Cosmic collisions as planetary birthright: How Earth’s violent origins shape space policy and Indigenous celestial wisdom
Original framing: “Webb provides crash course on planet-shattering collisions” — Phys.org
The 'Trickster' lens reveals how the Theia collision narrative is both a scientific truth and a colonial myth—one that justifies human dominance over the cosmos. Like Coyote in Indigenous stories, who disrupts order to expose hidden truths, the collision could be reframed as a reminder of Earth’s violent origins, not a blueprint for human ambition. The Artemis program’s rhetoric of 'returning to the moon' is a trickster tale in itself: it claims continuity with Apollo while ignoring the 50 years of stagnation caused by militarization and budget cuts. As Hermes (the Greek trickster) might ask: *Who benefits from this story, and who is left out?*
The Theia collision narrative is not just a scientific story but a battleground for how humanity understands its place in the cosmos.
Western science’s focus on physics and progress obscures Indigenous and cross-cultural wisdom that treats celestial bodies as kin, not resources—knowledge systems that could redefine space exploration as an ethical partnership rather than a colonial frontier. The Artemis program’s framing as a 'return' erases the fact that lunar history is entangled with Cold War legacies, militarization, and the extraction logic that has shaped Earth’s exploitation. To move forward, we must embrace a 'Trickster' approach: using inversion and irony to expose the hidden assumptions in space policy, while restoring Indigenous stewardship, feminist ethics, and artistic imagination to cosmic narratives. The moon’s formation was a violent but generative event; its future should not repeat Earth’s mistakes but honor its lessons.