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Wurdi Youang : re-thinking myths about landscape and indigenous science

Jones, David 2012, Wurdi Youang : re-thinking myths about landscape and indigenous science, in SAHANZ 2012 : Fabulation : myth, nature, heritage. Proceedings of the 29th Society of Architectural Historians Australia & New Zealand Conference, SAHANZ, Launceston, Tas., pp. 457-477.

Document type: Conference Paper
Collection: School of Architecture and Built Environment
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Title Wurdi Youang : re-thinking myths about landscape and indigenous science
Author(s) Jones, David
Conference name Society of Architectural Historians Australia & New Zealand. Conference (29th : 2012 : Launceston, Tasmania)
Conference location Launceston, Tasmania
Conference dates 5-8 Jul. 2012
Title of proceedings SAHANZ 2012 : Fabulation : myth, nature, heritage. Proceedings of the 29th Society of Architectural Historians Australia & New Zealand Conference
Editor(s) King, Stuart
Chatterjee, Anuradha
Loo, Stephen
Publication date 2012
Conference series Society of Architectural Historians Australia & New Zealand. Conference
Start page 457
End page 477
Total pages 21
Publisher SAHANZ
Place of publication Launceston, Tas.
Summary Despite recent political attempts to re-write the terra nullius myth for Australia, additional Indigenous sub-myth layers about landscape stewardship and cultural knowledge have been substantially overlooked. Pre-contact Indigenous scientific knowledge, landscape architecture strategies, and land stewardship histories and practices have received little legitimate credibility or academic discourse in this rewriting. One sub-myth is that Indigenous Australians have no astronomical scientific expertise and knowledge and that there is no physical evidence of this expertise. Thus, Indigenous Australians possess no ability to translate Dreaming story to astrological configuration, nor explore astronomy. Such is increasingly becoming a myth as it belies a suite of landscape architectural installations and cosmological narratives now being documented and researched. This paper addresses this myth by bringing forth a review of Indigenous cosmological knowledge for south-eastern Australia, with a substantive discussion about archaeo-astronomical evidence. The paper explains the cultural importance of the Wurdi Youang landscape installation for the Wathaurong community, and its role in Australian landscape architectural histories and practice.
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ISBN 9781862956582
Language eng
Field of Research 120107 Landscape Architecture
Socio Economic Objective 950302 Conserving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage
HERDC Research category E1 Full written paper - refereed
Copyright notice ©2012, SAHANZ
Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30049580
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