Finding My Place in the Rise of Indigenous Futures

In the final months of 2024, after discovering my pregnancy, a moment of doomscrolling led me to IndigiTECH, a remote learning opportunity that would take up much of my term.

Although I have a strong love for ecological programming, I was drawn toward the elusive supergiant that is the tech industry and my nauseous self was determined to find my place within it. I had foundational coding skills from creating themes in my teen years, when Tumblr peaked and was the go-to place for it-girls and media.

In Phase 1, one of my capstone projects was a requirement for my coding class, so I created a website for a non-profit organization that is in the works of becoming a reality. Together with my friends from Green Thumbs Growing Kids, we became the Waabigwan Roots Collective—programming that is rooted in Indigenous knowledge and language.

Throughout my UX Design class, I created a prototype app for the language revitalization—however my main challenge was: how do I make learning a language fun?

My thought process consisted of questions that were initiated through user research, I wanted to make something that exceeded the limits of standardize learning formats. As I believe that my people, in fact all of us, were never meant to learn through institutions where human connection and community learning are scarce.

Of course, many Indigenous language teachers kindly offer their time to facilitate programs through Zoom, but we never really learn as a community. Therefore, I had to navigate through other language apps and find the missing piece. A lot of my researched required conducting user interviews, so I reached out to remote and urban Indigenous youth and parents. I concluded that language learning had its limitations or were not offered at their school, therefore I had to create something accessible, educational, and exciting to engage.

Unfortunately, I was unable to participate in Phase 2 of the IndigiTECH Mentorship Program, which would have opened more doors for me; however, by then, I was due at any moment. However I am forever grateful to have able to learn and create projects that aligned with my interests as a land-based educator. Despite not moving onto the next phase, I was able to gain transferable skills that will strengthen my work as a leader for the Waabigwan Roots Collective and as a designer.