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The McDonald Institute is celebrating the launch of the Beading Astroparticle Physics project, an initiative that brings Indigenous Knowledges and Perspectives (IKP) and astroparticle physics into conversation. Grounded in Indigenous leadership and relational ethics, the project reimagines how astroparticle physics can explore, understand, and relate to the universe.

Led by Dr. Danielle Lussier (Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures), the project includes Dr. Gregg Wade (Department of Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy) and three junior collaborators Hugo, 14, Rosie, 13, and Opale, 9 as an intergenerational team to explore astroparticle physics through Métis beadwork practices.

Beadwork is often a shared, intergenerational family practice within many Indigenous communities, serving as a site of teaching, relationship-building, and cultural continuity. Beading is a collective Indigenous research method of cultural expression, storytelling, healing, and knowledge mobilization. Beading Astroparticle Physics enacts a decolonizing approach to knowledge creation, centering family and community, relationality, and multiple ways of knowing alongside Western science.

Beading Astroparticle Physics sneak peek of the SNOLAB logo in production. Photo by Danielle Lussier.

To kick off the project, the family hosted Dr. Arthur B. McDonald, Professor Emeritus and Nobel Laureate, for a dinner conversation of astroparticle physics, creating space for shared learning grounded in relationship and exchange. The setting reflected the project’s emphasis on relational approaches to knowledge, where dialogue unfolds through connection, curiosity, and mutual respect.

“It was a joy to interact with this dynamic family over a delicious meal,” Dr. McDonald says. “It took me back to our family dinner table with our own four kids many years ago. I had great conversations with the kids about the science we are studying and hope that it inspired their creative beadwork. I love to see ‘other ways of knowing’ about our subject area.”

The Lussier-Wade families next travelled to to visit the surface facilities. Conversations facilitated by Dr. Erica Caden (SNOLAB) and Blaire Flynn (Senior Education and Outreach) emphasized the functions of the lab, the layers of people involved in the experiments and facility, as well as the more than human interactions involved. This visit created space for shared learning and exchange, connecting the environments of astroparticle physics with the project team’s evolving knowledge of the astroparticle physics research ecosystem.

Project leader, Dr. Lussier reflects: “At SNOLAB and throughout the project the involvement of youth collaborators is critical as it reflects a respect for Indigenous ways of Knowing and Being, specifically intergenerational knowledge sharing. Also important in the context of this project is that having youth around the table fundamentally changes the way that people communicate about the science that they are doing; new themes emerge, and we are able to explore questions around land, water, and other more-than-human relations who support the research being done by McDonald Institute scientists.”

The participation of the three junior collaborators is foundational to the project. Together, the collaborators explore beadwork as a methodology for storytelling, research, and relational learning, creating opportunities for Indigenous Knowledges and Perspectives to engage in meaningful dialogue with scientific understandings of the universe. Through this work, beadwork becomes both a cultural practice and a bridge between ways of knowing, fostering reciprocal learning and deeper connections between science, community, and place.

Over the coming year, the team will engage with members of the Canadian astroparticle physics network in a shared exploration of astrophysical concepts through beadwork practices that reflect the relationships that make science possible, including relationships between humans, more-than-human worlds, creative practices, and scientific inquiry. Through research exchanges, site visits, workshops, and community engagement activities, the project will support the creation of novel research and original beadwork grounded in both scientific and cultural narratives.

Tangible outcomes will include beadwork pieces displayed in the , a workshop on beadwork and astroparticle physics at the (July 27-29), public and academic knowledge mobilization, and teaching materials, including education and outreach programming for Grade 6 students, co-created by the first Indigenous – Cross Disciplinary Intern, also collaborating on the project.

By bringing together Indigenous Knowledge systems, artistic practice, and astroparticle physics, Beading Astroparticle Physics contributes to a broader reimagining of research, education, and public engagement within the national astroparticle physics community. The project reflects the McDonald Institute’s ongoing commitment to meaningful engagement with Indigenous scholars, students, communities and ways of knowing.