Author Archives: alvesm

M4-P5 AbTeC Island (Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace)

” I want there to be an Indigenization of Cyberspace” (Skawennati, 2018). 

I was looking for online space which offered Indigenous peoples an arena to connect over art, history, stories, etc. and I came across Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace. Mohawk artist, Skawennati created a virtual island where users can navigate different online space like art galleries, moments from the past like the Oka Crisis, and even imagined futures. With the software, Second Space, Avatars are able to move through these spaces and communicate with other users. Once a week, graduate students like Maize Longboat will great these guest which can log in and wander at their leisure (CBC Radio). AbTeC Island “is an online community space, where Second Life users can hang out and talk. But it’s also a place where the ancient and the futuristic coexist” (McNamara, 2020).

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/from-soapstone-carving-to-second-life-indigenous-peoples-in-quebec-embrace-tradition-and-technology-1.4645198/indigenous-virtual-reality-an-experiment-in-indigenization-of-cyberspace-1.4654306

Art in America. (2020, July 1). Photos: Skawennati’s Online Indigenous Communities. Retrieved from https://www.artnews.com/gallery/art-in-america/aia-photos/photos-skawennatis-online-indigenous-communities-1202693118/

AbTeC describe the island as an “autonomous zone, a space of Indigenous self-determination” (McNamara, 2020). It is designed and moderated by Indigenous creators who are sharing their own stories.

In addition to the AbTeC island, there are workshops designed to teach Indigenous youth to become creators in a virtual space. By teaching gaming skills, and design, the workshops aim to have stories be told in a new way, and in a space that can be shared. Skawennati wants AbTeC to be a place where stories are shared. She claims “It doesn’t just have to be our traditional or ancient stories. It can also be stories about who we are today. It can also be stories about who we want to be in the future. But what’s important is that it’s our stories. And we realized that we need to teach people how to use the tools in cyberspace” (CBC Radio).

Having a virtual place connects to what Howe (1998) discusses in his spatial pillar for tribalism. Here he notes that the cyber world is nameless and not geographical. In many ways he is correct, but artists such as Skawennati are taking back the online spaces that have been typically designed and sold by a Western lens. This lens is telling a story about peoples who have historically been left out of the ‘picture’. So in a sense, she is claiming a new geography in a new futuristic world. Images from AbTeC Island would prove to be a great visual digital literacy lesson for SS9.

References and links

McNamara, R., (2020, July 1). Skawennati Makes Space for Indigenous Representation and Sovereignty in the Virtual World of Second Life. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/skawennati-abtec-island-indigenous-community-second-life-1202693110/

CBC Radio. (2018, May 10). Indigenous virtual reality: An experiment in ‘Indigenization of cyberspace’ | CBC Radio. CbC. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/from-soapstone-carving-to-second-life-indigenous-peoples-in-quebec-embrace-tradition-and-technology-1.4645198/indigenous-virtual-reality-an-experiment-in-indigenization-of-cyberspace-1.4654306

M4-P4 Wab Kinew – Walking in Two Worlds

“I’ve been wanting to write about the theme of overcoming adversity because it struck me that young people face a similar challenge today in the virtual world” (Wab Kinew, 2021).

Wab Kinew’s first young adult novel, “Walking in Two Worlds”, will be released this September and speaks to the two worlds we have been discussing in this course. Although this post is not directly tech related, it is about the role technology plays with identity. it would be a great resource to use in the classroom and is a true example of indigenization— having a story told from the perspective of an Indigenous voice about Indigenous issues and about how teenagers, both Indigenous and non, really wander in two worlds.

Kinew, W. [@wabber]. (2021, July 24).My first novel. [picture]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CRr4uglhWgT/

Kinew, W. [@wabber]. (2021, July 24).My first novel.[picture]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CRr4uglhWgT/

Kinew provides a short synopsis of the book: “Bugz is a shy teen from the Rez who becomes the world’s best gamer. She brings the civilization of her Anishinaabe ancestors and their supernatural relatives back to life in a virtual world that’s something like a cross between Fortnite and Minecraft. When a rival clan threatens this cultural resurgence she’s forced to dig deep to battle back on behalf of all she holds dear” (Kinew, 2021)

My final paper is looking at Howe’s (1998) description of  tribalism and this book would tie nicely to his social aspect, especially since this is about how an Indigenous teen is living in our current tech dominated reality. Howe (1998) believes the social aspect of tribalism lies with the “relationship between a unique community and their landscape that is often encoded in stories about particular events throughout their history” (p.22)  Although I have not read his book, I looked at Kinew’s Instagram (notice how technology, and even social media linked me to this novel?) and he was motivated to write this novel and stated:”I met some young Anishinaabeg who were reading YA fantasy and sci-fi. I couldn’t help but notice that while many of us have navigated what are sometimes referred to as the Indigenous and non-Indigenous worlds, that for many young people today balancing the virtual and “real” worlds is super important”.  I think this book, although fictional, lends a new view into what landscape Indigenous youth are connecting with, that being the online world.

