UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
UPEI hosts space-related public lecture by Dr. Hilding Neilson on April 2

Dr. Hilding Neilson, assistant professor, Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, Memorial University, will give a public lecture titled "Space is Part of the Land: Moving from Colonialism and Space Exploitation to Indigenous Models of Operating in Space," on Wednesday, April 2, from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, Kelley Memorial Building 237, UPEI.

Dr. Hilding Neilson

The lecture is presented by the UPEI Department of Physics, in collaboration with the Chairs of Inclusion in Science and Engineering (CISE) as part of CISE's Spark Lecture Series.

"The colonization of outer space arguably began with the writings of Von Braun in the 1950s and his manual for sending people to Mars as a new land to conquer," said Neilsen. "That colonialism was not novel but follows the same history of European powers colonizing the Americans and other parts of the world, and the same recent history of nations and consortiums developing telescopes on Indigenous lands. In the future, as private actors develop a new space industry, we will see the export of this colonialism to space, to the moon, and one day even to Mars. We are already seeing this today with the development of satellite constellations, some of which are visible by the unaided eye and with the multinational Artemis Accords for lunar exploration."

In his talk, Neilson will review the relationship between astronomy, outer space, and colonization in the past, present, and future, and discuss different ways to relate to outer space and space exploration through the lens of Indigenous methods and knowledge.

All are welcome to attend.