Indigenous astronomy, storytelling, telescope viewing, planetarium experiences, and cultural knowledge shared by Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and Indigenous scientists.
October 16, 2026
5:00 PM - 11:00 PM
First Nations, Métis & Inuit (FNMI) : Free (No ID required)
Adults: $10
Children: $5
ALL PEOPLE and ages are WELCOME
Experience an immersive Indigenous Astronomy Night featuring stone circles, planetarium experiences, telescope viewing, storytelling, and hands-on activities for all ages.
Join Elders, Knowledge Keepers, astronomers, and Indigenous scientists as they explore the connections between the land, the sky, and knowledge carried across generations.
From star stories and telescope observations to creative activities and community conversations, this event offers multiple ways to experience Indigenous science, astronomy, and cultural knowledge.
Prepare for the upcoming Winter Solstice and Holiday Gatherings at the Moonlight Market!
Support local Indigenous artists, businesses, and artists, purchase unique gifts, all while learning about the science of their art and connection to land and stories.
If you want to be a vendor email:
[email protected]
What was your first memory with the stars? What stars, constellations, or planets are your favourite? Did you know the stars in constellations are different distances from earth?
Kids of all ages are welcome to create a “cosmic Craft” with the Discover the Universe team, a group of astronomers bringing the cosmos to kids.
When was the last time you learned from the DARK? Without artificial light or screens? What did you see, or experience, or sense? Re-connect with the dark and all it can teach us with MIT Navajo Astrophysicist Dr. Alvin Harvey and Dr. Jessica Heim, philosopher of mind and metaphysics. Experience what the ancestors saw in the night sky thousands of years ago, from the brightness of the milky way to the excess of stars currently clouded by satellites, space junk, and artificial light.
Come create a star map with giant stones as markers, lasers or strings for alignments, and moving cosmic points, and experience how the Ancestors of Turtle Island DID astronomy thousands of years ago. There will also be help from local Knowledge Keepers and Indigenous Scientists to guide you with ancient trigonometry, observation points, weather and refraction, and prompt conversations about why these alignments were so important and how they connect with cultural stories.
Led by Greg Cajete, renowned Pueblo educator and author of many Indigenous Science books, come learn about the ancient alignments from Greg's homelands of New Mexico. Experience how the Ancestors passed on sky teachings in order to live with the land through harvesting and hunting, as aligned through dagger of light and propped up stones.
This 360 dome experience brings to life four star stories, gathered and told by renowned Ininew (Cree) astronomer/star knowledge expert and author Wilfred Buck.
From the practical to the poetic, these “tellings” of the Northern night sky provide guidance on navigation, the earth’s cycles, and how to live a good life with future generations in mind. WILFRED BUCK’S STAR STORIES offers a rarely-heard perspective on astronomy and cosmology.
The Bentway’s winter installation, The Gateway, celebrates the brilliance of the northern lights, which are at their most vibrant in the depths of winter. Join astronomer Dr. Laurie Rousseau-Nepton and her UofT students for an evening of learning and traditional oral storytelling rooted in her Innu culture
Join Knowledge Keeper and Cedar Weaver Hanford McCloud, from the Muckleshoot Nation, to weave together tellings, knowledge, and science of the ancient Cedar Ancestors.
Hweqwidi Hanford McCloud is a Nisqually and Puyallup artist and community leader from Washington State. Raised in Nisqually and Yelm, Hanford has dedicated his life to preserving and sharing Indigenous traditions through his art and cultural work. A skilled basket and hat weaver, carver, and canoe culture advocate, he learned traditional harvesting and weaving practices from his family at a young age and carries forward generations of knowledge through his creations.
Explore the Night Sky
Have you ever looked through a telescope? Seen the rings of Saturn, the craters of the moon, or the moons of Jupiter? Come hang out with Rob Cardinal (Blackfoot Astrophysicist), Dr. Phil Langill, and the Rothney Observatory, to look through different telescopes and see what you can see in the Autumn
Local Elders and Knowledge Keepers will share Cosmic Stories from their Nation and Lands.
