Originally posted by kmonkman on January 8, 2019
I have been keenly interested recently in the potential of AR in education, and I have had many conversations with colleagues in Aboriginal Education about the potential of AR to enhance connections to place and language. After doing some digging, I found a wonderful free mobile application called Wikiup, created by the Vancouver Native Housing Society. Wikiup – Indigenous Knowledge Network, along with its companion AR app Wikiup AR, is a “location based Indigenous Knowledge Network of stories and trails.” The designers invite users “to explore, discover and experience cultural stories, traditional place names and trails.”
The apps, as of now, only cover Vancouver, BC, but their potential is fascinating and could be applied anywhere. Ultimately, these apps provide opportunities for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous users to experience interactive narratives about the places they live or visit, from an Indigenous perspective. The ability to explore solo, or with a group, via mobile devices, affords users the chance to curate their own experiences, unlike say participating in a static guided audio tour of an Indigenous exhibit at a museum. Mobile AR technology can make the stories come to life in a way that no other medium can, outside of a personal face-to-face guided tour, which is limited by guide availability etc. However, the mobile nature of the app allows users to experience these stories of people, place, and history when and where they choose.
Finally, what makes this initiative so compelling is that the designers have made a call for “Story Catchers” to help build the knowledge base, and “Cultural Guides” to vet and authenticate the contributions of the “Story Catchers”. There is significant potential for this crowdsourcing design model to allow Indigenous students and knowledge keepers to share their stories, becoming both consumers and creators.
The apps can be downloaded below
Further information about the app can be found at https://wikiup.org/
To read about the app’s potential to bridge Indigenous-settler relationships, and it use in higher education click HERE.
This app would be a fantastic resource to teach students about Indigenous history. When I first started teaching, I had a lot of difficulty incorporating Indigenous content into my classroom and making it engaging for students. Having students be able to interact with the environment and see what the area they live in looked like in the past would generate a lot of interest with the students and inspire them to want to explore other areas as well. If elders could be asked to communicate with Story Catchers and Cultural Guides and share their stories, it would become an invaluable resource and help the elders preserve and pass down their stories and cultural history. The Indigenous tradition of oral story telling will live on timelessly with the development of this app.