By no means is this an exhaustive list of AR platforms out there, but these are the ones that I gleaned from the Amanda Almond (2021) paper “We Are All Related: (Re)Storying With Augmented Reality to Build Indigenous-Settler Relations”. These AR platforms in the form of apps virtually augment user experiences IRL, and would offer Indigenous storytelling, hence learning experiences in various ways. I have provided slogans or offerings in quotations below from each website that help explain what they provide. However, one aspect of these apps that I would like to explore is the protection of the user’s data since Indigenous knowledge is kept with sacred keepers, and only extended to certain initiates.
Wikitude: “Create unparalleled AR experiences with state-of-the-art technology to enhance the world around you.”
Actionbound: “Take people on real-world treasure hunts and guided walks.”
Ruptersland: “Rupertsland AR is an augmented reality app that is contributing to breaking new ground in Métis education with innovative tools for engagement and community building.”
Beaconstac: “Your entire proximity marketing solution [is] seamlessly connected to deliver the best customer experience.” Proximity marketing is a wireless means of communicating advertising to devices with compatible equipment.
Roar: “Scalable Cloud based SaaS Augmented Reality Content Creation Platform for Your Brand.”
Zappar: “The world’s leading augmented reality platform and creative studio.”
awe: “Your awe web app makes it easy for you to deliver Mixed Reality experiences through standard web browsers. Create and design your Mixed Reality content on almost any device, using only your web browser and awe.media.”
izi.travel: “We believe that every site or work of art has a story waiting to be told. That stories bring art, streets and cities to life. And that stories connect people.”
“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.
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.
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.
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?
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
This was a tough one for me to find, and in the end post. My first thought and search was for Google Expeditions, a Google app that offers virtual reality and augmented reality educational tours: well, I might say, “offered”. This app is going to be discontinued as of June 30, 2021 – next week! Turns out that much of what the app offered is moving over to Google Arts & Culture. Unfortunately, unlike Expeditions where students could use Google Cardboard and a mobile device to navigate through virtual worlds, Google Arts & Culture simply offers virtual tours. Regardless, some of the Google Arts & Culture tours offer an interesting means to teach and tell a story, and some are Indigenous. However, I do find it difficult to post this as these Indigenous stories and teachings are lumped together with arts & culture in an archival way, and not in a continuous, contemporary way that this knowledge should be displayed.