Yamatji artist Christine Collard’s sky story features on Royal Australian Mint coin

Yamatji artist Christine Collard has had her depiction of the Seven Sisters sky story turned into a coin by the Royal Australian Mint. Mint chief executive Ross MacDiarmid said the Star Dreaming series of coins “pays tribute to Indigenous Australians, who were the first astronomers and have been using the stars as navigation maps, calendars and to tell stories for tens of thousands of years”. She said it was hoped the coins would remind people of the importance of preserving Aboriginal stories. The artwork by Ms Collard, a Wajarri-Noongar artist also known as Jugarnu, tells the story of the seven sisters fleeing to the sky to escape a man who wanted to take one of them as his wife. The constellation, also known as the Pleiades, is referred to as Nyarluwarri in the Wajarri language from the Murchison region. Yamajti people use the stars to also predict seasonal rainfall by observing how bright or faded the star cluster is at certain times of the year. When Nyarluwarri sits low on the horizon at sunset, the people know that emu eggs are ready for harvesting. The Mint will sell the coins through authorised dealers and on its website.