Cree knowledge keeper Wilfred Buck from the Opaskwayak Nation in Manitoba delivered a presentation on Cree astronomy at Carleton University’s Fieldhouse, where students learned about the Cree stories behind constellations and the stars.
Around 20 students per 45-minute session listened to Buck’s storytelling in a planetarium tent inside the Fieldhouse, where the night sky was projected onto the tent’s ceiling.
Staci-Ann Loiselle, an Indigenous cultural counsellor at Carleton’s Indigenous Centre, said when they heard there was an opportunity to host Buck, who had previously visited Carleton, they “jumped at the opportunity.”
Carleton’s Indigenous Centre supports students and faculty by providing resources and training to educate the Carleton community about Indigenous peoples.
“He is a skilled storyteller,” Loiselle said. “The significance of the event was to highlight Indigenous knowledge and create space for Indigenous voices.”
In his presentations, Buck shared stories behind the Big Dipper and Corona Borealis.
“What we see is a bear,” Buck said, describing the Big Dipper. “This is Mista Muskwa, the Great Bear and [Corona Borealis] becomes the Seven Birds.” The story tells of the bear as a tyrant, abusing his power to intimidate and harass the other animals.
“All [the animals] had a meeting and decided they were tired of being afraid of bear,” Buck narrated. “Seven small birds were sent to do away with this bear … He went around the world four times. And on the fourth time, they were going so fast that they flew into the air.”
Buck said by going so quickly, the bear escaped velocity and flew right into the northern night sky. He said this understanding of physics was widely known among many Indigenous cultures, not only Europeans.
Graduate student Stella Oliver said Buck’s constellation storytelling, along with the planetarium visuals, was an immersive experience.
“As someone who’s non-Indigenous, I find that really helpful in helping me to understand diverse worldviews,” Oliver said.
Loiselle added that the portable planetarium was “an immersive experience that adds a visual component to [Buck’s] stories that connects Indigenous cultures across the world.”
Buck also taught students about the Earth’s axial precession, which means that the Earth is tilted on an axis, and that this axis rotates in a circle. He said the Cree understand and track this precession.
“The precessional cycle is the wobble of our Earth’s axis and they say that it moves one degree every 72 years,” Buck said. “It takes 26,000 years to complete one whole 360-degree turn.”
Buck said there’s a star right in the middle of the axial precession circle called Mitde Gizik, which means “Heart of the sky.”
“The awesome thing about [Mitde Gizik] is that the Heart of the sky is pretty much the centre of [the Earth’s] precessional cycle, and [the Cree have] identified it,” Buck said.
Buck also addressed settler narratives about Indigenous peoples, including false beliefs that the Aztec and Maya peoples accurately predicted the time and manner of the Sun’s eventual death.
Buck said it’s important to challenge these narratives, referring to them as “fairy tales.”
“They’re non-truths perpetuated by non-Indigenous people,” Buck said. “We have to challenge those things.”
He said the best way to do so was to “be willing to listen.”
Many students in the audience, such as Lacey Pilon, enjoyed listening and learning Buck’s constellation stories.
“I’m from up north, so I try to join as many of these things as possible because it kind of feels like home,” Pilon said.
Buck said he enjoys teaching others a different perspective on the constellations and the world that they might not have known previously.
He said his favourite thing about giving talks is “the expression on the students’ faces …when they realize there’s a different perspective other than what we hear about in the education system of Western astronomy.”
Loiselle said whenever the centre brings a knowledge keeper to Carleton, they hope it reinforces to Indigenous and non-Indigenous students that there is a place for Indigenous knowledge and stories on Carleton’s campus.
“We also hope to provide opportunities for students who, as a result of colonization, have not had the privilege of listening to traditional teachings,” Loiselle said.
Featured graphic by Alisha Velji/The Charlatan.
