Navigation
'To really belong to this place, you've got to embrace the songlines. They are the story of this land'
-Margo Neale: Common Ground / Songlines
About the activity
Students will:
- learn more about the navigation techniques used by Lieutenant James Cook as captain of HMB Endeavour when he and his crew reached the east coast of New Holland in 1770
- explore the relationship between Aboriginal people and the songlines used to help navigate across Australia
- compare the differing navigation techniques used by Captain Cook and Tahitian high priest, Tupaia, as the Endeavour sailed across the Pacific.
- recognise the continuing connection Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have with Country
- investigate some of the ideas and practices from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples that have contributed to science throughout history
- develop knowledge and understanding of science and technology.
Learning intentions
We are developing an understanding of the contributions to science disciplines of people from a range of cultures and describing how scientific knowledge has changed peoples’ understanding of the world and is refined as new evidence becomes available.
Inquiry questions
- How did Captain Cook navigate uncharted waters?
- What role did Tupaia play in the navigation of the Endeavour?
- What is the role of songlines in Aboriginal practices, culture and navigation?
Engage: Kamay Botany Bay map
About the map
Source 1 is a map of Kamay Botany Bay dated 1770, created by James Cook when HMB Endeavour spent eight days in the bay. The map shows the main channels through the bay, and locations of fresh water. Botanists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander were on board the Endeavour. Cook gave the name 'Botany Bay' to the bay because of the vast numbers of plants collected by Banks and Solander. Cook also named geographical features in the bay after the two botanists. The third named feature, 'Pt Sutherland', was named after the first European to be buried on the east coast of our continent. Forby Sutherland, a crew member on the ship, died and was buried at this site during the eight days that Endeavour was anchored in the bay.
See-think-wonder
Use the zoom function on the British Library's James Cook's Chart to closely examine the sketch. Use the questions to guide a discussion. Record your observations, thoughts and questions using a see-think-wonder chart.
What do you observe?
- What do you notice first?
- Can you locate the freshwater sites?
What do you think?
- Why do you think there are blank areas?
- Why do you think Cook used English names for locations instead of the original names?
- Is this chart a reliable source? Why or why not?
- What do you think is indicated by the numbers on the map? Propose a theory about their possible use in navigation.
What do you wonder?
- What questions does the map raise?
- What would you like to find out?
Explore: Tools of European navigation
About the tools
Source 2 is a mariner’s compass housed in brass within a wooden box, with a strongly magnetic steel compass needle. These compasses were invented in 1745 and James Cook probably used a very similar instrument on HMB Endeavour.
Source 3 shows a plane table and alidade, required to conduct a ‘plane table survey’.
A wooden frame similar to the one in Source 4 can be seen around the edge of the plane table, not only holding the drawing paper in place but also providing scale units. The metal device on the plane table is an alidade, an essential tool to allow accurate sighting of distant objects. It has a straight edge to allow the sightings to be recorded directly onto the drawing paper. A series of sightings, recorded from different positions, can be used to map the relative positions of distant objects. For more information, visit the National Museum of Australia webpage about Source 3.
What do you observe?
- What do you notice first about these tools?
- With what types of materials are these tools made?
What do you think?
- How do these tools differ from their modern equivalents?
- Other than landforms, what did Cook and his crew observe about Australia when they had to stay close to shore?
Activities
- Research and investigate other tools that would have been used during the 18th century to navigate during voyages and to chart coastlines
- Write a user's manual or quick reference guide for a tool used to aid navigation. The user's manual or Quick Reference Guide (QRG) should include instructions and diagrams and be created for other students to understand.
Explain: Maps and charts
About Tupaia's map
Source 5 is a copy, by Captain Cook, of the charts drawn by a Polynesian navigator. Tupaia was a high priest and navigator who Cook first met on the island of Tahiti, now part of French Polynesia. Tupaia’s home island was the island now called Raiatea, roughly 200 kilometres north west of the island of Tahiti. Cook described him as 'a very intelligent person, and to know more of the geography of the islands situated in these seas, their produce and the religion, laws and customs of the inhabitants than any one we had met with'. Tupaia’s knowledge of the topography, coastline and environmental features of South Pacific islands was invaluable to the British. Tupaia's diplomacy with the Maori people during the Endeavours' voyage to New Zealand was indispensable. It was only after Tupaia interacted with the Maori, that Cook and his officers were able to establish any kind of communication, in fact, it was Tupia that the Maori were interested in, rather than the Europeans.
Tupaia's map can be interpreted as reflecting the navigation processes used by traditional Polynesian navigators. Though Cook replicated these charts, he did not refer to them again. The Polynesian way-finding techniques relied only on knowledge of natural processes, such as the ocean swells, cloud formations and observations of the horizon, the stars, the Sun and the Moon.
About Tales of Taonga - Ancient Polynesian navigation
This video [9:24] presents information about Tupaia and discusses how to read Tupaia's map, based on traditional Polynesian navigation techniques. As you view it, make notes about these techniques.
As you watch and listen, you will notice that the presenter uses some Maori language. Here are a few key terms:
- Aotearoa - the Maori name for New Zealand
- arioi - an ancient secret religious order in Tahiti
- rangatahi - the younger generation
- taonga - treasure, anything prized
- tupuna - ancestor
Find out more about Maori words and phrases at 'Te Aka Maori-English, English-Maori Dictionary and Index'.
Activities
Modern map online
- Click on to this link to an online modern map of French Polynesia. You should see a small group of islands at the centre of your screen. To find Tupaia's home island of Raiatea, you need to first find the island of Taha’a, then zoom in onto the larger of the two islands. You should see see the name Raiatea appear.
- Once you’ve found the island of Raiatea, zoom back out until you can see a much bigger island to the southeast (down and to the right) labelled French Polynesia. Drag your screen across until the big island labelled ‘French Polynesia’ is at the centre of your screen. Zoom in. What name appears as you do this? You should see Tahiti, the island where James Cook and Joseph Banks first met Tupaia in 1769.
- Set up a table with two columns: label column 1 'Island' and column 2 'Distance from Raiatea'. (Remember, Raitaea was Tupaia's home island.) List these islands in column 1:
- Tahiti
- Huahine - zoom in on the modern map, and note that it has two sections: Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti.
- Taha'a (the island to the north of Raiatea)
- Bora Bora (Bola Bola on Tupaia's map) to the northwest of Taha'a
- Use the measure distance feature on the modern map to determine the distance between Raitaea and each of the islands in your table. You do this by right clicking on Raiatea, selecting 'measure distance', then left clicking on the centre of each of the four islands in turn. (Answers to the nearest 5km, on teacher notes page.)
Tupaia's map online
- Use this link to see Tupaia’s map, shown as Source 5 above.
- To locate Tupaia's home island of Raiatea, look for Ulietea— that’s how Cook spelt it in 1769. (Hint: HMB Endeavour is drawn next to Ulietea.)
- Now locate the four islands you measured on the modern map:
- Tahiti - look for Otahiete— that’s how James Cook recorded the name for Tahiti when he visited the islands.
- Huahine - spelt 'Huaheine' on Tupaia's map, and located between Ulietea and Otaheite to the east of Raiatea
- Taha'a - to the north of Raitatea
- Bora Bora - spelt as Bola Bola on Tupaia's map, to the northwest of Taha'a
What do you think?
- In Source 6, the video, the way to read Tupaia's map is discussed. Why has it been a mystery for so long, do you think?
- Compare Tupaia’s map (Source 5) to Cook’s map of Kamay Botany Bay (Source 1). What differences can you see? How might you explain the differences?
- When you look at Tupaia’s map, the islands nearby Raiatea and Tahiti are fairly accurately mapped. Presumably Tupaia visited each of those islands. But then Tupaia includes almost 70 other islands, some possibly a very long way from his home island. Do you think he could have visited all of those islands? If not, how could he know of their existence?
(See teacher notes for possible answers.)
Evaluate: Songlines
About Songlines
Source 7 is titled 'Seven Sister's Songline' by artist Josephine Mick (1994). It depicts the songlines used to track the path to the Seven Sisters across Australia.
Songlines are a central part of traditional Aboriginal culture. A songline is a pathway through the landscape believed to have been travelled by the ancestors during the Dreamtime (or Dreaming), when they created the landscape, the animals and the law under which human society should live. Each songline features a series of landmarks thought to relate to events that happened during this creation period. The stories are expressed in song cycles which become the basis of ceremonies that are enacted along the songlines. As is true for the Seven Sisters Songlines, a songline can provide a series of waypoints towards a desired destination.
