Activity C: We are all stars

Take a mind-bending journey to find our place in the vast cosmos of time and space.

We are the universe, organised as humans, for now. Connect with your cosmic origins, as understood by Mātauranga Māori for all of time.

He pitopito kōrero

“When people hear the word “whakapapa” they often only think of it as a family tree: mum, dad, kids, grandparents, ancestors.

But you can go right back to Tāne and to this tree here, and to the rocks under our feet. It’s a five-dimensional network: the three dimensions of space, plus time, plus the spiritual world. Whakapapa is the motivator and the reminder that everything is connected in time and space.”

– Dan Hikuroa (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato Tainui, and Ngāti Whanaunga), Māori Studies, University of Auckland

“To accept there is a concrete link between the celestial, cosmic and terrestrial spaces is the start of a re-humanising process – one of reconnecting. This means bringing ourselves back to nature in acknowledgement that our bodies and the soil …emerge from the same origin.”

(Teina Boasa-Dean and Ruth Nesi Bryce-Hare, Te Mahi Oneone Hua Parakore: A Maori Soil Sovereignty and Wellbeing Handbook, p.103, 2020)

“We are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us.

– Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist

We are all made of stardust. All the elements that make up the human body, and all that is on Earth, were formed in long-gone stars. The interrelatedness of human beings with all that is around us has been understood in mātauranga Māori, and other indigenous knowledge systems, for all of time. 

Humans are made up of oxygen (65%), carbon (18.5%), hydrogen (9.5%), nitrogen (3.2%), calcium (1.5%), phosphorus (1%), potassium (0.4%), sulphur (0.3%), sodium (0.2%), chlorine (0.2%), and magnesium (0.1%). Image: Te Papa (silhouette of woman by macrovector/Freepik)

Investigating in science

Discuss:

What could this infographic’s title be?

What are the most common elements in our human body?

  • Watch and listen to Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist speak about this most astounding fact below.

  • You might want to watch this video a couple of times before discussing with a friend the feelings that you have from watching it. There might be emotions of awe, curiosity, astoundment, confusion or amazement – all emotions are valid and helpful. 

  • Draw a picture that reflects your feelings. You may want to overlay a line from the interview (the full transcript is in the video description) or write your own statement about the relationship between us and stars.

  • Read and discuss the quotes at the top of this activity. What ways could you communicate this idea of a woven universe to others? Consider ways of communicating our woven relationships through embodied practices in te taiao such as a mindful nature walk, or meditation.

 

Discuss:

  • When we notice that we are the universe and the universe is us, what might change?
  • How does this sense of the woven universe help with the way we might choose to live on the planet with each other?
  • In infinite time and space, you are alive right now. Isn’t that incredible? There has never been a ‘you’ before and there will never be a ‘you’ again. What are the gifts and wonderings that you bring to this world?