4. Perspectives from Indigenous Communities
The primary authors of this section and subgroup members are, in alphabetical order of last name:
- Fernando Avila Castro (Mestizo / Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
- David Begay (Diné, Indigenous Education Institute and U. of New Mexico)
- Juan-Carlos Chavez (Yaqui/Sonora, affiliate at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science)
- Alvin Harvey (Diné, MIT) Ka‘iu Kimura (Native Hawaiian, ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai‘i)
- Annette Lee (Ojibwe and D(L)akota, St. Cloud State University)
- James Lowenthal (Smith College)
- Nancy Maryboy (Diné/Cherokee, Indigenous Education Institute and U. of Washington)
- Hilding Neilson (Mi’kmaw, University of Toronto)
- Doug Simons (Canada France Hawai‘i Telescope and U. of Hawai‘i)
- Aparna Venkatesan (U. of San Francisco)
International perspectives on this report’s topics were offered by Hilding Neilson, Fernando Avila Castro and Michele Bannister (non-Indigenous (Pākehā), University of Canterbury, New Zealand).
This report shares a summary of perspectives and needs as directly stated by our Indigenous colleagues and conference participants at SATCON2, primarily through the Community Engagement Working Group. We emphasize that these speakers and participants speak for themselves and their own experiences only, not their whole community or all Indigenous peoples or tribal nations.
We also respectfully draw the reader’s attention to the References and Further Reading section at the end, which includes a brief (incomplete) compilation of articles co-authored by this subgroup’s members and others on Indigenous perspectives in space and related report topics, as well as recent articles featuring subgroup members that draw attention to the ongoing role of satellite constellations in “astrocolonialism” and space as an environmental commons.
Opening the workshop, Dr. Chavez began by drawing attention to our relationship with Mother Earth and Father Sky, asking that we honor their gifts and take responsibility for our actions and choices as we
