Native Skywatchers - "Indigenous Ecosystem Learning" - Year Two

The Native Skywatchers research and programming initiative has been recording, mapping, and sharing Indigenous sky and earth place-based knowledge for sixteen years. From NASA to Fond du Lac Tribal College to the Minnesota Department of Education, the Native Skywatchers Summer Workshops for Educators, has decades of experience at the forefront of working at the intersection of science, culture, and art for the benefit of all. Native Skywatchers has served over 300,000 people and continues as a leader in Indigenous science methodology and research with long-term broad impacts.

This Native Skywatchers project, “Indigenous Ecosystem Learning”, is an expanded version of the “We are Stardust” and its related branch, “Ocean Voices-Sea and Stars” projects. Support from the Heising-Simons Foundation has given Indigenous students a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate more deeply in science, culture, and art...to dare to be engaged with authentic data and scientific tools. Students participate.

Here in Year Two our focus is on, “Indigenous Soundscapes”. In Year One our focus was revitalizing our relationship to Sky, now in addition we focus on revitalizing our relationship to Sound. We practice deep listening to foster deep learning. We capture audio (and visual) assets to weave together a soundscape tapestry of place. We use the method of scientific inquiry and data analysis to learn more about the ecologoy of our 'homelands'. What is the soundscape at during the day and during the night? What animals are there, what season? How is this impacted through human activity? How can we put down thanks... and uphold our responsibilites as members of the human species to help improve local ecosystems impacted by pollution, etc.

Strategy: Indigenous teams of students and educators do research, form a community, and produce multimedia content integrating science, culture, art, and personal connection. Working in co-learning communities with scientists, elders, and artists we elevate our STEM identities, transform narratives, and create more inclusive learning... for the benefit of all. 

Framework: The core framework for the Native Skywatchers initiative is rooted in a teaching called ‘Two-Eyed Seeing’ or Etuaptmumk as explained by our Mi ‘kmaq elders: "Two-Eyed Seeing is learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing, and to use both these eyes for the benefit of all.
(Bartlett, Marshall and Marshall 2012, 336)

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