4.1 First People's Perspective on the Sun, Moon and Stars

SUPPLEMENTARY SOURCES

First Peoples’ Perspectives on Science: An Introduction

"For thousands and thousands of years different peoples have tried to make some sense of the world upon which they lived. They needed to understand where they lived so that they could take advantage of the different seasons by preparing food stores to survive seasons where little or no light would be available or where the sun would never set (the Inuit of Canada's north), where different seasons, and what we came to call months, produced different foods (berries, grains, nuts) or different runs of fish (herring and salmon) and when some food was safe to eat and times when it might not be safe to eat (red tide and shellfish).

Different people explained somewhat similar situations with stories that were handed down from generation to generation. Those stories, because of their importance, did not change from teller to teller. The important truths in them (that Spring follows Winter and Fall follows Summer) had to stay constant. The lessons that those

truths told had to survive or people would not. Reading about different stories and myths allow us to look for the lessons in each story. We can then see how that story could be used to bring understanding and order to the lives of people.

First Peoples' stories, from around the world, are almost always based on their close observations about what was happening where they lived. When we ask you to act as if you were a scientist or engineer, we are asking you to do what people have done over many generations. Stop. Think through a set of actions. Observe phenomena. Record your observations (through a story or through notes). Make conclusions. Repeat the process.

Over the last few thousand years we have created a set of tools that help with this process (specific words - fall, summer), story structures, tools to record notes, languages to explain those notes, measuring devices, optical tools (magnifying glasses, microscopes and telescopes). Over the next long periods of time the children of our great, great great grandchildren will, as our ancestors did and we are doing, refine those tools and deepen their understanding of the world, solar system and universe in which they live."

Sourced from: https://portal.sd71.bc.ca/group/wyhzgr4/earthspace/grade6/Documents/sd71_web_Earth_Space_g6.pdf