Canadian Astronomy on Maunakea: On Respecting Indigenous Rights – Space Ref
Status Report From: arXiv.org e-Print archive
Posted: Thursday, October 10, 2019
Hilding R. Neilson, Laurie Rousseau-Nepton, Samantha Lawler
(Submitted on 8 Oct 2019)
(Abridged) Canadian astronomy has, for decades, benefited from access to observatories and participating in international consortia on one of the best astronomical sites in the world: Maunakea. However, Maunakea is part of the unceded territory of the Native Hawaiian peoples and has always been of special significance to Hawaiian culture. The use of the summit and its science reserve has created tensions in the past decade, particularly with the development of the Thirty Meter Telescope. A meaningful and respectful response from the International astronomy community is still lacking. It is expected that the LRP 2020 will continue to support Canadian astronomy on Maunakea so a better official statement on the position and involvement of CASCA should be prepared. In this paper we present recommendations, based on the United Nation Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, for the Canadian astronomical community to better support Indigenous rights on Maunakea and Hawaii while providing clear guidelines for the astronomical community to participate in activities conducted on Indigenous land. This framework is designed to motivate conversations with Indigenous communities regarding our place on Indigenous lands and our roles, and responsibilities toward the communities we are working with. Furthermore, we propose this framework as a basis for engaging with communities around the world regarding consent for astronomical facilities.
Comments: 7 pages. Community paper submitted to the Canadian Long Range Plan 2020, this https URL
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:1910.03665 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:1910.03665v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
Submission history
From: Hilding Neilson
[v1] Tue, 8 Oct 2019 20:16:53 UTC (19 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.03665
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