You may be surprised to learn there is quite a lot of information about Aboriginal seasons and traditional weather knowledge available online.

Here at Welcome to Country, we love to produce our very own educational articles and resources. When it comes to Aboriginal seasons and traditional whether knowledge, there is already some great online resources waiting to be explored. Both the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and the CSIRO have worked together with Indigenous groups to produce Aboriginal season calendars. We feel it’s a shame that such a great resource hasn’t received the attention it deserves and we are doing our best to change that.

Bureau of Meteorology

Australia’s national weather agency, the Bureau of Meteorology, has a growing list of regions that are included on their national Indigenous weather knowledge page. At present there are a total of 13 regions that give readers access to a wealth of Aboriginal knowledge. This knowledge not only includes weather information but also the seasonal activity of plants and animals in their respective regions. The website is an excellent online resource for teachers and also has free printable PDF posters for offline use as well. If you are looking at the homepage of the BOM website, the Indigenous Weather Knowledge tab can be found at the very bottom right hand corner of the page.

CSIRO

The CSIRO has a total of 9 different Aboriginal seasonal calendars that give a wonderful insight into the understanding held by Aboriginal people. Currently the calendars cover various regions in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. The CSIRO also lets visitors download beautiful and informative printable posters for free and also has interactive online versions of the calendars. These posters make for excellent classroom resources. On top of their seasons, all of the calendars have a strong focus on plants and animals and a separate plant and animal calendar exists for both the Daly River and Tiwi Islands regions. You can reach the CSIRO’s Aboriginal seasonal calendars by clicking here.

Both the BOM & CSIRO’s resources have been available to the public for more than 4 years now. We feel it’s quite sad that such a wonderful educational resource hasn’t received the attention it deserves. This lack of attention happens far too often when it comes to positive Indigenous news and initiatives. You can help us change this habit by sharing this article with your friends and make sure you tell every teacher you know about it.