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(BC Ministry of Education, & First Nations Education Steering Committee, 2007)
Decolonization requires people to be on the land in an informed and meaningful manner because "Indigenous cultural and linguistic knowledge is often location-specific and community-internal" (Carpenter et al., 2016, p. 9, & Beaton & Carpenter, 2016). The mobility aspect of Augmented Reality (AR) provides an opportunity for decolonization. Indigenous teachings, especially indigenous science, teach that all things are interwoven and interconnected, and relationality with the land is essential (Duarte, 2017). Many indigenous groups use digital technology to share stories and information to create spaces for "indigenous forms of resistance, endurance, and liberation (Duarte, 2017, p. 130)." Mobile AR can be a decolonization tool to connect with the culture, land, and indigenous teachings (Beaton & Carpenter, 2016).
While many indigenous groups are using digital technologies like AR, many of them are not available through open portals to the public (Carpenter et al., 2016). Owning and controlling these tools and networks, managing their content, and what is shared online is an important part of decolonization (Beaton & Carpenter, 2016), as one of the First People’s Principles of Learning is that “Learning involves recognizing that some knowledge is sacred and only shared with permission and/or in certain situations.”
There are many examples of Indigenous culture being misrepresented and objectified online and in other media, so when Indigenous content is made available to the public groups are no longer able to able to control how that information is used, interpreted, and represented (Beaton & Carpenter, 2016). At the same time, “by generating their own digital visibility and legibility, Indigenous communities become ‘present’ online, and thereby exert increasing control over the terms of their own representation rather than be continually misrepresented by others (Carpenter et al., 2016, p. 4)."
So while there has not previously been a lot of Indigenous AR content available to the public, this is a steadily growing field of educational resources that help support Truth and Reconciliation. Please check out our Indigenous AR resources page for a list of AR resources related to Indigenous culture.
Figure 7.1 (Duarte, 2017, p. 129)
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