The Burunh Program
Burunh Seminar Series

In this seminar, Kristen Smith, Director of Research in the Indigenous Studies Unit and part of The Indigenous Data Network will discuss CARE Principles for Indigenous data governance — Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics - and ethical and culturally responsive approaches to data governance, including catalogue models, vocabularies, spatial reference data, and digital archiving systems. 

This presentation offers a Māori ethic of time through Maramataka, the Māori lunar-stellar environmental calendar. It is a living system of

astronomical and environmental observation with the potential to decolonise science, space and time. We will explore how Indigenous calendars and astronomies offer frameworks for resisting this erasure and restoring Indigenous futures, grounded in relationship, in rhythm with the environment, and in service of Indigenous sovereignty.

Many Indigenous traditions have long spoken of relationships with "Star People". In this seminar, we will contrast Indigenous and contemporary narratives of non-human intelligence, noting that Indigenous accounts of these relationships emphasise kinship, responsibility, and care for the Earth, while modern UAP discourse often focuses on threat, surveillance, and technological advantage.