Friday, 20 December 2002
MEDIA RELEASE
The Hon Dr Sharman Stone
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage
Federal Member for Murray
Indigenous Weather Knowledge Website launched today
Have you every wondered how Indigenous Australians traditionally interpreted the weather?
Some of this traditional knowledge has now been collated and made available on the web.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Dr Sharman Stone,
will today launch the new Indigenous Weather Knowledge Website at 10am Bunjilaka, Melbourne Museum.
The Bureau of Meteorology has worked with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
members of the Aboriginal community and Monash University to publish on the web Indigenous
seasonal calendars. These show the complexity and diversity of our weather, interpreted by the
oldest-known communities of earth, Australian Aborigines.
“For over 3000 generations, and many thousands of years before Australia’s federal meteorological
service commenced operation in 1908, the livelihood and well-being of Aboriginal people has been
highly dependent on weather conditions, so it comes as no surprise that the world’s oldest
surviving culture has developed a climate interpretation responsive highly to its
surroundings,” Dr Stone says.
Unlike the familiar spring, summer, autumn and winter, the Indigenous calendars include at least
two, and sometimes seven, distinct seasons. The calendars are a fascinating reflection of
Australia’s climate.
The Indigenous Weather Knowledge home page depicts regions of Australia, as defined by ATSIC,
hyperlinked to the corresponding seasonal calendar. The website can be found at
www.bom.gov.au/iwk/
and will be developed progressively to include further seasonal calendars as they are made
available by Indigenous communities.
Ends
Further information:
Lynette Power, Bureau of Meteorology, tel: (03) 9669 4524, email: l.power@bom.gov.au
Andrew Cox, Office of Sharman Stone, tel: 0408 057 226
|
