Dr. Annette Lee – McMaster’s Spring 2023 honorary degree recipient

Dr Lee is an astrophysicist, artist, educator and the director of Native Skywatchers – a research and programming initiative that seeks to remember and revitalize Indigenous star and Earth knowledge. She is also one of this year’s Faculty of Science honorary degree recipients.

Rob Cockcroft, a faculty member in Physics and Astronomy who nominated Dr  Lee, has had the privilege to work with Dr  Lee over a number of years, and reflects on their work together:

“I first met Dr. Lee in January 2019 at Reconciliation Through Indigenous Skies, an Indigenous astronomy workshop that shared, documented, and disseminated local, national, and international knowledge and best practices in research, teaching and outreach. I co-hosted and organized this workshop, and Dr  Lee was invited as one of four keynote speakers.

“I have since attended Dr. Lee’s Native Skywatchers workshop, part of her initiative which seeks to remember and revitalize Indigenous star and Earth knowledge, and where I learnt about much more of her work and had the opportunity to meet many of her colleagues. The overarching goal of Native Skywatchers is to communicate the knowledge that Indigenous people traditionally practiced a sustainable way of living and sustainable engineering through a living and participatory relationship with the above and below, sky and earth. Through her work, I saw that Dr Lee strives to improve current inequities in education for young Indigenous peoples, to inspire increased cultural pride, and to promote community wellness – and, ultimately, to inspire all people to have a rekindling or deepening sense of awe and personal relationship to the cosmos.

“Dr. Lee has also been both a consultant and a guest speaker in the first iteration of an Indigenous astronomy undergraduate course (which I taught at Western University in fall 2019). I will teach the second iteration of this course at McMaster in fall 2023. I credit Dr. Lee’s input for much of its success, and I look forward to continuing working with her in the future.

“Dr. Lee’s work lives at the nexus of science, culture, and art. I have greatly benefited from learning from her wealth of expertise and knowledge, and I have seen that many others have, too. I thoroughly appreciate Dr. Lee’s generosity in sharing her work and for all of these reasons, I am delighted that she is one of this year’s Faculty of Science honorary degree recipients. Many congratulations, Dr. Lee!”