I’m looking forward to using portions of this text in the SS9 curriculum as it is the right age. It will work with many key skills as well.

References and Links 

Kinew, W. [@wabber]. (2021, July 24).My first novel. [picture]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CRr4uglhWgT/

Whitlock, Nathan. (2021, April 28,). Authors Deborah Ellis and Wab Kinew talk about writing tough true stories for young readers.The Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-authors-deborah-ellis-and-wab-kinew-talk-about-writing-true-stories/

 

M4-P3 KAKWITENE VR- Language Revival and Retention

MoniGarr is an Onkwehone XR producer (amongst other titles) who asks a very important question: “As we decolonize, how do we teach and learn Kawkwitene language in a way that can minimize colonial values placed in our language?”

MoniGarr uses Ancient Intelligence (not Artificial Intelligence) to create a virtual garden embeded in the Kakwitene language.  The bright colours and flora are meant to replicate the “bright summer garden environment inspired by Iroquois Woodlands Raised Beadwork” (MoniGarr). The user enters the platform and has free navigation, there are no goals or quests to complete (like what can be found in more Western examples of gaming). Instead, one fly’s around almost like an insect onto “colorful pollen spores, which when flown into play audio recordings of Mohawk words. Users can repeat these words back to the VR system and improve their pronunciation” (MoniGarr). Users can repeat the words back through the head piece to work on pronunciation. What is interesting about this project is MoniGarr believe that language revival leads to a healthy way to “heal, overcome negative bias, and share a strong respectful message to All of Creation about each of our identities, values, and connections to our ancestors and homelands since time immemorial” (MoniGarr).

MoniGarr also conducted a small survey and concluded that new language learners were speaking with confidence within 3-7 minutes pers session. MoniGarr hopes that “our Onkwehonwehneha tactics, our source code, and software templates can be re-used by anyone working on similar projects” (MonGarr).

References 

MoniGarr. (2020). Kakwitene VR – First Person Scholar. http://www.firstpersonscholar.com/kakwitene-vr/

Greenwood, M.North Country at Work: Akwesasne’s Monica Peters designs virtual worlds. Retrieved from https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/39534/20190918/north-country-at-work-akwesasne-s-monica-peters-designs-virtual-worlds

 

 

 

M4-P2 Ground Blessing Ceremony and House Post – Burnaby North Secondary

Burnaby North is in the middle of a rebuild on grounds of the current fields and parking lots which is located on the unceded territory of the hən̓qəmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples . Before construction began, the Indigenous Team at the school and district (comprised of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples) met to discuss how we could recognize this new build with the context and guidance of our Ingenuous community and partners.

 

This Blog does not have to do with technology, but with ceremony and I believe it is useful for research for those who are looking at examples of indigenization in schools. I believe that Howe (1998) is completely accurate when he states that ceremonial events can’t be replicated in cyberspace. I say this as a non-Indigenous person who has been blessed to be invited to such ceremonies in the past. Nevertheless, this particular event supported what we have been uncovering in this class, the relationship between Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples working to uphold the Indigenous Traditional Knowledge system.

Teachers at Burnaby North were looking at how the new building could be a first step in reconciliation and wanted  to work with the Coast Salish (be it through art or teachings). We also did not want this to be a ‘one-off’ situation and looked to Indigenous artist and Squamish Nation Elder Xwalacktun to guide a collaborative art installation for the next building. Ultimately it was decided that he would come to the Burnaby North over the course of the year and work with Indigenous students and non-indigenous students on a House Post. Some of the features on the House Post have elements of the sea, sky and air as requested by the Indigenous students whom he talked to earlier in the year.  There is also the Medicine wheel to represent the many Nations who come to our school as well as salmon to represent the streams that drained both into the Burrard Inlet and the Fraser River.

