Indigenous Weather Knowledge – Bureau of Meteorology

allthingslinguistic:

superlinguo:

The Australian Bureau of Meterology (known affectionately as The BOM), has an Indigenous Weather Knowledge portal. This portal shows the different ways of thinking about the seasons in the different areas of Australia. In a country so large, and with so many different climates, traditional European concepts likes ‘Summer’ and ‘Winter’ are often not relevant.  

Here is the weather cycle from Tiwi, in the north of Australia, with its three major seasons and thirteen minor seasons:

And these are the seasons of Gariwerd country, in my home state of Victoria in the south. Gariwerd is home to Djapwurrong and Jardwadjali speakers, and has six major seasons associated with different flora and fauna.

Thanks to the Ngaralk Instagram, which is where I originally saw this. You can see other knowledge systems from different parts of Australia on the BOM’s Indigenous Weather Knowledge portal.

See also: The seasonal ‘calendars’ of Indigenous Australia, an Explainer from Alice Gaby and Tyson Yunkaporta in The Conversation

Relevant to episode 15 of Lingthusiasm, Talking and thinking about time.

Indigenous Weather Knowledge – Bureau of Meteorology