3 minute read
Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age for NAIDOC week
BY LIZ WILLIAMS (SKAO) AND KIRSTEN FREDERICKSEN (CSIRO)
NAIDOC week is an Australian-wide celebration recognising the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, held annually in the first week of July.
For NAIDOC Week 2025 the SKAO, together with our partners from the Wajarri Yamaji, Australian Government and CSIRO, ran an extended question and answer panel as part of the IAU 399 Symposium Indigenous Astronomy in the Space Age, in Naarm/Melbourne, on Wurundjeri Country.
The panel discussion, titled SKAO - Indigenous partnerships enabling mega-science infrastructure: Wajarri Yamaji and the SKA project, focused on the Wajarri partnership for radio astronomy that has enabled the SKA-Low telescope and precursor telescopes in remote Western Australia. The panel discussed:
the Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) underpinning construction and operations of the SKA-Low telescope on Wajarri Country;
the future, decades-long partnership that seeks to realise sustainable and intergenerational benefits to the Wajarri community;
the historic industry-Wajarri partnership that is operating the SKA-Low construction village Nyingari Ngurra and ongoing commitments to employment and contracting opportunities for Wajarri and Indigenous businesses.
Wajarri panelist Jennylyn Hamlett said the ILUA was important to making sure Wajarri culture was preserved on Country.
“It’s very important to us. It’s a security blanket for us as Wajarri People. We aren’t going to be around in 50 years, but we have children and grandchildren – it’s basically empowering our youth and teaching them the importance of Country,” she said.
Hamlett said the project agreement attached to the ILUA also enabled job opportunities.
“We have field technicians out on Country that are Wajarri; young people building the antennas. One thing I’d like to see one day is maybe a Wajarri scientist, out on Country.”
Wajarri Enterprises Limited (WEL) Chair Des Mongoo spoke about the 50-50 joint venture between WEL and infrastructure contractor Ventia, managing the SKA-Low construction village, Nyingari Ngurra.
“It’s a full 50-50 joint venture, which employes 24 people on site. Fifty per cent of the people employed are Wajarri, and 100% of the people employed within the facilities side of things are Wajarri Yamaji people. The capacity for us to develop Wajarri people within the SKA project is absolutely enormous,” he said.
“It’s a 50-year project and could be extended beyond that. One of the best things is that we have a Wajarri business that can bring every other Wajarri business – starting from a small level – into this process. That’s my takeaway on this,” he said.
The audience asked engaging questions of the panel, and people in the room and online commented on the value of the session and the inspiration they gained from the panel members’ reflections on the trust and friendships that had been borne from the project.
“It was wonderful to hear everything [they] had to say,” said Associate Prof. Duane Hamacher, IAU399 Symposium Chair, as he reflected on the session.
“There are so many applications from this [project] to what is happening around the world. [They are] really bringing things together in a phenomenal way.”
The full presentation is available online.
