Canada’s first Indigenous woman to earn a PhD in astrophysics is reclaiming the cosmos – The Globe and Mail

Even before spring unfurls its earthly splendour – buds swelling on woody shrubs, the first calls of returning songbirds, young green shoots pushing through the thawing ground – Laurie Rousseau-Nepton can look up at the night sky and notice a quiet shift beginning. The great celestial canoe rises higher each evening.

In the vast night sky, two bright constellations stand in a neat row, forming part of this enormous canoe. It is steered by Kuekuatsheu, the Wolverine (Orion), with Utshek, the Fisher Cat (Big Dipper), keeping watch at the bow. “In January, when the canoe in the sky starts dipping toward the horizon, it announces that the days will also slow down and get longer. Spring is coming,” she says.

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