Students at Burnaby North working on the House Post

But before the Elder Xwalacktun began, we had a Ground Blessing Ceremony with our Indigenous students, families, community member, administration and Indigenous community members. The ceremony began with an acknowledgment from our Principal, we has drummers from school, song, and blanketing take place as we offered gifts into the soil as we broke the earth. Stories were shared and in a large circle, we listened and learned. I was invited to shovel the first scoop along with other Indigenous students . The most moving part (for me) was when the ceremony was complete, THREE BALD EAGLES circled above our heads.  I can’t really explain the feeling we all had that day. I spoke to my students after and we just felt so at peace and really in awe with how nature almost communicated with us that day. I really felt like the eagles were almost acknowledging us at the site. It is this feeling that I think Howe (1998) believes is unimagined in cyberspace. I’ve included a link to another such project at a local Burnaby school below.

Ground Blessing Ceremony

Let me know if you have any questions!

Further Links

Indigenous Learnings and Moscrop’s Spindle Whorl

 

M4-P1 Transmissions: Lisa Jackson

Lisa Jackson’s multimedia installation, Transmissions, is a three-part world which invites guests to be submerged in two places and two times. With the use of film, sound, language, and translucent structures, visitors enter the first space and  “wander through windy coastal forests, by hauntingly empty glass towers, into soundscapes of ancient languages, and more” (Smith, 2019). The second space is a video image of a women, digging into the hard soil as the rain pounds down on her. She only comes to a pause when a moonbeam hovers over her. In the last world, language plays a role and is emphasized as Jackson’s main theme. Jackson believes Indigenous languages “continue to be threatened. What I am particularly concerned with is what is contained within them” (Jackson qtd. in Smith, 2019). Visitors sit on tree stumps as voices speak in Indigenous languages.

The is very intriguing about the installation is how it aims to teach or show the way Indigenous knowledge is so different from the Western way of thinking. Jackson claims Western ways of thinking are linear and her installation aims to distort this reality, to really make the visitors experience a new way of thinking and knowing. She wants “the audience to have a physical response and an emotional response. To [her], that gets closer to the Indigenous understanding”. (Smith, 2019).

I really wish I had the opportunity to see this work!

To connect back to my final paper, I believe this multimedia installation would connect with Howe’s discussion around the experimental dimension. Howe (1998) “recognizes that sacred ceremony performances reestablish environments wherein tribal communities perpetuate ongoing relationships with their higher spiritual dimension” (p.24). Although Jackson’s installation might not be a sacred ceremony, her work knits together how “from an Indigenous point of view, it’s all connected.” (Jackson, qtd. in Smith, 2019). I would connect this video with a Geography SS9 key skill (it would have made for a great field trip!).

Did anyone see the exhibit?

References and other links:

Smith Janet. (201).With sprawling Transmissions, Lisa Jackson creates a new film language from Indigenous roots. The Georgia Straight Retrieved from https://www.straight.com/arts/1292826/sprawling-transmissions-lisa-jackson-creates-new-film-language-indigenous-roots

Woodend, D. (2019). Transmissions: Listening — to Languages, Trees and Time. The Tyee, Retrieved from https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2019/09/19/Transmissions-Listening-Languages/

Lisa Jackson’s Transmissions

 

 

M3-P5 Decolonizing Water EC-GPS

“Learning is connected to place. Epistemologies, ontologies and indeed, cosmologies are generated from and connected to the land and water. For us, land and water are not only sites of learning, but are also actively involved in the process of education”                 http://decolonizingwater.ca/our-approach/#two-eyed-seeing

McGregor (2012) article, “Traditional Knowledge: Considerations for Protecting Water in Ontario” looks at the water crisis impacting Indigenous communities in Ontario and around the world. She determines that “Western science and technologies have prevented full and equal participation of Indigenous peoples in water management and is contributing to the loss and degradation of water” (p.2). However, she acknowledges that a holistic approach needs to be taken and recognizes that the “tools of science, applied appropriately, can aid us, we must turn to the traditions and knowledge that did not fail us for thousands of years to find a real solution”(McGregor, 2012, p.24).

The Decolonizing Water project is a great example of minds and perspectives coming together. The venture was developed within the Geography Department at the University of British Columbia and the goal of the project “is to create a self-sustaining water and ecological monitoring program that will enhance protection of water resources and fulfill the promise of Indigenous water governance”  (Decolonizing Water).

This project brings together non-indigenous and Indigenous students, artists, lawyers, Elders, and professors to find solutions for water issues that meld Indigenous law and modern scientific knowledge. The team is “committed to reciprocally enabling respectful Community-Based Research and observing OCAP (Ownership, Control, Access and Possession) protocols” (Decolonizing Water). In other words, the research and data is owned by the Indigenous communities and they then preserve the right over who can access and use the data.

