Indigenous artists get the chance to have their work sent to the moon

Two Saskatchewan artists hope to see their work rocket into space, and maybe all the way to the moon, as part of a project called The Lunar Codex.

The project invited Indigenous artists in all genres such as music, filmmaking, and visual art to apply to get their works included in capsules that would fly aboard spacecraft in the Commercial Lunar Payload Services and Artemis programs. NASA's Artemis III mission, which will see humans return to the moon for the first time since 1972, is scheduled to launch in mid-2027.

Teagan Littlechief, a singer/songwriter from White Bear First Nation, submitted her single Need You To Go. She said for Indigenous people to be included is another step towards reconciliation.

"The recognition that Indigenous people work so hard every day in their artistic ways and just to be recognized in such a manner is a humble experience," said Littlechief.

Littlechief said if she is selected — she's still waiting to learn if her song is a part of the project — she hopes to inspire Indigenous artists "to infinity and beyond."

Littlechief said as a little girl she wished to travel outside of Earth and experience the universe to see what's out there.

"For me, if this happens ... it would be a dream that I never thought would ever be possible," said Littlechief.

Littlechief said the song she chose to submit is about parenting, sobriety and making hard decisions when you need to and she wants the song to bring hope to the lives of those who hear it.

"I hope that they get a little bit out of my story, that they know that everybody kind of has the same story, but hardships are manageable when we work on it," said Littlechief.

Nigel Bell, a multiplatform musician from La Ronge, Sask., is one of the Indigenous artists who has been selected to be part of the project.

"I submitted one song, Remarkable, but then I realized why didn't I send my song Outer Space? So then I re-sent another song," said Bell.

Bell said he is mesmerized by the idea of preserving art like poetry, music, mixed media by sending it to the moon in a capsule.

Bell said he doesn't know what will happen in a billion years but having Indigenous work stored on the moon is comforting, because if anything happens to the human race, a piece of his culture is still going to be out there.

"That's actually really beautiful to think about," said Bell.

So far three capsules have been sent out with payloads, with one landing on the moon last year. Everything submitted will be recorded on a metal disc the size of a dime, called the NanoFiche — a tough, nickel-based medium.

It can be expected to last for hundreds of thousands of years, according to Samuel Peralta, the founder of the project.

Following last year's successful mission, Peralta was asked what he would like to include in his next capsule. He mentioned he'd want more Indigenous visual art to be included, and Cory Dingle, executive director at the estate of Anishinaabe painter Norval Morrisseau, reached out.

"We need to hold up these brilliant artists and inspire them and so what better way than putting them on the moon," said Dingle.

Dingle said archiving Morrisseau's artwork this way lets people know how important his work was, and preserves it for future generations. He offered his help to gather more works from Indigenous artists for the project.

Dingle said they had little time to get the data together, but they managed to get 167 Indigenous artists' work, and put about 65 works of Morrison's in that payload, as well as a number of his teachings in PDF form.