Where the wind blows endlessly… and rocks look like those on the Moon

Uploaded on June 20, 2024

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Where the wind blows endlessly… and rocks look like those on the Moon

Innu Guardian David Nui explains the significance of Kamestastin and why it is a sacred place for his People. Also known as Mistastin, this meteorite impact crater located in Labrador lies within the traditional hunting grounds of the Mushuau Innu First Nation. 

CSA and NASA astronauts took part in a lunar geology expedition to Kamestastin in 2023. It is one of the locations considered by NASA to train Artemis astronauts. (Credits: Canadian Space Agency, NASA)

On-screen text:
Mistastin Lake crater, Labrador
The Labrador Innu call it
Kamestastin

David Nui, Innu Guardian:
The reason why they call it Kamestastin is all those, those westerly high winds and then the northwest winds since they had blown off us, and that's the reason why it’s called Kamestastin according to the Elders, back in the olden days.

On-screen text:
The Innu Guardians allowed astronauts to take geology training in Kamestastin.

The area is an enormous crater created by a meteorite impact over 36 million years ago.

Some of the rock formations are similar to those on the Moon.

David Nui, Innu Guardian:
The Innu always has been there most of the time.
We get our caribou here, and that's the reason why I like that, I like the best out of this place here.

It’s a very important place and a sacred place for the Innu people, and we try to keep it like this as much as we can and try to protect it, protect the sacred aspect about this place.

And I always looked at the map when I was in the school. Why is that lake so big and its little island, a little island right in the middle of it. And I didn't know anything about the meteor that had landed over here.

The NASA people and the astronauts, Canadians and Americans, came to our land. They believe that the meteor had come from the space long ago, millions and millions years ago maybe. So they, that's when everybody started to realize that there's something, something came to the Earth from the space.

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