The Smoky Way - Elizabeth Pike

On our journey to the stars
We dream, as we listen in awe and wonder
To the symphony of their silent music
Within the sublime solitude of space.
Elizabeth Pike

While researching for material to write more stories of the stars, I came across some interesting thoughts from Denis Edward’s book, Made From Stardust.*

His comments were about the environment, I considered them to be not only appropriate, but necessary, as Aboriginal people have always believed that the cosmos must be seen as a whole, a oneness with the land, the heavens and all creation. In 1999, Bill Yidumduma Harney, a senior elder of the Wardaman community, west of Katherine, coined the word ‘cosmoscope’, a word that gives all creation a cosmic view.

Today, in some circles, the environmental crisis is being blamed on traditional religions, particularly Judaism and Christianity, through the Genesis story—‘Your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control’ (Genesis 1:28). Denis Edwards argues that this text has been taken out of context and misused in order to legitimise the exploitation of nature. In a later section of his book, he attempts an interpretation of this passage which does respect its context.

But for the moment it is important to note that the use of the Genesis text to license global pollution and the squandering of resources does not represent the original meaning of the text in the priestly tradition of ancient Israel, nor in the way the text was understood in the early church. It is a post -colonial, industrial, ideological usage that stems mainly from the rise of capitalism in the west.

A renowned Australian psychologist and author, Peter O’Connor, in his book Beyond the Mist, is another who makes a strong claim for the return of myth into a rationalistic world that has repressed the value of feeling for so long. The current obsession with accelerated technology and rationalistic approach to knowledge is creating a famine of the imagination. The imaginative life is struggling to survive in the soil of fact and information overload. An understanding of myth is vital food for the imagination. It provides us with an alternative way, not in any inferior way, of understanding not only the cosmic creation but ourselves.

Some Christians have contributed to these issues by failing to protest vigorously enough, at least until recently, the repression of feelings. The present situation of our planet calls all Christians to a radical conversion of mind and heart, to a renewed theology.

Denis Edwards believes part of the answer lies in listening and learning from strong Aboriginal voices such as Bill Neidje. I would also suggest Bill Yidumduma Harney, whose views on Aboriginal astronomy are outstanding. His story and his Aboriginal cosmic views were beautifully presented presented on the ABC’s Australian Story early in 2010.

The following Aboriginal myth from the sky world is one of several stories relating to the Milky Way. One Aboriginal group calls the story ‘The Smokey Way’.

Two brothers, Kanbi and Jittibidi, were sitting around a camp fire high in the sky in the area of the Southern Cross, with their firesticks resting beside them. Food was running out, so the brothers came to earth to hunt, bringing their firesticks with them. They went off to search for possums. Because the moon was up, giving them light ,they left their firesticks at their camp.

The brothers were away a long time and the firesticks became bored and began to play hide and seek among the dry spinifex grass and dead logs. Soon a huge bush fire started.

The brothers saw the smoke rising on the horizon. They quickly returned to camp, picked up the firesticks and went back to the sky world to avoid further damage. The smoke rising from the firesticks can still be seen floating through the sky along the Milky Way.

Any people who were out hunting now saw fire for the first time. They felt its warmth and realised its many benefits—providing light and warmth and for cooking. They took home a burning log and stored it in a Mulga tree. Mulga is still preferred by many for fires and fire lighting throughout much of Australia.

I believe there is much to be gained not only for the world in general but within ourselves, as we search the stars for more stories.

The beauty of space
O to realise space!
The plentiousness of all, that there are no bounds.
To emerge and be of the sky,
of the sun and moon and flying clouds,
as one with them.
Walt Whitman, ‘Poem of Joys’, from Leaves of Grass.

*Exploring the Place of Human Beings within Creation, Collins Dove 1992.