The children on Mer know the stars, their Elders taught them
In 2018, the community on the Torres Strait island of Mer celebrated the arrival of a new telescope for Tagai State College. The students, eager to learn, brought their families, which included several Elders. Each night, I hosted a different year group so the kids would have an opportunity to share their curiosity about the stars with their families, who inspired their love of the cosmos. The experience for both parties was exciting, but for different reasons.
The kids turned to me and pointed to the west. “Do you know what that star is?” they asked. I nodded and asked if they knew. “That’s Iluel, the Evening Star. I think you call it Venus. In the morning we call it Gerger Neseur,” one boy pointed and said. The children on Mer know the stars. They know the Meriam names and most know the Western names, and they know what they mean. It is a perfect illustration of living knowledge.
Occasionally, planets can come close together as they journey across the cosmos on the celestial road, like two friends briefly meeting for a walk. When this happens, astronomers call it a conjunction. There are many interesting ways this is conceptualised by cultures across the world. In western Greenland, Inuit Elders describe planetary conjunctions as celestial women who visit each other. Ancient cultures saw conjunctions as omens of war, famine and general disaster.
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