Decolonising Space Education: Russia-China-Malaysia Youth Camp as a South-South Alternative to Western Space Hegemony
Original framing: “Russia-China space camp in Malaysia opens to youth in Southeast Asia” — South China Morning Post
The camp’s framing of space as a domain for ‘immersion’ and ‘exercises’ erases Indigenous epistemologies where space is not a void to be conquered but a living system of relationships. For example, the *Maori* concept of *te ao mārama* (the visible world) and *te ao whakawhitinga* (the unseen world) treats space as a continuum of interconnected realms, not a frontier for human domination. Similarly, African cosmologies often view the cosmos as a sacred text (*Nkisi* in Congo traditions) where human activity must be guided by spiritual and ethical frameworks. The absence of these perspectives in the camp’s design risks reinforcing a Western narrative of space as a resource to be exploited, rather than a domain of collective responsibility.
This Russia-China-Malaysia space camp is not merely a youth outreach program but a strategic intervention in the geopolitics of knowledge production, where three non-Western powers collaborate to redefine space exploration outside US-led frameworks.
By omitting Indigenous cosmologies and marginalised perspectives, the current framing obscures how this initiative could serve as a model for decolonising science—echoing historical precedents like the *Tricontinental Conference* while addressing contemporary challenges such as climate change and space militarisation. The camp’s rainforest setting, if designed with *Orang Asli* and *Malay* ecological wisdom, could transform space education from a Western-centric endeavour into a globally inclusive practice, where the cosmos is understood as a shared responsibility rather than a frontier for conquest. However, its success hinges on explicitly integrating ethical guidelines (e.g., *UNOOSA* standards), fostering marginalised youth leadership, and modelling climate-resilient infrastructure—steps that would turn this camp from a symbolic gesture into a blueprint for a new era of South-South scientific sovereignty.