Navajo Media Lab

Virtual reality to incorporate Navajo teachings, culture, and stories.

Digital cultural preservation is a mission that I’ve been working towards when learning of virtual reality technology. Being Navajo, I’ve learned the centrality of oral culture as mediating knowledge and its cultural preservation role in all Native communities. The Navajo language is rapidly declining that poses a threat of Native identity loss to the future generations. One important question is how Navajos can preserve their cultural knowledge? I believe by embracing new technology we’ll be able to retain and transition from an oral culture to a visual culture. The technology that enables this mission to move forward is learning how virtual reality can be the bridge between visual and oral culture. Naturally, Native American people are visual learners and are hands-on learners, with the capabilities of virtual reality this enables people of all ages, but most importantly the youth in rural communities to learn about Navajo culture. By introducing this technology to the community it will provide opportunities for the youth to take a greater interest in their identity, culture, teachings, and stories. 

Virtual reality is an existing and new technology. However, when you integrate a first person Navajo designed perspective, it opens an undiscovered opportunity to generate Navajo educational content. Both software and hardware technology configure the platform that will address a two-step process: the designing and coding of a 3D Navajo virtual world based on Navajo perspective, and a virtual interaction by Navajo youth. As of now, Navajo communities lack access to both VR technology and opportunities as emerging technologies. We can harness this technology as an educational complement to strengthen our cultural teachings using oral and visual comprehension of knowledge.

This project utilizes emerging technology to allow young Navajo people to reimagine their traditions a differently and strengthen their future. We refer to this as reimagination because this technology would enable youth to understand Navajo culture prior to contact with Euro-American cultures. This project gives youth access to their cultural history and can allow them to implement what they (re)imagine into our present realities.

We propose a “Navajo Media Lab” to be housed on the Navajo Technical University’s (NTU) main campus that supplements the New Media Degree with hands-on design opportunities for students. The communities will be invited and efforts to involve surrounding K-12 schools as a collaboration with existing NTU programs will interested members from the community and schools to learn about the emerging technology.  

Currently, I’m an intern to NTU’s Ke’yah Adv. Rural Mfg. Alliance (KARMA) and we work with approximately 100 students, this project would seamlessly be an extension to our MakerPlace 3D printing at (7) K-12 schools.  The project has the potential of serving many people, but since this is still in development; I don’t have a specific number of individuals being served. I hope that this project is able to serve the Navajo youth and educating them about their identity, stories, teachings, and culture.

The future goal of the project is building the capacity on Navajo Technical University’s (NTU) main campus to generate Navajo educational content part of the New Media Degree. Over the next year, the goal is growing our knowledge about the VR’s capabilities and structuring a network with New Mexico State Univ. (NMSU) and other universities to accelerate capacity by accessing mentors to create content. The Navajo Media Lab would then engage with Navajo youth in the community schools. Over time, NTU would work with the Dine’ Studies program to host workshops utilizing the Navajo Media Lab to showcase the content. 

Partnerships with NTU allowed me to have a potential mentor like New Mexico State University’s Assistant Professor Animation, Anthony Deiter, who is Native American. With his expertise in 3D modeling, Maya software, and 3D animation; we can be able to accelerate our knowledge with his expertise. I was selected for the 2015 Obama White House Student Film Festival, I won several local film festivals, I worked with NMSU’s StudioG to plan my business, I established a Non-profit “Born for Water,” and my poetry was recognized in Tribal College Journal. 

I’m applying to Solve because it’s an opportunity to resolve a threat to Navajo culture: the loss of language and ultimately identity. Although Navajo is the largest federally recognized tribe in the US, the threat to the language loss is real. I believe that Solve, with its emphasis on technology and culture, can help my Navajo community maintain cultural identity. These values help our leaders and community re-invest back into the Navajo society, thus leading them to cultivate healthy lives. The funding received from this fellowship will help support our work at NTU and create a unique New Media Degree.

The animation assistant professor from New Mexico State University is a possible entity that would help to facilitate workshops to learn about 3D modeling hardware and software. Other partnership at NTU such as the Engineering College and KARMA/Navajo Tech Innovation Center (NTIC) who are working with K-12 schools on 3D printing, MakerPlaces and robotics technology. This also Lab29 that is working to provide opportunities in coding for Navajo youth. The different programs on NTU campus would be other networks that would best work together to provide different prospective of the Navajo virtual content. 

With the different programs at NTU we would work to collaborate to create interest in different opportunities for their specific disciplines. This opportunity would allow collaboration to other Tribal Colleges like Dine' College. For example, Dine' College is another Navajo tribal college centrally located on the reservation. This opportunity would allow the Navajo Media Lab to be accessed from Crownpoint, NM and Tsaile, AZ. Dine' College's emphasize on Navajo culture would create more opportunities to collaborate as tribal institutions.