Parallel sessions

NOTE: This session will involve a workshop with breakout rooms that will be hosted as a separate Zoom meeting.

• To get details of the Zoom meeting in advance, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• To turn up on the day, go to the relevant NAM 2021 platform session at 9AM on Wednesday, July 21, where you will be directed to the Zoom meeting.

Many in the RAS community will already be aware of sensitivities around the building and development of facilities on sites that have cultural and spiritual significance for local communities. Some will have followed the issues currently being experienced by the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea, Hawai’i, and the great steps to ensure that due respect is paid to local peoples during the construction of the Square Kilometre Array on the lands of the Wajarri Yamatji People, in Australia, and the Karoo Hoogland Municipality, in South Africa. Many of our community members have started to use land acknowledgements as a form of respect to the Indigenous peoples, such land acknowledgements are common in Australia and have spread.

In February 2020, the Council of the RAS agreed:

“Council recognises that much astronomical and geophysical data are obtained from sites where there are disputed historical and cultural issues, particularly in relation to indigenous and first nations rights and traditions.

“Council resolves:
1. To set up a joint group with our International Committee with a view to issuing guidelines and developing training for all astronomers and geophysicists to be aware of, and to take into account, cultural and historical issues in the sites from where their data are obtained.
2. To work with the IAU and other national astronomy and geophysical societies to develop astronomy-and-geophysics-specific ethical guidelines and accountability structures.”

Following this decision, a joint working group with the IAU Division C Working Group on Archeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture and RAS has been set up, and work is now underway to carry out these aims. The new IAU/RAS Working Group is now meeting on a regular basis, and the aim of this session is to familiarise the community with its work, to solicit ideas and resources that might be useful, and to raise general awareness of the need to respect and account for local issues when using facilities and exploiting the data they generate.

This session introduces the Working Group by way of a workshop followed by discussion.