Making Astronomy Culturally Relevant Best Practices Nancy Alima Ali UC Berkeley, Space Sciences Lab, California, USA E-mail: [email protected] Summary Key Words This article investigates how astronomy can be made relevant to ethnically Cultural Astronomy diverse audiences by integrating astronomical concepts within cultural Archaeoastronomy contexts. A series of Cultural Astronomy workshops is used to illustrate how Public Outreach highlighting the human connection to astronomy makes it easier to relate to. Informal Education Introduction only effective with ethnic minorities, but also with the Caucasian majority. Feed- Do a Google image search using the term back provided by workshop participants “astronomer” and the first image that comes indicated that highlighting the human con- up is Vermeer’s painting The Astronomer nection to astronomy brings astronomy (Figure 1). Illuminated by soft light falling down to Earth by making it easier to relate through a window, the astronomer is gaz- to. Instead of being remote and incompre- ing at a celestial globe. The next image in hensible, astronomy becomes something the search results is a cartoon of a young that can be experienced every day in a boy gazing through a telescope. This is fol- personal way. lowed by a glow-in-the-dark jigsaw puzzle of a wizard in a fanciful observatory. Keep going and you’ll find a variety of photos Cultural Astronomy of contemporary astronomers sitting in workshops front of computers. What is striking about all these images is that, by and large, all The series of three Cultural Astronomy the astronomers depicted appear to be workshops were offered to the general Caucasian. In fact, the only notable eth- public through the non-credit outreach nic diversity in the first three pages of the division of Windward Community College Google search results is a green alien. Figure 1. The Astronomer by Vermeer. in Kaneohe, Hawaii, USA. The workshop series took place on three Sunday after- This lack of diversity is an indication of the to acknowledge the diversity of the sky- noons in January and February, 2008. face of astronomy that is presented to the gazing heritage. Registration was open to anyone aged general public. Unfortunately, it sends a ten and up, although the vast majority of message that astronomy is an enterprise In an attempt to highlight cultural connec- the participants were adults. In total, 100 specific to one ethnic group, when the truth tions to astronomical knowledge, I created people attended the workshop series. Two is that sky-gazing is a universal human and taught a series of Cultural Astronomy of the workshops were roughly equally endeavour. The overwhelming majority workshops for the general public that attended by males and females, while the of cultures around the world have gazed presented specific astronomical concepts third (which was inadvertently scheduled at the sky and used their observations in within cultural contexts. The underlying during the Super Bowl football game) was daily life (Kelley & Milone, 2004). Consider- premise was that exploring the cultural attended predominantly by females. ing that more than one third of the United connections to astronomy would appeal to States population identifies itself as an segments of the population that might not The workshops were organised thematically ethnic minority (Minckler, 2008), we, as otherwise engage in astronomy education. around the Sun, the Moon and the stars. astronomy communicators, would do well As it turned out, this approach was not Each workshop focused on an astronomi- • Making Astronomy Culturally Relevant • CAPjournal, No. 9 October 2010 • Page 18 • Making Astronomy Culturally Relevant • CAPjournal, No. 9 October 2010 • Page 19 cal concept related to one of the themes, Participant feedback can apply it to your life.” A third participant exploring the concept from both scientific explained how integrating cultural aspects and cultural perspectives. Each 90-minute In order to assess the effectiveness of makes astronomy “come alive more, rather workshop included a planetarium demon- integrating astronomy and culture as a way than boring you silly with a bunch of math. stration of the astronomical concept, a lec- of engaging minority audiences, workshop Because angles are cute, but who cares? ture component using PowerPoint slides participants were asked to complete a sur- So when you see a reason why somebody and a hands-on activity. Opportunities for vey and were invited to provide feedback would be watching the stars for culture or discussion were sprinkled throughout the through informal focus groups. for navigation or doing planting or for other workshops. purposes, that just means more.” At the end of each workshop, participants The Sun workshop explored the astronomi- completed a paper survey that included a A second theme that emerged was that cal concepts of solstices and equinoxes space for them to list their ethnicity. The of valuing non-European cultures. One within the context of the Native Hawaiian