Finding Home Among the Stars

media release: The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, in partnership with the Mead Public Library, invites the public to a hybrid in-person and online program exploring how people across cultures have looked to the stars for direction, meaning, and a sense of home.

The evening will feature Travis Novitsky, an Anishinaabe photographer and night-sky advocate from the Grand Portage Nation, alongside Robert Mathieu, professor of astronomy at UW-Madison and a Wisconsin Academy Fellow. Through story, imagery, and science, Novitsky and Mathieu will explore how Indigenous star knowledge and modern astronomy have shaped human movement and a sense of belonging across time. Novitsky’s presentation focuses on cultural connections to the cosmos, sharing Anishinaabe stories about the stars and the northern lights. Drawing on constellation illustrations by Ojibwe scholar and artist Carl Gawboy, he weaves together Indigenous star knowledge with his own night-sky photography captured over his homelands. Mathieu will connect the stars with human movement to and from home. He will introduce celestial navigation on the Earth and across the Solar System. Together, the speakers offer a conversation that bridges cultural knowledge, visual storytelling, and astronomy.

In-person attendees (at Mead Public Library, 710 N 8th St, Sheboygan) are invited to view a digital slideshow of Travis Novitsky’s night-sky photography prior to the program.