Virtual Aamjiwnaang: Indigenous interactive storytelling

Abstract

Stories shape how we understand ourselves and the world around us. They inform our sense of belonging, and connect us to our past. Stories are our lives. And we are our stories. Given their undeniable weight, we ought to question what their form and content teaches us. Increasingly, stories are shared as interactive digital experiences; a reshaping that impacts their configuration, their reach and their outcome. For Indigenous peoples, who continue to resist the colonial paradigm, digital storytelling can represent a weapon of subtle yet pervasive colonialism or be a tool to talk back. Virtual Aamjiwnaang is an interactive platform that integrates Indigenous storytelling practices in recounting the lived realities of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation online. Inspired by the Two-Eyed Seeing approach, which encourages embracing multiple perspectives, and building on previous digital experiences, Virtual Aamjiwnaang proposes methods for creating digital territories that honour Indigenous ways of knowing.