The Seven Sisters
This information accompanies the Source 6 artwork on the Songlines section of the Common Ground website of the National Museum of Australia:
The songlines of the Seven Sisters are some of the most significant and comprehensive creation tracks that cross Australia. This story is one of magic and desire, hot pursuit and escape, and the strength and power of family ties. The Seven Sisters story can be tracked from Roeburn in the West of Australia, all the way to the east coast of Australia passing through the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatjara (APY) lands in the Northern Territory and South Australia. As the story crosses through many different lands, the story is carried by the Martu, the Anangu, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra people.
'It is a tense and epic narrative, which is as complex and exciting as Greek mythology. As the Seven Sisters leave Roeburn, they are pursued by an evil shape-shifting spirit called Wati Nyiru or Yurlu, who drives the sisters East across the land and into the night sky - where they become the Pleiades star cluster. The songline crosses three deserts in an epic story that is also one of the oldest ever told in this country.'
[Songlines page of Common Ground website]The Pleiades
There is a cluster of stars visible to the naked eye from nearly every place on Earth. Astronomers call this cluster the Pleiades - a reference to seven sisters in Greek mythology. Intriguingly, it is known as 'the seven sisters' by many cultures across the planet, including Aboriginal peoples.
Activity: finding the Pleiades - also known as M45
- Study Source 8, the sky map below. It shows what stargazers at Kamay Botany Bay will see in evening sky at 9pm on 1 January 2021. Can you find the Pleiades - M45? [Hint, it's marked in green and is almost at the north point. You may need to zoom in to see it.]
- The Pleaides first becomes visible in the Australian night sky in November when it rises just after sunset. Use the Sky Map Online site to locate where M45 will be in your night sky on 1 November at 9pm - 21:00. Select ‘Location’ (top left corner) and enter your location (e.g. ‘Sydney, Australia’, or ‘Broken Hill, Australia’) then select ‘Time’ and enter ‘21:00, 1 Nov 2020’ and then select 'Go’. Can you see M45 to the left (which for this sky map means it's on the north eastern horizon)?
- Experiment by changing the time setting. For example where is M45 at 11pm, 1am, 3am? Can you see M45 moving across the sky map? If you could see it in real life, you’d be watching the Seven Sisters moving across the night sky.
See-think-wonder
The Travelling Kungkarangkalpa Art Experience produced by the National Museum of Australia features a narrated story, artworks, animations and vision of the Seven Sisters flying into the night sky. Select and view the first digital dome animation about navigation, dreaming and songlines. Be sure to click on the full screen icon which is the last button on the control panel of the video.
What do you observe?
- What animals and landforms were included as part of the story and animation about the Seven Sisters?
What do you think?
- Using the Seven Sisters story as an example, suggest some reasons why a songline is so important to the Aboriginal people whose traditional lands the songline passes through.
Activity:
- Reflect on what biotic and abiotic factors Aboriginal peoples would have observed to help them navigate. Justify and share your ideas with other members of the class.
[Note: 'biotic' relates to living organisms; 'abiotic' refers to non-living things in the environment.]
Elaborate: Australian astronomy and songlines
Activities:
- View the video 'Australian Indigenous Astronomy - 65,000+ Years of Science' (Source 9), making notes of key points and recording any questions the video raises as you view the lecture and interview.
- After viewing Source 9, write an explanation of Dr Hamacher's statement: 'The sky is a textbook. It's a law book. It's a science book.' [at 1:23 mins in the video]
- Explain in detail the information Dr Hamacher presents about songlines.
- Prepare a short talk expressing your opinion of Dr Hamacher's concluding remarks in the video: 'For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people have paid incredibly close attention to the world around them, and still do today, have developed knowledge systems that are more complex than we could ever imagine, are as intellectually capable as anybody else, if not much more, and ... their traditions have a very detailed scientific component that we can learn from if we just shut up, and listen.'
- Create a story based on your own map or a travel route followed by yourself or your family that incorporates biotic and abiotic features of the landscape, explaining how the landscape links to the story.
' ... everything that’s on the ground, is in the sky, all the birds and animals, the seasons, the law, the morals, every part of life, are in the night sky ...'
This quote comes from 'When Giant Fish Leaves the Sky it is Time to Travel - a cultural reconstruction of the night sky totems and stories from the Boorong clan, which lived in north-western Victoria. Select the link to watch the video [14:52 minutes].