There’ll soon be a new Indigenous astronomy show at McMaster University’s planetarium, but the story it tells is an old one.
“This is our knowledge that has been in this country for thousands of years,” Thomas Deer, one of the program’s creators said.
He told CBC Hamilton he’s been pushing to share Indigenous stories about the night sky for almost 30 years.
“We’re being crushed by this whole idea of Western society. I thought that we needed to get this knowledge out there so that it doesn’t disappear,” he said.
Planetarium’s first Indigenous show is its most requested
Launching on Nov. 7 at the W.J. McCallion Planetarium, Onekwá:tara – The Seven Dancers of the Pleiades will be the second Indigenous astronomy program available there.
The first, called Celestial Bear, is the planetarium’s most-requested, director Robert Cockcroft said. Of the roughly 350 shows the planetarium gives at the university or on the road each year, Celestial Bear makes up 10 to 15 per cent, the professor in the physics and astronomy department said.
Both Celestial Bear and Onekwá:tara were written by Deer, an educator from Kahnawá:ke First Nation who lives and works in Six Nations of the Grand River, near Brantford, Ont.
Deer, who teaches at IL Thomas Elementary School, told CBC Hamilton he’s been in Six Nations for 39 years.
Ideas53:58Legends of the Cayuga (Feb. 2012 Encore)
In their longhouses, the Cayuga tell stories of a world where hunters stalk a powerful bear in the sky, maple trees hold the secret to life, and a fearsome battle creates Niagara Falls. Dramatized, cast and recorded in Ohsweken, on the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.
Deer has taught Kanyen’kéha (Mohawk) and Gayogo̱hó:nǫh (Cayuga), and has an interest in astronomy. As a teacher, he incorporated Indigenous knowledge into the western science curriculum.
For example, he said, his teachings include the Indigenous perspective that people have familial connections to the sun, moon and stars.
“We all take it for granted that the sun’s going to come up tomorrow without fail. But do we ever stop and consider that we’re related to the sun in some way?” Deer asked. “Do we ever really stop during the day to consider and connect with that?”
At a conference in the United States about 30 years ago, Deer learned about a planetarium project based on Indigenous star knowledge local to Arizona.
At that point he was teaching at McMaster and reached out to the planetarium about doing an Indigenous astronomy show there.
“I wasn’t impressed by the response so I put it on the backburner,” Deer said, adding that he received another “non-committal” response when he re-pitched the idea several years later.
Deer didn’t give up. “I’ve always kind of had a hard head like that,” he said. “If they’re not going to ask [about our knowledge], then we need to get out there and start telling.”
In 2014, he pitched the idea to Cockcroft, who accepted it.
Originally from England, Cockcroft said he wanted to contribute to decolonization and reconciliation but didn’t know how. Deer showed him a way, he said.
For Cockcroft, the project is a good example of Etuaptmumk, or two-eyed seeing. Attributed to Mi’Kmaq Elder Albert Marshall, it means viewing the world with one eye to western knowledge and the other to Indigenous knowledge.
“Western science has a hard time receiving science from an oral tradition,” because it’s focused on published information, he said. “By taking both perspectives together, you can strengthen and deepen your understanding of both, and how the world works in general.”
Cockcroft said he’s been inspired to undo some learning. “For example, not dismissing a story just because it’s a story,” he said.
Relatively recently, Cockcroft said, it’s become more widely accepted that the northern lights make an audible sound–something Indigenous people have long said, but non-Indigenous scientists did not believe.
This story about the stars has lessons for us on Earth
The story of Celestial Bear is about hunters who chase a bear across the land and sky. The star formation those figures are associated with is called the Big Dipper. The hunters are represented by the handle, and the bear by the cup.
Deer said that part of the sky is visible from Earth year-round but its appearance changes in ways that have traditionally marked the start of hunting season.
Onekwá:tara looks at the cluster of stars, called Pleiades, which rises in the southeastern part of the sky in the fall and comes overhead in the winter before setting in the west and disappearing in the spring.
Deer said the story is about a group of boys who liked to sing and were refused food, so they went away to sing in the sky. The constellation’s appearance traditionally signaled when it was time to have one’s harvest done, Deer said, and as long as it was in the sky, people knew there was a risk of frost and not to plant crops.
“If you don’t put your food away, just like they were refused it, you wouldn’t have any food either,” he said.
The planetarium show incorporates Indigenous languages as well as sounds and images produced by David Moses, who also worked on the new show.
“What makes this really unique is it really is an interesting way of validating the longevity of Indigenous people in this area,” Moses said. “Just because there aren’t any buildings going back 10,000 years, the stars have always been here.”
The new program also includes several singers who are students in grades 4 to 8 at Deer’s school.
Moses said he was honoured to work with Deer, who has a “beautiful, beautiful way of delivering story.”
In addition to sharing stories more widely, Deer said he hopes people can feel more connected to the sky once they see the show.
“This is our knowledge, this is our story from this land,” he said. “I thought maybe that would give people a better sense of closeness or attachment that our people have.”