Bandaarr
Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Youla Azkarrula, ASE Tech Team
Bandaarr, the kangaroo, is an Australian name for an asterism in the area of Telescopium, Apus, and Ara (the area south of the tail of Scorpius) from the Kamilaroi/ Euahlayi people.
Etymology and History
Bandaarr is Kamilaroi/Euahlayi for Kangaroo, and this kangaroo is located under the belly of the Emu in the Milky Way, looking away from the Emu. Bandaarr is either a grey or red kangaroo, depending on the culture, and has significance in ceremony.[1] The belly of the Emu is formed by dark clouds in the Milky Way, and "under" it, where the legs of the emu would be, is the area of the constellations mentioned above.
Fuller (2014)[2] discusses etymology but does not identify any particular stars or groups of stars, and we can find no source online that identifies the stars.
In Stellarium it appears to be floating in Apus, Telescopium, and Ara, and the star ζ Aps is highlighted, but the reason is unclear.
Variant Spelling
- bundar (Ridleyː 1873, pp. 274-5)
Mythology
In the old days, the kangaroo (who was a “person”) was seen to be disrespecting and mocking the ceremonies, so Baayami and the old fellas said that the kangaroo totem was banned from ceremony. Even though they were banned, they joined in anyway, so Baayami decided to punish the kangaroo. He said that even though men lost their tails, the kangaroo will keep its tail, and never walk again.
IAU Working Group on Star Names
The name was discussed and approved by the IAU WGSN in 2023. We suggest to name the star alf Tel with this name, as it is one of the unnamed main stars of an IAU-constellation, which is an early modern invention without classical background or mythology. Connecting the instrument to an Indigenous constellation would return it to the original significance of constellations (orientation in nature).
WGSN chose ... (not to apply/ to apply the name to a neighbouring star/ to ...) in the IAU-CSN.
Weblinks
Reference
- ↑ Robert S. Fuller and Ghillar Michael Anderson in Stellarium; printed in appendix of Hoffmann and Wolfschmidt (eds.): Astronomy in Culture – Cultures of Astronomy. Featuring the Proceedings of the Splinter Meeting in the Annual Meeting of the German Astronomical Society, Sept. 14-16, 2021., Reihe: Nuncius Hamburgensis 57, tredition, Hamburg & OpenScienceTechnology Berlin (cBook)
- ↑ Fuller, R. (2014) PhD thesis (http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Fuller-Thesis.pdf)
