The most requested show at McMaster’s  W.J. McCallion Planetarium started with Mohawk scholar Thomas Deer asking a question — and staying persistent.

And thanks to its success, its creators are bringing more Indigenous sky lore and star knowledge to the planetarium at McMaster. 

More than 30 years ago, Deer was majoring in Anthropology at Laurier University and taking Astronomy 101 as an elective. 

Born and raised on the Kahnawake First Nation in Quebec, he’d always had an interest in the stars. But none of the star knowledge passed down by his family and Elders was mentioned in his undergrad astronomy course.  

Much of that knowledge — which generations of Indigenous peoples had relied on to travel long distances across North America — was silenced by colonization.

It had become an echo memory, says Deer. In its place were the colonizers’ astronomy stories, built on Greek and Roman mythology. 

“Our knowledge didn’t disappear — it’s still here, it’s still valid and it’s still important to know,” says Deer, who is fluent in Mohawk, Cayuga and English. “It’s vital knowledge that ties us to the sky and the land.” 

Then Deer learned about planetariums in the United States that were keeping that star knowledge alive through astronomy shows created in collaboration with Indigenous peoples.  

“I was impressed by that and started wondering why we weren’t doing it here.” 

So he reached out to the W.J. McCallion Planetarium in the early 1990s and asked if there was any interest in working together on an Indigenous astronomy show.  

There wasn’t. 

Two-eyed seeing and the Celestial Bear

A few years later, after Deer joined McMaster as a sessional instructor in the newly established Indigenous Studies Program, he thought he’d get a different answer. But it was still no. 

And then, in 2014, the stars aligned.

The planetarium team at the time, including then director and Interdisciplinary Science professor Sarah Symons, wanted to create an Indigenous-themed show. But with no Indigenous team members or connections, creating a show didn’t feel appropriate, says Robert Cockcroft, who was a postdoctoral research fellow and planetarium manager at the time.  

And then English & Cultural Studies professor Rick Monture introduced Cockcroft and Symons to Deer and David Moses, a former correspondent for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. 

Cockcroft, now director of the planetarium and an associate professor in the department of Physics & Astronomy, adheres to Mi’Kmaq Elder Albert Marshall’s principal of Etuaptmumk — or two-eyed seeing.  

“You learn to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing,” says Cockcroft.

“And you then learn to use both eyes together for the benefit of all.” 

He secured a grant to create the planetarium’s first Indigenous show – The Celestial Bear: The Six Nations’ Night Sky.  

Deer and Moses shared Six Nation’s sky lore and language through traditional Indigenous night-sky stories.  

The show launched in 2015, and begins with Deer telling audiences, “This is how I heard the story, so I thought that is how you would hear it as well.” 

Celestial Bear quickly became — and remains — the planetarium’s most requested show. Cockcroft initially booked school buses to bring elementary and secondary school students from Six Nations to watch the show at the planetarium. But he now uses a portable planetarium that brings astronomy shows into the community. 

After the often heavy and heartbreaking stories Moses had told as a journalist, Celestial Bear was an opportunity to tell a different, yet equally important, story.  

“It’s an honour to help preserve and share these stories within and beyond our community,” Moses says.  

“Indigenous knowledge is never forced on anyone — we put it out there for everyone to think about and use.” 

Onekwá:tara – The Seven Dancers of the Pleiades

The success of Celestial Bear led to a reunion for a second show — Onekwá:tara – The Seven Dancers of the Pleiades — with funding from the Future of Canada Project. 

The Pleiades is a cluster of more than 1,000 young stars about 440 light-years from Earth. The seven brightest stars in the formation glow hot blue and can be seen without telescopes. In Greek mythology, those stars are the daughters of the Titan god Atlas and the ocean nymph Pleione. The stars are also in the logo for automaker Subaru – the Japanese word for the Pleiades star cluster. 

In local Mohawk sky lore, the seven stars are seven dancers. When Mohawk people see the Pleiades flickering in the winter night sky, they say, “The little warriors are dancing hard tonight.”  

The dancers are boys who weren’t taught the Ogweho:weh Way of Life by neglectful adults who were preoccupied with other priorities. The Seven Dancers remind Ogweho:weh that they must think seven generations into the future about the welfare of their people. 

For the second astronomy show, Deer researched, wrote and narrated the story, translating from original source material. The show incorporates Mohawk phrases and includes singing by elementary students from I.L. Thomas Elementary School, where Deer has taught since 1998. 

While Moses had new equipment and software to mix the audio and create illustrations and animations for the second show, the challenge remained of projecting on a curved dome, without blinding the audience or distracting from Deer’s narration. “Tom has such a wonderful voice and delivery,” he says. 

The show will premiere this fall — and Deer and Moses plan to be there. 

There are no plans yet for a third show, but Deer is piecing together the celestial calendar that was once used by Indigenous peoples to guide their lives.

And he continues to remind his students to stay connected to the sky and land and give daily thanks to the Sun.  

“Without fail, the Sun rises every day.”