Thunder Bay, Ont., company helps Gwich'in community in N.W.T. preserve language, cultural teachings with tech

Preserving language and culture is important for Indigenous people, and from creating language apps to cultural camps, there have been many creative ways at bringing traditions to youth.

One organization in northwestern Ontario is doing its part — through virtual reality.

ORIGIN is a First Nation-owned business based in Thunder Bay, Ont., that recently went to the Northwest Territories, along with Arctic Indigenous Innovations, to get 2D and 360-degree footage to create a virtual reality experience.

For nine days in February and March, the teams worked with the Gwich'in community to capture places and traditions that are important to them to recreate it in a virtual reality format for both elders and youth. It was also done completely in Gwich'in. 

Charmaine McCraw, ORIGIN's Indigenous engagement and training lead, said they worked with a group of some 15 people — elders and youth — and it was a "really amazing" experience.

"There was quite a range of knowledge within the nation there and the people that we were working with," said McCraw.

As an Ojibway woman from northwestern Ontario, McCraw said it was interesting to see the differences and similarities between the Gwich'in community and the Ojibway community, as a lot of people tend to think of Indigenous people living up north only as Inuit.

"Definitely a lot of very area-based traditions that make them very unique," McCraw said. "So their caribou harvest and the mountains and the lifestyle … making sure safety comes first and all those types of things, those are some of the cool things to learn."

McCraw said a project such s this gives the community the opportunity to tell their own stories and to inspire youth to carry on these traditions — while also being able to travel to these spaces without actually physically being there.

"A lot of the time we have a lot of urban youth that are not living close to their traditional territory but want to stay connected," McCraw said. "They can put on their community experience and then be as if they were standing by the river back home or sitting with an elder that was telling a story about something that was significant to their community."

McCraw said the platform can also integrate existing footage, so if something has been captured that the community doesn't want to see go away, they can plant them in their interactive environment and be available for youth and elders.

Rhianna Firth, a Gwich'in youth who participated with the ORIGIN crew throughout the time they were in the community, got involved after hearing her grandfather, who organized it, talk about it, and thought it would be a cool experience.

Firth, her brother and some friends took part in some activities with the group.

"I thought it was actually pretty cool because nothing like that has ever been done. And I think this is just the start of something."