Spotlight on Diversity November 2022
For National Native American Heritage Month IESNYC looks to the night sky, calling attention to Artist and Astronomer Annette S. Lee and other Indigenous persons advocating for dark skies.
This month IESNYC highlights the work of Indigenous persons advocating for dark skies globally. The International Dark-Sky Association has been building relationships with Indigenous peoples and groups, lifting up their voices and views. Astronomer Anette S. Lee, PhD, MFA, mixed-race Lakota, was a keynote presenter at the IDA 2020 Global Conference. IESNYC is honored to direct you to her engaging video Wicaŋhpi Oyate (Star People) Under One Sky.
This video imparts important concepts, stories, and lessons integral to advocacy for dark skies by First Nation peoples. Some Indigenous persons view the night sky as a cultural guidebook, inhabited by teachers and lessons correlated to life and the seasons. For most, “We come from the stars”: the night sky is cherished as connection to the Origin, a path or opening to this life and communion with spirit.
According to Lee: “The reason why the dark, star-filled night sky matters from an Indigenous perspective, and that relationship to sky really matters, has to do with a word that is really more of a philosophy or a worldview. Albert White Hat Senior, a teacher of the Lakota language, called it Kapemni, and in a shortened form it says, As it is above, it is below.”
Lee is an astrophysicist, artist, and Director of the Native Skywatchers research and programming initiative. This initiative seeks to remember and revitalize Indigenous star and Earth knowledge. In addition, she has over 30 years of experience in education as a teacher, university instructor, teacher-educator, program administrator, professional visual artist, and researcher.
Lee is currently contracted as an Honorary/Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Southern Queensland Centre for Astrophysics, and as an OpenLab Arts Collaborative researcher and Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Additionally, she is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America, and recipient of the 2021 Early Career Award for Public Engagement from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Lee is a member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture and was invited to be on the Advisory Committee for the IAU’s Centre for the Protection of Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference.
She calls on us all to protect the dark night sky as a critical lifeline. Visit her website for more of her artwork, writings, and advocacy.
