Science Public Lecture Series: The 100 Generations Principle

Sky Ancestral Knowledge transmitted through oral tradition is largely inaccessible on the World Wide Web.

It is rarely part of academic teaching and is often absent from books. As a result, very little is known about it globally.

Learning in this way requires effort, patience, and a willingness to listen. But the depth of what you can learn makes that effort well worth it.

Over the past ten years, I have chosen to learn about Astronomy from the perspective of my community and its Knowledge Keepers.

This has taken me on a journey I could never have imagined.

In this presentation, I will try to share some of what I have learned.

From the stories to the science, I began to wonder:

What did ancient astronomers know? When and how did they acquire this knowledge? How did they understand the Universe? And what was their purpose?

I will explore these questions through the legacy they left behind: their stories and their ancestral sites, including places that can be understood as observatories.

You might then wonder: Why does this matter today?

Our ancestors lived through profound changes in climate and environment, and many Indigenous societies developed knowledge and plans that extended across generations, sometimes thousands of years.

What can we learn from them today?

Dr. Laurie Rousseau-Nepton is an Innu astronomer and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics. She leads SIGNALS, an international project using the SITELLE instrument at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to study over 50,000 star-forming regions in 31 nearby galaxies. 

Her lab, she is also developing a new high-resolution spectro-imager with highly sensitive quantum detectors.

Laurie is a passionate advocate for integrating Indigenous cultures, knowledge, and scientific methods into scientific research and education. 

Her recent work has expanded into archaeoastronomy, where she explores the intersection of ancient cultures and celestial phenomena.