Learn about Spark's Star Map in the Gathering Circle. Understand how humans at Spark connect the Land with the Stars, and around a fire, hear late night tellings of stories from beyond this Land and atmosphere.
How do you connect with the stars? What do you see when you look up at the night sky? Groups of humans around the world have looked up at the same night sky and told stories that share knowledge that connect the stars, and groups of stars, with the land they call home. Reimagine the night sky through your interpretation of and connect to the stars! Look at a star map and bead a unique constellation to tell your story! Join Red River Metis beadworkers Danielle Lussier, Hugo Lussier-Meek, Rosalie Lussier-Meek, and Opale Lussier-Meek and astronomer Gregg Wade to bead your story, personal connection, or own cultural interpretation of the stars, galaxy, planets, and more. What story will you tell?
Play with shadow and light to create your own constellation! Groups of humans all around the world have looked up at the same night sky and told different stories that relate the stars to the land they call home. Design a constellation and then use shadow and light to see what your story could look like if it were in the night sky.
When you look at a family/constellation of stars in the sky, did you know they are often lightyears away from one another, but seem super close together from Earth? There are even tellings and knowledges from different Nations across Turtle Island who understood the stars were different distances from Earth.
Join Jim Rock, Dakota Astronomer, and Wilfred Buck, "The Cree Star Guy”, to learn about the connections between culturally significant star families (constellations) and their similarities and differences, all with incredible scientific understandings from precession cycles to nebula. These knowledges often connect to significant locations on Dakota and Cree Lands, like serpent mounds or stone circles, and even reflect tipi teachings
Wilfred Buck is a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation. He obtained his B.Ed. & Post Bacc. from the University of Manitoba.
As an educator Wilfred has had the opportunity and good fortune to travel to South and Central America as well as Europe and met, shared and listened to Indigenous people from all over the world.
He is a husband, father of four, son, uncle, brother, nephew, story-teller, mad scientist, teacher, singer, pipe-carrier, sweat lodge keeper, old person and sun dance leader.
Researching Ininew star stories Wilfred found a host of information which had to be interpreted and analyzed to identify if the stories were referring to the stars. The journey began… The easiest way to go about doing this, he was told, was to look up.
“The greatest teaching that was ever given to me, other than my wife and children, is the ability to see the humor in the world”…Wilfred Buck
Greg Cajete is a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. He is Former Director of Native American Studies and an Emeritus Professor in the Division of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education at the University of New Mexico. He holds a Ph.D. from International College – Los Angeles New Philosophy Program in Social Science Education with an emphasis in Native American Studies. He has served as a New Mexico Humanities scholar in ethnobotany of Northern New Mexico and as a member of the New Mexico Arts Commission. Dr. Cajete has authored five books, including Ignite the Sparkle: An Indigenous Science Education Curriculum Model and The Spirit of the Game: Wellspring for Indigenous Renewal.
Jim Rock is a Dakota astronomer, physicist, and retired Director of Indigenous Programming for the Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium and Instructor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Jim currently presents at and consults with the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Bell Museum & Planetarium and the Astrophysics and Computer Science Departments.
Rock’s goal is to “Indigenize and Digitize the Skies,” and has done so by numerous online videos, taught various ethno and archaeoastronomy courses, written many books (such as the D(L)akota Star Map Constellation Guide), and designed exhibits for the Science Museum of Minnesota. In partnership with AISES, he designed and taught a curriculum for fifteen years at the University of Minnesota’s Indigenous Summer Science & Math Program called Andogiikendassowin/Wasdodyawaciŋpi (“Seek To Know”). He has been an activist, consultant, instructor, interpreter and author on sacred sites restoration issues for Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi Center & Cave https://www.wakantipi.org/wakantipicenter at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary (former Lower Phalen Creek Project) in St. Paul. Most importantly he is grandfather to two Indigenous “skywatchers” who are learning to love and pass on the ways and languages of their many nations, ancestors and relatives.
Shí éí Alvin Harvey yinishyé. Tó baazhni’ázhi nishłį́. Honágháahnii bashishchiin. Dághaałchííʼ dashicheii. Kiyaa’áanii dashinalí.
I am Diné, of the Two Who Came To the Water Clan and I am born for the One Walks Around Clan; my maternal grandfather is of Irish descent and my paternal grandfather is of the Towering House Clan.
I am from the Navajo Nation, and currently reside in Cambridge, MA as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Aeronautics and Astronautics in the MIT Media Lab. My research and development centers Indigenous relationality and systems theory as a core structure of developing partnerships, systems, and good ways of being.
Laurie Rousseau-Nepton is an Innu astrophysicist and a member of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh community. After earning her PhD from Université Laval in Québec, she spent seven years as a resident astronomer at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaiʻi.
She is now based at the University of Toronto and the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics. Her research focuses on the formation of stars in galaxies, the development of advanced telescope instrumentation, and, more recently, the study of ancestral sites and their connections to the cosmos.
She is dedicated to advancing new approaches to astronomy education that center Indigenous knowledge systems and land-based practices as core elements of the learning process.
Dr. Danielle Lussier (PhD, Law, 2021) is a Red River Métis scholar-artist born and raised in the homeland of the Métis Nation on Treaty 1 Territory and is mum to three young Métis artists. Her academic research and artistic practices seek to develop and articulate Indigenous teaching pedagogies and research methods while also working to highlight and support revitalization of Indigenous Knowledge Systems – specifically those related to Métis beadwork. Lately, she has been busy with an interdisciplinary (and intergenerational) partnership with the McDonald Institute for Astroparticle Physics where she is leading the Beading Astroparticle Physics project with Dr. Gregg Wade.
Rosalie, Hugo, and Opale Lussier-Meek are Red River Métis youth growing up in Ontario as a beyond-borders citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation (Bison Local). When she is not running track and field, Rosalie is a multidisciplinary artist whose preferred mediums are beadwork, watercolour, and creative writing. Opale, a grade five student, prefers beadwork, pastels, large-scale textiles (fingerweaving!) and creative writing to express herself. Hugo’s beadwork, embroidery, and technical drawings have recently been exhibited at the Tett Centre for Arts and Creativity in Kingston, Ontario, and at Union Art Gallery at Queen’s University. Rosalie, Hugo, and Opale are active junior collaborators on the Beading Astroparticle Physics Project, where they are contributing to a beadwork rendition of the Standard Model of Astroparticle Physics.
Dr. Gregg Wade (PhD, Astronomy, 1998) is a Professor of Physics and Space Science at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) and Queen’s University. Dr. Wade’s research investigates the structure, evolution, origin and impact of magnetic fields in stars, concentrating on intermediate and high mass stars, which are the evolutionary progenitors of most white dwarfs, neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes. He employs beadwork as a vehicle for knowledge translation and mobilization under the mentorship and guidance of Dr. Lussier.
Jessica Heim is an adjunct research fellow at the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ). She holds a Master's degree in Cultural Astronomy and is currently a PhD candidate at UniSQ's Centre for Astrophysics, where her research centers on the effects of the growing space sector on astronomy and the space environment. More broadly, her research interests focus on human relationships with both sky and land, with a particular emphasis on dark skies, as well as ethics and policy issues associated with space exploration and development. She has an interdisciplinary background in environmental studies and astronomy and strives to integrate approaches from the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences in trandsdisciplinary ways to better understand and find solutions to issues involving the night sky and the space environment.
Jessica is a member of the American Astronomical Society's Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment (COMPASSE) and advisor to the Community Engagement Hub of the International Astronomical Union's Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky (IAU-CPS). In addition to such work, she is passionate about engaging with the public about astronomy, dark skies and space science, inspiring people to learn, care about and participate in matters pertaining to the night sky and uses of outer space.
TELUS Spark Science Centre is a registered educational charity. Every ticket helps fund science education and programming for Calgarians of all ages.
Buy Tickets Become a Member