Indigenous knowledge keepers teach others to look to the stars

Two traditional knowledge keepers say that looking up at the stars in the night sky will help ground Indigenous people in who they are.

"Our teachings, our lives are up there . . . all our lodges are up there, all our clan systems are up there. And when we go home, that's where we go home to," said Douglas Sinclair.

Sinclair is an Anishinaabe knowledge keeper from the Ojibways of Onigaming in northwestern Ontario and has been trying to learn as much as he can about constellations and astronomy from a First Nations perspective.

"That knowledge is so powerful and you . . . just get a taste of it and you want more," said Sinclair.

Recently he travelled to Libau, Man., about 50 kilometres north of Winnipeg, for a three-day event called Tipis and Telescopes organized by his friend Wilfred Buck, a Cree astronomer who has authored two books about Indigenous star perspectives.

Buck said it's important for him to teach Indigenous youth about the stars in the night sky because it not only helps people with directions, but also their identity. 

"It's a very basic understanding. If you understand that sky, you know exactly where you are, when you are and who you are," said Buck, who is from Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Manitoba.