Grand Portage Band issues Dark Sky Week Proclamation

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
Boozhoo, Hi. My name is Travis, I’m from the Bear Clan, and I am a member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and I have been a nature photographer for most of my life now, at least 35 years or more.

WTIP
Did you pick up some photography from your dad?

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
I did, definitely. He was a huge influence. When I was a young kid, he was always going out with a film camera to try to capture the northern lights or lightning storms.

I remember sitting on the shoreline of Lake Superior with him waiting for these thunderstorms to come through, and being excited and scared at the same time, because with lightning, you don’t want to be too close to it. But those early experiences, I think, really instilled this appreciation for nighttime and being outside under the stars, which has only grown over time.

WTIP
And you’re a member of Starry Skies North?

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
Well, I’m involved. I’m heavily involved with them, yeah. Starry Skies North is our local Midwest chapter of Dark Sky International.

WTIP
Basically advocating for dark skies and trying to educate the public.

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
Yeah, raise awareness about the importance of dark skies, and they also work with groups to help obtain dark sky certifications, whether it’s a Dark Sky Friendly Community; (in the) case of the Boundary Waters, a Dark Sky Sanctuary; there could be urban dark sky places; and Dark Sky Parks.

WTIP
And is part of that measuring the light levels over time?

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
Yeah, that’s a key component of it. There’s something called a sky quality meter, and that actually tells you how good your dark sky is. If you’ve got low quality dark sky, as in, you can’t see the Milky Way, or you can only see the brightest stars or the brightest constellations, that would be poor sky quality.

Good sky quality or high sky quality would be full view of the Milky Way. You can see galaxy clusters and things that you can only see when you have the best quality dark skies.

WTIP

It’s International Dark Sky Week. I understand that you were involved in getting a proclamation passed with the Grand Portage Tribal Council?

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
Yeah, this is the third year that the council has supported International Dark Sky Week through the issuance of a proclamation recognizing the importance of that week. First one was in 2023, and International Dark Sky Week occurs in April every year, and it coincides with the week of the new moon.

They chose that week because that’s the darkest. April, because it coincides with Global Astronomy Month, and the dates change a little bit each year depending on where the new moon falls.

WTIP
Gotcha. That first time you brought this to the council, why is that something that they were supportive of, do you think?

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
Well, I think people in general up here recognize the importance of the dark skies because, even if you didn’t grow up here, if you’ve lived a good part of your life up here, you’ve come to appreciate the dark sky. Because most areas in Cook County, we can go outside and we can look up and see the Milky Way. We can turn around to the north and see the aurora if they’re out, because we don’t have a lot of light pollution yet, and hopefully it stays that way. It becomes a part of your appreciation of the world.

So that first year when I brought the proposal to the council asking if they would support this, there was some discussion about it, like, what is Dark Sky Week? Not everybody was familiar with it, so I gave a little background about it, and, what does a proclamation mean? To raise awareness is the main purpose behind them.

Yhey’re not saying that we’re issuing a new lighting ordinance that’s going to require you to have a certain kind of light, or they don’t carry any enforcement weight. It’s mostly about awareness.

WTIP
Are there any highlights that you can share that are part of the proclamation?

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
The key points they hit on are, the beauty and wonder of a natural night sky. They talk a little bit about light pollution, the negative effects of that, economic impacts, what’s the financial loss with all of this lighting that is wasted, with all the light that gets directed upward versus downward. Using higher wattage lights than are necessary for a given purpose. But the Grand Portage Proclamation of course has our own unique things about it.

It acknowledges the 1854 Ceded Territory Treaty Area, our region being a rich, high-quality dark sky area. Most importantly for Grand Portage, the last item on the proclamation, “Whereas Grand Portage is home to the Anishinaabeg whose traditional practices include a sustainable way of living and appreciation of the night sky.”

So it really acknowledges the cultural connection that people have. And have had for forever. And of course, on ours, it says Anangoka, which in Ojibwe means “there is an abundance of stars.”

WTIP
I love that.

TRAVIS NOVITSKY Yeah. It’s a great word.

WTIP
Yeah, there’s a whole documentary on this. Is there any more that you wanted to say about the cultural importance of dark skies to Grand Portage, Ojibwe people specifically?

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
It kind of keeps us connected in a pretty profound way to who we are, where we came from. Of course, tribal people across the world have had their own ways of connecting to the sky. And the Ojibwe, of course, are part of that.

Storytelling was a huge part of that connection. And as is so often the case with Ojibwe stories, there are morals and lessons within the stories. So keeping that connection to the night sky is a way of keeping connection to the stories and the teachings in those stories.

WTIP
I know you’re always scoping out locations to capture the majesty of the night sky and the forest. As you keep an eye on the skies for aurora storms and things, do you have any spots that you have an eye on?

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
Well, I have places that I’ve always gone to. And you’re right, I like to wander around, not just locally or regionally, but broader than that, too. Anybody that follows my photography knows I like to go out west and to the desert.

What I generally share with people is if you’re looking to go out and experience the night sky for yourself, I typically advise people, don’t go out where you’re going to be looking right up at 80 to 100 foot tall pine trees because that’s going to block a big chunk of the sky.

Rather than that, go for the lakeshore, whether it’s an inland lake or Lake Superior. If you want to see northern lights, try to find an open spot on the south shore of a lake to look north over that lake. The best part of the Milky Way for us this time of year in the spring and early summer is to the south.

And so, if you’re on the north shore of a body of water looking south, you can see not only the Milky Way, but its reflection in the water, too. Especially inland lakes are nice because they tend to be a lot calmer than Lake Superior. So you get a better chance at getting a nice crystal clear reflection.

But when that happens and you see everything up there reflected right in front of you on the water, too, it just, the incredibleness of that, you really can’t describe it. You have to witness it.

WTIP
Yeah. And you talk about that in your book. Do you want to just let folks know about your book and where they can see your photography?

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
Sure. So, of course, I have my website, www.travisnovitsky.com . You mentioned the documentary, Northern Night Starry Skies, which you can find on YouTube. And then the most recent project, big project that I did was the book Spirits Dancing, which has around 160 of my photographs in it. And it has a little bit of my writing in there in the format of these photographer’s notes or photographer’s stories that accompany specific images.

The bulk of the text was written by Annette S. Lee, founder of Native Sky Watchers. The book has been out for about a year and a half now and I’m still kind of traveling around a little bit here and there doing presentations related to the book and related to Dark Skies in general and I continue to be amazed at the response to it, like how much it resonates with so many people.

I had no idea before I started all this that so many people had such a connection to it. And it’s been kind of overwhelming, humbling, amazing, you know, any number of adjectives that could apply to it. Most of all, it’s just been a really awesome journey and anxious to see where it takes me next.

WTIP
West it sounds like.

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
Quite likely, yeah.

WTIP
All right, Travis, thanks so much for chatting with us!

TRAVIS NOVITSKY
Thank you. Miigwech.