One such innovation, The EC-GPS Water Logger which is a low-cost, easy to assemble device that tests water quality.  This technology enables communities to conduct fresh water monitoring with simple instructions and parts that can be easily accessed even in remote communities. This invention originated at a “Water Bush Camp organized by Caleb Behn (then-Executive Director of Keepers of the Water), in the traditional territory of Halfway River, Saulteau, and West Moberly First Nations at Carbon Lake in 2015. The logger is an adaptation of a device built by Dr. Mark Johnson (UBC) to log and monitor water in remote and humid environments in the tropics” (Decolonizing Water).

Please watch the video below to see the Water Bush Came meet up.

 

The Invention:

I started the think of the SS9 key skill: “What perspectives do different groups (environmental groups, First Peoples) have on the use of natural resources” and the Spiritual dimension Howe (1998) discusses in his tribalism framework. This source suggests that technology, relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can assist in preservation of water, which is a sacred entity (McGregor, 2012).

Other links and References:

McGregor, D. (2012). Traditional Knowledge: Considerations for Protecting Water in Ontario. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 3(3). http://dx.doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2012.3.3.11

M3-P4 Alo White of Naotkamegwanning First Nation creates the living website, firstnationselder.com

Our mission is to connect our people to ancestral traditions and teachings. Our programs, events, and workshops share Anishinaabe cultural knowledge and wisdom. Elders share traditional stories and songs in our digital resource library. Pride in our culture encourages our people to take ownership of the Anishinaabe ceremonies and sacred items to create a foundation for healing. – https://firstnationelders.com/

CBC Interview: Online project aims to preserve voices, knowledge of First Nations elders

Alo White of Naotkamegwanning First Nation has created a website focused on the goal to preserve and document language, story and culture. The website is an extenstion of The Ki’eshgitabaaning Cultural and Healing Lodge which “strives to keep Anishinaabe culture and cultural traditions alive today, tomorrow, and into the future. By sharing our culture through workshops, podcasts, songs, and stories, we hope to inspire pride in our heritage and a desire to preserve our traditions for future generations” (https://firstnationelders.com/).

With the onset of Covid-19, White noticed the disconnect that was occurring in his community as youth were increasingly more attached to their technology, specifically cell phones. When being interview on CBC Up North, White notes that “youth are tech savvy” and he, along with 25 Elders in the community, believe technology is a great way to connect to this generation. White lost his son to suicide and knows he had a craving for knowledge, culture, and history. He also wishes he had the opportunity to have recorded stories from his own Grandfather, thinking “if I could just turn on the website and have him share his song and knowledge, that would be really great for me” (Up North).

Currently the website site share links to song, workshops, and podcasts. White will be filming Elders but won’t be doing so until everyone has received two-shots of a vaccine.  A total of 25 Elders will be contributing to the site and will be welcomed to the Lodge to do so.

White believes that if knowledge is not recorded through the online platform that it will be lost. He concludes the interview by stating, “technology gives the opportunity to capture story on video and podcast for the future”. (Up North).  He is worried if knowledge isn’t recorded through online platform it will be lost. Technology gives the opportunity” to capture them on video and podcasts for the future”

Howe (1998) speaks of cyberspace as being unable to provide a lived and experienced sense of traibalim. Website’s designed with a community of Elders that are aiming to reignite and attach culture to those who have been absorbed into technology seems to circumnavigate some of the problem. Since this site is designed with the interest of the Naotkamegwanning, the land and story seems to be translate. I could connect any of these podcast to First Nations key skills in SS9.

Alo White discusses pictographs below from the website:

Videos

 

Resources and Further Links:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/first-nations-elders-website-1.5993540

 

 

 

M3-P3 MIT’s Indigenous Digital Delegation, Elder Dr. Duke Redbird’s keynote “Dish with one spoon” and Jackson 2Bears’ Virtual Haudenosaunee Longhouse LAYERS OF PLACE: The Art of Augmenting Public Spaces and Places with Stories and Technologies

“Technology can put a man in space or a nano-computer in every creature on Earth. Yet technology cannot answer this question that should be asked of anything. And it is an Indigenous question: ‘Is it wise?” – Dr. Duke Redbird (Ojibway), 2020, MIT Indigenous Digital Delegation

This is a 2-part Blog.

