Parallel sessions

Astronomy and Geophysics increasingly rely on big datasets collected from sites remote from the UK data users. There was already a trend to remote observing and the use of datasets not primarily collected by the researchers making use of them. But restrictions due to COVID have accelerated this trend enormously. So there is an increasing disconnect between data and facility users and localities from where the data originate. Many in the RAS community are already aware of sensitivities around the building and development of facilities on sites that have cultural and spiritual significance for local communities. Some will have followed the issues currently being experienced by the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea, Hawai'i, and the great steps to ensure that due respect is paid to local peoples during the construction of the Square Kilometre Array on the lands of the Wajarri Yamatji People, in Australia, and the Karoo Hoogland Municipality, in South Africa. Many of our community members have started to use land acknowledgements as a form of respect to the Indigenous peoples, such land acknowledgements are common in Australia and have spread. Following a decision of RAS Council in 2020, a joint working group with the IAU Division C Working Group on Archeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture and RAS has been set up. The IAU/RAS Working Group has been meeting on a regular basis (albeit remotely) and presented a highly successful workshop at NAM2021, which is being repeated at other conferences such as AAS2022 and EAS2022. This session will update the RAS/NAM community on this work, solicit ideas and resources that might be useful, and raise general awareness of the need to respect and account for local issues when using facilities and exploiting the data they generate.