Aboriginal astronomer, astrophysicist and science communicator Karlie Noon is passionate about sharing her love for astronomy. “Space is like magic – it’s thinking about worlds that are so foreign to what we know and what we live – but it’s not magic, it’s real.”
Noon is an advocate for First Nations knowledge and has worked with academics, conducting research on how moon halos were used in traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture as weather predictors.
A Gamilaraay woman who was born and raised in Tamworth, NSW, the country music capital of Australia, Noon grew up with little interest in school. But at eight years old, the special presence of an Aunty had a profound effect on Noon’s life, fuelling her interest in maths and science.
"One of my first experiences learning in a non-judgemental environment was learning from an Aunty who would just go around and work with little Aboriginal kids who weren’t going to school and were pretty disengaged and had a lot going on at home.
“Space is like magic – it’s thinking about worlds that are so foreign to what we know and what we live – but it’s not magic, it’s real,” says Karlie Noon Source: ABC Me
“She gave me the tools to do it on my own. She showed me learning can be fun, it can be exciting and enjoyable. Before that I saw school and learning as the same thing – I didn’t like school so therefore I thought I didn’t like learning but that wasn’t the truth at all – it was just that I didn’t like school.”
For Noon, the combined effects of poverty, intergenerational trauma and low expectations for Aboriginal students meant that she grew up with very little interest in school and barely went.
Karlie Noon was appointed the Sydney Observatory's first astronomy ambassador. Source: Rhett Wyman/SMH
“It did not feel like a safe place at all – we didn’t have any positive history with school -- there was no reason to feel like that was for us or that we belonged there. Being a kid coming from a poor family, it’s not easy to do things. It’s not easy to get to school and get a uniform that’s complete and clean and fits you, it’s not easy to take food to school. My story is not unique – I share this story with the kids coming from my neighbourhood…We were the ones disengaging with school and that is the cycle that comes from low expectations and poverty.”
But Noon loved playing maths games with Aunty and it gave her a new-found confidence in the classroom.
“[I] spent my whole life told I was a problem child and in the low class…. then [I] absolutely wreck people in Maths. Everyone thinks it’s hard and I’m just slaying at it. Maths is why I went back to school. Maths is why I went to uni. I got to this point where I saw school and uni as my way forward.
[I] spent my whole life told I was a problem child and in the low class…. then [I] absolutely wreck people in Maths. Everyone thinks it’s hard and I’m just slaying at it.
She moved to Newcastle to study a double degree in Maths and Science. She describes feeling intimidated by her fellow students, most of whom were male and came from private school.
“I could barely be in the room at the start, it was so difficult, it gave me so much anxiety. I used to think, how amazing would it be if there were more girls in this class or if there was a female lecturer who I could relate to and talk to and ask questions. I yearned for that, I craved that,” Noon recalls.
She would later have that learning experience in her postgraduate studies, completing a joint ANU/CSIRO Masters of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Advanced) degree in 2019. As a part of her degree, Noon studied the evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, specifically how the Galaxy obtains new sources of neutral hydrogen gas to fuel star formation.
She is excited about the possibilities and outcomes of having more First Nations people and women in the field of maths and science. “We value different things – and those opinions should be represented everywhere. I tell my story – so there will be more people like me in this space.”
“I grew up in a very strong family, most of our entire family are women, my mum had two daughters, my sister had two daughters. Our ancestors practiced this matriarchal society and that’s how I found myself growing up, - it gave me a huge amount of pride. It’s really humbling how much my family have been through but more importantly how much they have overcome – I got so much strength and staunchness from that,” she says.
Noon uses her platforms, a regular radio show on ABC Canberra and her Instagram page as a way of sharing the latest ‘space goss’. Follow Noon for her take on the recent discovery of phosphine on Venus, and how to follow space events, as well as the Gamilaraay language.
“I get so excited watching the sky, it’s so cool to see all the stuff that I learnt in a textbook play out as the year goes on. It’s so nice to feel connected to that and be noticing how the weather changes and how the sky changes with that and the connections between those things.”
She has recently been appointed Astronomy Ambassador at the Sydney Observatory and many find her style of communication relatable and she’s connecting more people into astronomy.
“So much what I do is so personal. People are finding it refreshing that I can know all these things but I can still be person. It tells me how much people have been wanting to see a scientist that’s relatable and that is a little different too, wasn’t the stereotype. That’s been the biggest response I’ve had from people,” says Noon.
She is inspiring people all around the country but she believes the biggest impact she can have is on young people who have similar backgrounds to herself, from regional areas and who are Aboriginal. No doubt her inspiring words will leave a legacy much in the way of the Aunty who changed her life, opening up educational pathway for her when she was eight.
No doubt her inspiring words will leave a legacy much in the way of the Aunty who changed her life, opening up educational pathway for her when she was eight.
“These kids can relate to me. Our education institutions do not serve us – they do not teach us our history or our culture and Australia’s history. There’s a lot of support for people who are identified as high-achievers and fit the mould, but that wasn’t me – I was completely disengaged – and they are the people I want to help and show them that there are opportunities that come from education. Believe in yourself, believe that you are worthy of that and you deserve the things that you want. There’s so many ways you can do it. I by no means had a normal path in anything I did, and that worked for me. You can make your situation work for you as well.”
For Noon, this year’s NAIDOC theme ‘Always Was, Always Will Be’ is about being honest with where we are as a nation.
“For me this is about recognising communities are still facing impacts from colonisation in a very real tangible way today," says Noon, "This is about acknowledging that colonisation hasn’t ended, it’s still going and sovereignty wasn’t ceded. We belong here, this is our land, we are custodians of our land and we’re still fighting for that. That’s what the theme is about for me.”
National NAIDOC Week (8 – 15 Nov 2020) celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Join SBS and NITV for a full slate of NAIDOC Week content. For more information about NAIDOC Week or this year’s theme, head to the official NAIDOC Week website. #NAIDOC2020 #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe
