USAY AR & VR Experiences
How can we use immersive experiences to learn from the land? This interactive tool on Treaty 7 land provides visitors with the opportunity to embrace our past. This valuable resource from USAY is something that students can begin to see the relevance of how digital tools can be empowering. USAY stands for Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth. These storytelling experiences are designed and shared by Indigenous youth. The best aspect of these tours is that they are local and Indigenous youth designed the experiences with Knowledge Keepers and Elders. This also ensures the authentic voices of community members were used. Every experience always has the opportunity to engage more community members so these experiences are a starting point to educate others on Treaty 7 land.
I find these resources valuable because it provides everyday settlers with the information of the stories of the land but it also provides Indigenous community members with the information to reconnect to the histories and past they have lost.
This tool would be a wonderful provocation to encourage students to share their own stories or background through VR. Students can use their own phones or devices to use applications like Google Street View with Google Sites to design their own engaging story to share with others.
I have explored these different IndigiTRAILS with Elders and the their responses have always been positive and uplighting when they experience the Indigitrails. Technology can be a tool used to bridge our past with our present day stories.