Native Science

A study conducted in 2011 by students at the Metropolitan State University of Denver used Analytical Graphics
Incorporated, Systems Tool Kit (STK), a powerful physics modeling computer program, to evaluate the astronomical alignments of Chichén Itzá in Mexico. Using surveys and satellite images, computer models were created for
El Caracol and El Castillo, the pyramid dedicated to Kukulkan, which were integrated into the STK program. The
celestial alignments were confirmed after turning back the clock to take into account the Earth's precession cycles.
In addition, the computer models highlighted the precision architecture of the sites and demonstrated their observational utility for celestial objects. Through collaboration with contemporary Mayan and Aztec elders, studies
like this can provide a deeper cultural understanding of Indigenous sacred sites, in addition to making data more
accessible.

Un estudio realizado en 2011 por estudiantes de la Metropolitan State University en Denver utilizó Analytical
Graphics Incorporated, Systems Tool Kit (STK), un poderoso software de modelado de física, para evaluar las
alineaciones astronómicas de Chichén Itzá en México. A través de encuestas e imágenes satelitales, se crearon
modelos de computadora para El Caracol y la pirámide El Castillo, dedicado a Kukulkan, que se integraron en el
programa STK. Las alineaciones celestes se confirmaron después de invertir el reloj para tener en cuenta los ciclos de precesión de la Tierra. Además, los modelos de computadora destacaron la arquitectura de precisión de los
sitios y demostraron su utilidad de observación para los objetos celestes. A través de la colaboración con sabios
mayas y aztecas contemporáneos, estudios como este pueden proporcionar una comprensión cultural más profunda de los sitios sagrados indígenas, así como hacer que los datos sean más accesibles.

This collection of essays engages the ways in which anthropological understandings of Indigenous media can be expanded and reimagined through a focus on futurity. Throughout, the contributors pose two distinct yet interconnected questions: What does the future of Indigenous media hold? And, how is the future itself being increasingly asserted through Indigenous media production? In a sense, then, the collection serves as both retrospective and opening. We reflect on the history of Indigenous media scholarship in tracing the trajectory of emerging forms and content, while also considering how the future is mobilized as a means for establishing temporal sovereignty in relation to anachronistic pasts. In doing so, we aim to provoke new questions about the histories, politics, and futures of Indigenous self-representation.

We make a departure from the U.S.’s traditional “science education” in recognition of several stark realities—from the genocidal practices that have eliminated so many indigenous populations in the U.S. to the problems our planet faces, such dire environmental degradation. We are faced daily with a dissonance of knowing our planet needs our respect and care while at the same time bearing witness to “modern” lifestyles based in property rights and individualism. We engage Native science—which encapsulates all of Western science and expands upon it by including the spiritual and emotional realms as well as the physical and mental dimensions of human existence. In this article, we review several academic programs that have successfully incorporated Native science in indigenous communities by integrating concepts of Native science in the curricula. We argue implementation of Native science approaches to education for all should be considered seriously as part of the larger conversations in science education and curricula toward healing a wounded planet and deeper inclusion of multiple voices in determining trajectories of the practice of science.

The concept of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), along with synonymous or closely related terms like indigenous knowledge and native science, has some of its origins in literatures on international development and adaptive management. There is a tendency to want to determine one definition for TEK that can satisfy every stakeholder in every situation. Yet a scan of environmental science and policy literatures reveals there to be differences in definitions that make it difficult to form a consensus. What should be explored instead is the role that the concept of TEK plays in facilitating or discouraging cross-cultural and cross-situational collaboration among actors working for indigenous and non-indigenous institutions of environmental governance, such as tribal natural resources departments, federal agencies working with tribes, and co-management boards. I argue that the concept of TEK should be understood as a collaborative concept. It serves to invite diverse populations to continually learn from one another about how each approaches the very question of “knowledge” in the first place, and how these different approaches can be blended to better steward natural resources and adapt to climate change. The implication is that environmental scientists and policy professionals, indigenous and non-indigenous, should not be in the business of creating definitions of TEK. Instead, they should focus more on creating long term processes that allow the different implications of approaches to knowledge in relation to stewardship goals to be responsibly thought through.

500 Years: Life in Resistance (2017) is the final installment in Pamela Yates's documentary saga about Guatemala. It covers the 2013-2014 trial of Efraín Ríos Montt for genocide as well as the 2015-2016 Maya and peasant uprising. Based on Indigenous and Maya Kaqchikel concepts by Emma Chirix (body/land/cosmos) and Aura Cumes (Indigenous women epistemic authority), this essay analyzes recent events as a disruption of the heteropatriarchal-colonial economic system in Guatemala. Perspectives from Transnational Feminism, Ecofeminism, and Indigenous Feminist and Queer Theories are weighed against the principal question of this research: What is the relationship between violence against Indigenous women and violence against the land? Following Theodor Roszak's (1992) concern with humanity's sanity and ''environmental neurosis,'' this question is proposed as a bridge between Native Science (Cajete, 2000) and Ecopsychology.

Maoli Engineering and Science in Education
October 26, 2013, 11:30AM-2:30PM
MAʻO Organic Farms, 86-210 Puhawai Rd, Waianae
*Lunch provided-  please carpool if possible

Join us in exploring some modern applications of maoli engineering and science in our University of Hawaii system and beyond. We'll be showcasing some pioneering programs and opportunities for young people and a featuring a speaker panel of Hawaiians who are training or working in engineering and sciences in a range of ways. Join us and share your experiences, bring your friends and questions, come with an open mind. For updates, follow us on Facebook and join our Oct 26 event.

This event is organized through Hawaiian Islands Science and made possible through support from Kauhale/MAʻO Organic Farms, Halau Ike o Puuloa (Leeward CC) and COSEE-IE. Mahalo for your support and see you on Saturday, October 26!

Me ka haʻahaʻa,
Hawaiian Islands Science-October Cafe Coordination Team
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~Hawaiian Island Science seeks to foster a respectful dialogue between indigenous and modern sciences and to provide a supportive environment for the alliance and integration of these knowledge systems.~
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This is a structured but informal event and our main audience is young people- in CCs, high school, and younger, and their ohana.

Our current schedule:
11:30 AM    Lunch
12:20 PM    Opening, pule
12:30 PM    Keynote: Mookuauhau
1:00 PM      Talk Story Intros and Breakout  (Malama Aina Marine Debris Research Program -NPN, Native Hawaiian STEM/KCC STEM, natural resource opportunities, possible archaeology) We will have a large (fits ~12) table setup for the groups.
1:45 PM      Student Panel Discussion led by Halau Ike o Puuloa (LCC)
2:15 PM      Reflection/evaluation
2:30 PM      Closing pule

Prior theories of technology pit man against machine in a struggle for autonomy. Sociotechnical explications of power, technology, and society reveal technical devices as the physical instantiations of interfaces defusing crises in networks of relations. Technical devices are born out of conflicts between social groups. Sociotechnical analysis of the Hopi NativeSUN interface and the US Customs and Border Protection ATEP interface reveal how power circulates across processes of innovation, generating conditions for stabilizing new forms of social relations. The diffusion of technical devices exerts power over social groups insofar as those specific sociotechnical assemblages shape the conditions for that group's existence. The diffusion of technical devices subverts power to social groups insofar as those groups represent key oppositions to the will of interface designers. Technical devices are nodes in the networks of relations tied together by power exchanges.