purpose of this was to obtain data regard- participant explained how, in her opinion, site Kukaniloko. Kukaniloko is a place ing the attendance of ethnic minorities in the “Just to teach [astronomy] in terms of Euro- that was used by the Hawaiian royalty workshop. The survey did not include pre- pean [culture] is almost offensive. You want as a birthing site, but it also is reported set ethnicity categories, but rather allowed to know how you have value too and how to have astronomical connections. Look- people to write in their response. Eighty- your heritage is equally valid. Everyone ing towards the Waianae Mountains from three percent of workshop participants wants to know their importance. It wasn’t Kukaniloko, the Sun sets over the highest completed the survey. Of the participants just Europeans looking at the sky.” In the point of the mountain range at the equi- who completed the survey, 47% identified case of Hawaii, where much of the tradi- noxes, into the lowest valley of the range at themselves as Caucasian, 38% identified tional knowledge was lost due to the active the winter solstice and at the point where as belonging to two or more ethnicities, 9% suppression of the native language and the mountain range meets the ocean at the as Asian, 4% provided no response and 2% cultural practices in the early 20th century, summer solstice. Investigating the astro- identified as “other” (Figure 2). there is a desire now for people to recon- nomical connections of Kukaniloko gave a nect with their culture. One participant purpose for understanding the observable described how teaching about traditional movement of the Sun along the horizon as knowledge related to the stars is important related to seasonal change. in a larger sense because it is “part of sal- vaging the identity of culture for the kids”. The Moon workshop focused on how the Another participant put it this way: “This is phases of the Moon were used as the basis just another brick in the sense of building of the Hawaiian calendar. The Hawaiian the wall of understanding.” calendar was composed of twelve months that began with the first sighting of the wax- ing crescent Moon and ended with the new Guidelines for integrating Moon (Beckwith, 1932). Since a synodic astronomy and culture month is approximately 29.5 days long, a year in the Hawaiian lunar calendar would Based on the experiences gained from the be approximately 354 days long. However, Cultural Astronomy workshop series, I have the Hawaiian calendar also included a developed three guidelines for integrating Two or more ethnicities Asian Other sidereal year, based on the rising of the astronomy and culture. Caucasian No response Pleiades at sunset (Malo, 1951). Since a sidereal year is approximately 365.25 days Figure 2. Workshop participant ethnicities. 1. Make it relevant long, the Hawaiians must have had some way of intercalating the discrepancy of In addition to the survey, participants were Relevance to your target audience should approximately 11 days. This example pro- invited to linger after the workshops to be a primary consideration in choosing vided an excellent context for exploring the provide feedback during informal focus which cultural contexts and scientific con- nature of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth groups. During the focus groups, par- cepts to integrate. In the case of the Cultural and the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. ticipants responded to question prompts Astronomy workshops, the participants rep- to share their thoughts regarding the value resented a variety of cultural backgrounds, The Stars workshop investigated how of integrating astronomy and culture. In but an interest in Native Hawaiian culture Polaris, also known as the Pole Star, may total, 28 people participated in the focus was shared among all. There is currently have been used in Polynesian celestial groups. The responses that emerged from a great deal of interest in Hawaiian culture navigation. It is well known that the first the focus group participants confirmed the in Hawaii, creating a market for workshops people who came to Hawaii voyaged on value of recognising cultural minority per- and programmes that focus on Hawaiian canoes from Polynesia using only natural spectives of astronomy as a way of engag- culture. This workshop series built on this cues, including the stars, to guide them ing the public. common interest and used it as a spring- (Finney, 1994). The star Polaris is currently board for teaching astronomical concepts. used in Hawaiian navigation as a latitude When asked why they were interested in marker (Polynesian Voyaging Society, cultural astronomy, numerous participants Likewise, the science concepts explored 2008). Because the Polynesian migrations responded that it made astronomy more should be relevant to the target audience. to Hawaii occurred over a period of several understandable by making it easier to In this case, the movement of the Sun hundred years (TenBruggencate, 2006), relate to.