigenized research.įiola’s interviews of people with Métis ancestry, or an historic familial connection to the Red River Métis, who participate in Anishinaabe ceremonies, shares stories about family history, self-identification, and their relationships with Aboriginal and Euro-Canadian cultures and spiritualities. The space was created in close consultation with Shatitsirtha, Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre (WISC) staff, Brian Roth, Architects, and sacred Fire. ![]() Why don’t more Métis people go to traditional ceremonies? How does going to ceremonies impact Métis identity? In Rekindling the Sacred Fire, Chantal Fiola investigates the relationship between Red River Métis ancestry, Anishinaabe spirituality, and identity, bringing into focus the ongoing historical impacts of colonization upon Métis relationships with spirituality on the Canadian prairies. ![]()
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