Bill Yidumduma Harney

Bill Yidumduma Harney is an elder of the Wardaman people, known as an artist, storyteller, and musician. As of 2022, he lives at Menngen Station, near Katherine in the Northern Territory of Australia, which lies in the traditional lands of the Wardaman people.[1]

Bill Yidumduma Harney and Ray Norris at the First Astronomers show at the Darwin Festival[2]

Early life

Harney was born in 1931 at Brandy Bottle Creek, on Willeroo Station, NT. His biological father was the Irish-Australian writer William Edward Harney, but he was brought up in a traditional Aboriginal community by his adoptive Aboriginal father, Joe Jomornji, and mother, Ludi Yibuluyma. His sister was taken as part of the Stolen Generations, but he escaped because his mother covered him in charcoal to hide the whiteness of his skin.[3]

Aboriginal teachings and awards

Harney is well known as an advocate and ambassador for Aboriginal Australians, and has made several international tours promoting knowledge of Aboriginal Australians. He also appears regularly on TV, radio, and film, often speaking on the subject of Aboriginal astronomy. In 2003 he published, with Hugh Cairns, Dark Sparklers, detailing the astronomy embedded in the Wardaman culture.[4] He has been a finalist several times in the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award.[5] In August 2009 he featured in a two-man The First Astronomers show with astrophysicist Ray Norris at the Darwin Festival,[2] and in November 2009 he was prominent in the Message Stick[6] episode on Aboriginal astronomy produced by ABC TV.

In 2020, the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature formally approved the asteroid 1979 MR2 as 7630 Yidumduma in honour of his sharing and promotion of traditional Wardaman astronomical knowledge through film, television, and books, including Dark Sparkers and Four Circles.

Selected bibliography
  • 1999 - Born Under the Paperbark Tree (with Jan Wositzky) ISBN 1-876622-03-2
  • 2003 – Dark Sparklers (with Hugh Cairns) ISBN 0-9750908-0-1

References
  1. "Before Galileo". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 1 November 2009. Archived from the original on 9 November 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
  2. The First Astronomers, 2009, Darwin Festival Archived 6 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  3. The First Astronomers, 2009, ABC Radio National Archived 26 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Aboriginal astronomy kept alive". Sydney Morning Herald. 8 November 2003. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
  5. "26th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards" (PDF). sales information. Northern Territory Department of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  6. "Message Stick - Before Galileo". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 9 November 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2009.
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