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UN exhibition highlights Indigenous views of the night sky
from Contact 17
BY MATHIEU ISIDRO (SKAO)
In November a photographic exhibition supported by the SKAO went on display at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, featuring for the first time the Indigenous communities that have traditionally lived on the lands on which the SKAO facilities are being built.
The exhibition, Our Fragile Space, highlights the importance of space sustainability in the context of growing amounts of space debris, and the impact of satellite constellations on the night sky and astronomy.
Renowned photographer Max Alexander travelled the world last year to capture the perspectives of Indigenous communities on the night sky as part of a new chapter for the exhibition.
With support from the SKAO and our collaboration partners SARAO and CSIRO, he travelled to the SKA telescope sites in South Africa and Australia in August 2024 to meet members of the San and Wajarri communities respectively. The photographs are a powerful reminder of both communities’ ancestral ties to the night sky, and how a rapidly changing sky might be affecting their heritage.
It is believed to be the first time that the two communities have had visibility in a photographic exhibition at the United Nations.
The exhibition has already travelled extensively. Armed with its powerful new chapter, it is expected to continue its international tour, with several dates lined up, starting with the World Trade Center in New York next month.
Oom (“Uncle”) Raymond, Tannie (“Auntie”) Anna and Oom James are descendants of South Africa’s First Nations Peoples present in the Northern Cape for thousands of years: the San and Khoekhoe. To this day, the majority of the population in the small town of Carnarvon has Indigenous heritage. The three community leaders lament the fact that traditional knowledge of the night sky is being lost as younger generations seek work opportunities in the cities.
Susan Merry is a Wajarri Elder and artist based in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Wajarri People place great importance on expressing their connection to the sky, water, and land through art. Here Susan is seen using traditional dotpainting and symbols to represent families camping on Wajarri Country by the Murchison river, with the Emu in the Sky and Seven Sisters above, a common occurrence in Susan’s childhood.