  1. MIT hosted their inaugural Indigenous Digital Delegation last fall that invited Indigenous artists, leaders, storytellers across Canada to work alongside MIT professors, researchers, and PHD students to synthesize Indigenous world views and technology. The purpose of this meeting of minds was to combine “Indigenous Knowledge, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Worlds [and] discuss diverse domains, from the decolonization of space, to re-imagining Indigenous architecture, to the role of community-based governance in the genetic modification of invasive species” (Indigenous knowledge and technology at MIT: “Is it wise?”). Various breakout sessions were hosted and can be accessed via the link below.

Keynote Address – Elder Duke Redbird’s “Dish with one Spoon”

I felt it important to share Duke Redbird’s Keynote speech “Dish with one Spoon”. His opening message so eloquently ties together all the major themes of this course: indigeneity, technology, and education. He speaks from a post-covid world about the importance of humanity, the generation of students, and the role technology can play in the future. Dr. Redbird noted that technology has made “a globe of villages, as opposed to a global village” [Redbird, 42;10] and highlights the adverse effects of technology, how it cannot teach wisdom and has ultimately made us programmed consumers in the market system. Yet, he also highlights the importance of technology moving forward. He speaks to those born after 1995, having the power “to explore an indigenous worldview and use technologies to change negative patterns and rethink the manner in which we engage the environment and of their own volition chooses to use the available technology to enhance their lives, recognizing that the future of all existence and humankind is dependent upon a robust and sacred relationship with the earth”. [Redbird, 59;04]

This keynote is so worth the watch, I really recommend it, even if you just read the transcripts.

  1. After looking through the MIT Open Documentary Lab I came across Jackson 2Bears (Kanien’kehaka) discussion in the LAYERS OF PLACE: The Art of Augmenting Public Spaces and Places with Stories and Technologies Jackson. 2Bears is the associate professor of Indigenous art studio and media arts at the University of Lethbridge and a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts Research and Technology. His research asks, “one crucial question: what does reconciliation and decolonization look like in the digital age?”(Two Bears named Tier II Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts Research and Technology).

During the symposium (linked below, skip to 12;20) 2Bears introduces his “large-scale immersive multimedia installation, Ne:Kahwistará:ken Kanónhsa’kówa í:se Onkwehonwe, [which is] being created in the spirit and image of Haudenosaunee longhouses”. 2Bears tells his audience that Haudenosaunee means “people of the long house” and he discusses the symbolism associated with theses spaces and how spiritualism connects Indigenous people to space. 2Bears has chosen a longhouse over a couple hundred years old located in Brantford, Ontario. He wants to create a “reciprocal relationship with the longhouse”  (2Bears, 17:28). Instead of taking from the land and putting something in a gallery, he wants to created a layered space. The longhouse would be A VR space, with projection technology and video mapping. 2Bears and his community want to create a virtual environment on top of the actual location. There is a pause on this project due to Covid as Jackson wants a “collective experience on site and recognise the space” [2bears, 18;42].He defends that land is alive, as stories exist in the space and animating landscape through digital technology can translate the story. [2Bears, 21:25].

If you watch the video below, 2Bears offers images and video of his project at 12:20 onward.

 

Other Links

https://news.mit.edu/2020/indigenous-knowledge-technology-mit-is-it-wise-1203

I would love to use parts of the keynote in Social Studies 9 and link it to the key skill: What perspectives do different groups (e.g., environmental groups, people employed in the forest industry, First Peoples, urban and rural populations) have on the use of natural resources?

References

Indigenous knowledge and technology at MIT: “Is it wise?”. (3 December 2020). MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Retrieved from https://news.mit.edu/2020/indigenous-knowledge-technology-mit-is-it-wise-1203

Jackson, 2. [MIT Open documentary Labd] (2021, June 16). LAYERS OF PLACE: The Art of Augmenting Public Spaces and Places with Stories and Technologies [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTC3ClLcApI&t=1295s

Redbird, D. [MIT Open Documentary Lab] (2020, November 13). In Conversation with Dr. Duke Redbird [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqjKF6ZAGBA&t=3557s

M3-P2 “Little Chief” Sundance Film Festival, 2019 – Erica Tremblay

“If there’s anything that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, it’s the sovereignty of joy. And how for so long our stories have been relegated to a time period and to a certain traumatic response baseline. I think it’s just time for us to realize that we can live in trailer parks and be happy. We can have successful jobs and still be indigenous. Joy is just so important. I’m so excited to see so many indigenous artists out there starting to explore what it means to be a modern happy indigenous person” (Tremblay, 2021, quoted in Cinema Femme)

 

As I continue to map out my final project, I began to think of Howe’s (1998) comment on the spiritualism dimension. He comments that the “spiritual dimension of tribalism guides the relationship between tribal peoples and their land” (Howe, 1998, p.23).  The readings in Module 8 had me identify that film/photography can act as a catalyst for Indigenous filmmakers and artists.  They allow stories of Indigenous peoples to be told by Indigenous peoples. Film seems to showcase this relationship in a subtle but eloquent way.

