EVENTS
HERITAGE, HISTORY AND INDIGENOUS ASTRONOMY BY SARAO COMMUNICATIONS SARAO recently hosted a virtual conversation focusing on Indigenous Astronomy as part of Heritage month in South Africa. The event brought together important international stakeholders in an effort to acknowledge and reflect on the heritage of Indigenous peoples in partner countries, drawing on commonalities in the context of the SKA. It focused on the importance of Indigenous knowledge systems and their role in current and future scientific research. The land on which the SKA telescopes will be constructed in both host countries has strong ties to Indigenous heritage. In South Africa, the Karoo region was inhabited by the early ancestors of the San people, who are considered to be some of the most ancient people on Earth, having been around for the past 22,000 years. There are still significant amounts of cultural heritage found on the land to date. In Australia, the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, which was established in 2009, while being one of the world’s newest observatories, is built on ancient land where geologists have identified some of the oldest rocks on Earth. There is evidence that Aboriginal communities lived on this land for tens of thousands of years before it was settled in the 1800’s by pastoralists. Throughout the conversation, common themes around the use of astronomy in the everyday lives of Indigenous peoples came to the fore; stories on how the moon and stars were used to determine weather patterns, agricultural cycles and the telling of mythological tales across generations. This was the first conversation of its kind and opens more opportunities for knowledge sharing on the social context that the SKA project exists within.
The chieftainship of four San tribes and the Griqua Khoi held a ceremonial blessing and cleansing of the SKA project and South African SKA site during a visit in 2017 ahead of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with SARAO. Credit: SARAO
TACKLING RESEARCH ACCESSIBILITY BY DR SHARI BREEN AND MATHIEU ISIDRO (SKAO EDI WORKING GROUP) Earlier this year, SKAO was invited to join the organisation of a joint ESA/ESO/IAU/SKAO workshop on space and astronomy research accessibility, bringing together the three intergovernmental organisations in the field together with the professional body for astronomers worldwide.
It is the hope of the organisers that these can be brought together into a joint document setting out recommendations for our own organisations and for the field, so keep an eye out for summaries of the discussions and good practice to be published in due time.
The workshop took place at the beginning of December, and SKAO was represented by members of its Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group. Twenty four speakers (at least a third of whom have conditions that impact their accessibility needs) took part in the event from the USA, Europe, South Africa, Australia and Asia in what is thought to be the first meeting on accessibility, disability and neurodiversity for the space and astronomy professional community. Discussions centred around the needs of researchers who are blind or visually impaired, deaf or hearing-impaired, have a physical disability or are neurodiverse. Clear tips and recommendations were provided on how to organise more inclusive events and meetings - both virtual and inperson -, on the use of accessible research software, on inclusive behaviour and on accessible policy-making at an organisational level. 32
C O N TA C T | D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0
