NASA To Get Wiradjuri Education

An 11 year old Wagga student is heading over to NASA in the hopes of sharing his indigenous culture and connection to the stars with some of the world’s leading astronauts.

Xavier Williams-Byers, along with 5 other students from Holy Trinity Primary School, is making the trip to the Johnson Space Camp in Alabama after achieving high scores on his 2019 NAPLAN tests.

His Mum, Jasmine Williams, says Xavier is a proud Wiradjuri kid who loves his footy and is looking forward to seeing him explore his culture’s history and relationship with the stars.

“Being Aboriginal, he’s actually quite excited to go over and share come of our stories in the sky that we’ve got – ancient stories in the sky about some of our things in the stars and galaxies as well”.

Jasmine says that the school has been very active in teaching students about the indigenous connection to the land and the stars and is hoping her son is able to share that with some of the world’s leading scientists and astronauts.

While she’s very proud of her son’s achievements Jasmine does admit to being shocked when they received the invitation. 

“It was a big surprise for us when we got the call at the end of last year that he was asked to come along and be invited to go and attend the space program in the USA”. 

Xavier will be accompanied on the trip by his classmates, but Jasmine will be keeping her feet firmly on the ground, sending her mother instead.

Listen to the full chat here: