by Cara Krmpotich
The twenty “Mobile Community Research Kits” being built by GRASAC to support digital cultural heritage work and digital cultural production in communities are taking their first steps. On November 8, GRASAC invited a small number of research assistants and friends to test out the equipment, provide feedback on the user guides being developed, and discuss aspects of Indigenous data management and sovereignty.
Joining us for the test run were Stacy Allison-Cassin (Métis; assistant professor; librarian; and Wiki data expert), Sheila Wheesk (Cree, Taykwa Tagamou First Nation; master’s student, history; GRASAC RA), and Diane Michaud (Settler; librarian; VR and AR enthusiast). Also present were Haley Bryant, GRASAC RA and manager of the Mobile Community Research Kits; Cara Krmpotich, Co-Director of GRASAC; and Chantal Tam, GRASAC RA in charge of developing user guides for the kits.
Taking advantage of the sunshine, participants walked the University of Toronto campus, taking digital photographs, videos and recording sounds. People also experimented with macro photography of cultural belongings.
Since then, Sheila Wheesk was able to visit with a Cree hood at the Royal Ontario Museum, alongside fellow GRASAC RA Autumn Epple. Sheila brought one of the cameras with her, to take photos of the hood to share with her community and to use in her own research.
Following an invitation to talk about the Kits with colleagues at the National Museum of the American Indian, two kits will travel with Haley to Washington, DC this December. There, staff will gain a better sense of the kinds of community/museum projects made possible by the Kits.
Also in December, Haley and Cara are hitting the road to bring some Kits to Nbissing territory. With Katrina Srigley and Glenna Beaucage, GRASAC will provide an introduction to the equipment and leave a set of Kits for people to continue working with there.
The Kits include rugged laptops, digital cameras, audio recorders, and Oculus Quest 2 VR headsets. Document scanners and 3D cameras are both on order, and should be arriving soon. Other components in production include raspberry pis and mobile hot spots for internet access.
If anyone would like to try out a set of Kits while they are still in development, please contact Haley Bryant: haley.bryant@mail.utoronto.ca
We are keen to hear the kinds of projects people would like to undertake, and to work with GRASACers to learn what supports, training, or collaborations are desired.
