The Role of Indigenous Communities in ‘Big Science’ Astronomy Projects: Applying Lessons Learned from the Mauna Kea Thirty-Metre Telescope (TMT) Project in Hawaii to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Project in the Karoo, South Africa”

<p dir="ltr">This research paper explores, as an example, how ‘big science’ projects have undermined indigenous and local communities in South Africa and Hawaii during the respective public engagement process. Two case studies in which indigenous/local communities’ interests were superseded by the ‘science case’ for national interests and benefits will be looked at. The Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) on the Mauna Kea in Hawaii shall be used to draw parallels to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project in the Karoo, South Africa, to then identify implications from the TMT that can be applied to the SKA project in the Karoo.</p><p dir="ltr">When ‘big science’ astronomy projects are developed in areas that are falsely assumed to be ‘empty’, or ‘desolate’, indigenous and local communities are left out of the public engagement process, with the goal of scientific advancements for ‘the greater good’ prioritised over indigenous and local communities’ interests and rights.</p><p dir="ltr">This study is important, because all-too-often, local interests, especially in the case of marginalised indigenous communities, are overlooked or ignored in favour of the ‘greater good’. In both cases, this ‘greater good’ refers to furthering scientific advancements and knowledge for the benefit of the state in which the telescope projects are hosted, as well as for the benefit of the global (Western) science community. This is to the detriment of local indigenous communities, who have been historically displaced multiple times over, first by colonialism, and in the present day, by astronomy.</p>