NATIVE SKYWATCHERS

INDIGENOUS ASTRONOMY REVITALIZATION

Native Skywatchers - Soundscapes - Year 2    

"Native Skywatchers-Soundscapes" ©2023

"Soundscapes - STEM Identity and Sound”

A Native Skywatchers Collaborative Research Project

This project lives at the intersection of Science-Art-Culture - Team members include: Carmen Gavin Venegas, Science instructor,Nancy Nair, Dance instructor, Kate Rosok, Science instructor, Ramona Kitto Stately-We are Still Here, Minnesota, Dakota & MN Indian Ed Assoc, Nichole Subola, Lakota elder in collaboration with Annette S. Lee.

As described by Mi’kmaw elders: Etuaptmumk or 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)

Native Skywatchers engaged Indigenous students of the All Nations program in experiential learning at sacred sites, like Bdote; in science field trips, exoplanet research, making ribbon shirt hoddies, and creating collaborative celestial design performance art, like Kapemni Dance! Three lives performances ran this winter/spring at South High School auditorium, the Glass House venue in Minneapolis, and the Bell Museum of Science in St. Paul.




"Lacrosse at Oheyawahe, South High School, Mpls., MN"


South High School, is in Minneapolis on Dakota land. It is a four-year comprehensive public high school in the Corcoran neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. A member of the Minneapolis Public Schools district, it is Minneapolis's oldest (founded in 1885)and largest (1,739 students & 107 faculty) public high school . South is distinguished for its exemplary academic programs, dynamic theater and music productions, studies in engineering, visual arts and world languages! "We embrace all students and are proud of our diversity"  The All Nations Program:  is a district-wide urban high school magnet program serving ~100 Indigenous students. The Dance program is an arts elective program serving ~90 students per semester from beginning to advanced.   



"Oheyawahe/Pilot Knob (Sacred Site-Dakota), South High School, Mpls., MN"
"Native Skywatchers-Soundscape Workshop, All Nations Program, South High, Mpls., MN, Apr 2024"



 


"Native Skywatchers - Soundscapes" - Fall 2023 to 2024


Native Skywatchers in partnership with South High School in urban Minneapolis engaged students from the All Nations Program led by Science teacher Carmen Gavin Vanegas and were joined by students from the Dance Program led by Dance teacher Nancy Nair. Students participated in three different Native Skywatchers experiences this year. In the Spring over 60 students participated in a three-day Native Skywatchers Soundscape Workshop held in person at South High School. Facilitators Annette S. Lee and Anne Simonis worked with Carmen and Nancy to develop each day. The field site included the Dakota Sacred Site called 'Oheyawahe' or a Hill Much Visited. Culture teachers A. Michael, D. Butler, K. Benjamin-Ficken helped out. Late Spring Nancy Nair worked with A. Lee to help dance students to create movement, light, and sound productions to tell their personal story in Kapemni Dance. Late Summer 2023 some students participated in the Native Skywatchers Summer Camp at Voyageurs National Park in collaboration with funding from the United Way.





"Native Skywatchers-South High School-Inside Outside - Soundscapes" ©2024.




The cultural teaching and concept of Kapemni was shared here by Annette S. Lee. This teaching comes from Lakota elder & scholar Albert White Hat Sr. The Lakota word Kapemni means 'As it is Above, It is Below' and is often seen in dictionaries as 'twisting'. (Ref. "D(L)akota Star Map Constellation Guidebook", by A. Lee et al. 2014)


Native Skywatchers - Vee - Kapemni Dance

©Native Skywatchers, May 2024, All Rights Reserved. 

Native Skywatchers - Ksinya - Kapemni Dance

©Native Skywatchers, May 2024, All Rights Reserved. 

Native Skywatchers - Gulsu - Kapemni Dance

©Native Skywatchers, May 2024, All Rights Reserved. 



Native Skywatchers - Leslie - Kapemni Dance -Proud to be Ecuadorian

©Native Skywatchers, May 2024, All Rights Reserved. 







"Native Skywatchers-Kapemni Dance" ©2024










 

Ahéhee', Gracias, Mahalo, Miigwech, Pilamayaye Thank you to our supporters at the: Heising-Simons Foundation

















Native Skywatchers
P: (612)-314-9717
Contact Us
nativeskywatchers@gmail.com
Art website visit
annettelee.com

 

Acknowledgement: Native Skywatchers is located on the traditional and treaty land of the Dakota people, who along with the Ojibwe are the Indigenous peoples of this land, Mni Sota Makoce or Minnesota.