This spring, Brittany Kamai, visiting professor in the Department of Astronomy in the UW College of Arts & Sciences, taught an innovative course about the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific and how they used the stars, winds, and waves to navigate across the Pacific Ocean.
The course, Pacific Indigenous Astrophysics, was offered by the University of Washington’s Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies (CAIIS) and funded by the Office of Global Affairs through the Global Innovation Fund, which provides seed funding for international faculty research and teaching spanning multiple disciplines, leading edge student experiences, and collaborations with global partners.
Kamai designed the course to be accessible to all UW students. No astronomy or physics background was required. For Kamai, it was an opportunity to share the wisdom of her ancestors and about modern day concepts of astrophysics to deepen students’ understanding about the cosmos. Students learned about the roles of voyagers within the Hawaiian Renaissance and how critical it has been to bring back deep-sea sailing canoes and Indigenous practices of navigating in traditional ways without external instruments.
For students who have chosen this field, my message is to be friends with the sky. Start to see and honor different cultural stories that go along with it.