The discussion in Module 8 made me connect to the 12 minute story, “Little Chief”.

This short film was both written and directed by Erica Tremblay (Seneca-Cayuga) and showcases a teacher-student relationship at an elementary school on reservation in Oklahoma. The film follows a young school teacher who is overworked, tired, but has a deep affinity to her young students. Bear, a young boy, shares an instinctive connection with the teacher as she sees him walking to school with no jacket. She pulls over and offers him a yellow hoodie as they drive to school. During the day, the young boy is bullied for his stutter and immediately runs out of the classroom. As the teacher calls the office and declarers “we have a runner” she quickly grabs her jacket and runs to the boy.

The next scene the teacher and Bear are sitting together in a moment of silence. She makes a comment about alcohol and domestic abuse that is happening in the home, after Bear nods his head, she offers him a candy as she smokes a cigarette. Bear looks the most content in this scene versus the entire film.

This film reveals the connection between these characters. Although adult and child, there is an unspoken bond between them that this film eloquently reveals. When Tremblay was asked what motivated her to make the film, she called her her work, “a love letter to my mom and the sacrifices our matriarchs make for our communities. I am in awe of educators that are helping children through a bad day. They are going through their own healing, too”(Tremblay, 2021, quoted in Cinema Femme). She goes on to highlight how “Familial bonds and community ties are so important to all of us. It’s great to see projects come out that celebrate us as communities and cultures” (Tremblay, 2021, quoted in Cinema Femme).

To connect to my project again, I would use this film in Social Studies 9 to illustrate the curricular goal: “what evidence reflects that colonialism and imperialism still influence present day relationships?  Using an Indigenous perspective like this film would be a great way to discuss this.

If you’re interested in other sources:

Erica Tremblay discusses learning her Indigenous language on the Six Nations Reserve: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/little-chief-a-conversation-with-erica-tremblay/id1502130853?i=1000469393870

Indigenous Filmmaker Erica Tremblay charts her road to making “Little Chief” and future projects

 

A Talk with Erica Tremblay on ‘Little Chief’, Her Sundance Debut

http://bneart.com/ima-talk-brett-leavy/

M3-P1 Virtual Songline + Virtual Warrane – Virtual Time Traveling with Indigenous Australians

 

“It’s about really immersing people in the culture. We want to gain better respect, understanding, knowledge about our mob. And I just think this medium is the best” (Leavy, B quoted in https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/preserving-indigenous-culture-through-vr-brett-leavys-virtual-songlines/”

Brett Leavy is an Indigenous software programmer and virtual historian descending from the Kooma people of Queensland, Australia. Leavy and his team (made up of non-Indigenous and Indigenous developers) have created two gaming platforms Virtual Songline and Virtual Warrane, which transport the gamer to an Australia before the arrival of European settlers. A topographical map of Queensland and Sydney Harbour is pinged with dots and locations of various Indigenous groups and once you choose a location, you are immediately walking along the Brisbane River as an “avatar of an Indigenous Australian and [you can] move that avatar through a virtual space that replicates the Australia of the past” (Edgar, 2018).

Leavy wanted to recreate the past, and calls himself a virtual time traveler. The gaming platform “allows viewers to walk on pristine land among Aboriginal people, discover their architecture, see the boats the men rowed and hunted from, watch women collect food, view the precise ochre patterns on dancers. Using archaeological, historical research, Leavy and his team recreate the past” (Edgar, 2018).

My final paper will be contending Howe’s (1998) dimensions of tribalism in regards to online spaces. He contends that there is no real long term shared history and no land in cyberspace. Leavy and his team literally recreate the land of the past and “strives to ensure [the] application represent First Nations people as the original inventors, knowledge keepers and innovators in sustainable land use so users can gain a greater understanding of our connection to our land & cultural heritage” (Leavy, Virtual Songline).

Below is a youtube clip of the game itself.

      Further links and articles

References

Edgar, R. (2018, October 12). Virtual reality technology that really changes the game. The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/virtual-reality-technology-that-really-changes-the-game-20181005-h16ab8.html