This EAGER Project is the first phase in a multi-stage, multi-year project to explore Chugach artifacts in museums all over the world. The ultimate goal is to create a larger project will create a complete digital archive of Chugach material culture worldwide; build a temporary exhibition that can travel both within and beyond the Chugach Region local exhibits in rural communities in the Chugach region ; and establish a group of committed and trained youth and Elders who will curate their local exhibits and share the information they contain in future years.
One of the goals of this project is to provide an avenue for the people of the region to see artifacts from their heritage and learn about the cultural significance of those artifacts through Augmented Reality technology. Although the artifacts will be on loan to the project, the exhibit will represent a vast array of cultural knowledge not currently accessible in the region.
Further, the model the project will create for studying and displaying historical information about all indigenous peoples using augmented reality technology will be examined for its utility to museums and cultural organizations in other times and places. The project will explore critical research questions of interest to scientists and community members alike, such as: How were traditional values and worldview expressed through objects produced within the culture? What is the value to people today of knowledge about their cultural heritage? What connections can the people of the region make between the traditional knowledge exhibited and their worldview? These questions are particularly relevant in the context of the Alutiiq culture that has already undergone massive changes since the objects were produced and a region where people are striving to regain a culture they fear has been lost. The guiding questions will provide a pathway towards regaining the cultural knowledge that has undergone many generations of changes. The traditional knowledge exhibited by the artifacts will be researched and documented to retain the knowledge for future generations to come.
This research is potentially transformative on numerous levels: 1) Youth & Elders: Interaction between Youth & Elders will bring a natural teaching and learning experience that was once a part of the Sugpiaq culture as they work together identifying artifacts and documenting the significance of the artifacts. 2) Material & Social Culture: The objects will be described to the Youth by the Elders on how the Sugpiaq made, used, and preserved the artifacts. How they were used in their everyday lives and the artifacts social significance will be documented. 3) Technology & Exhibits: Augmented reality technology will be used for display and interaction with the artifacts. An online archiving system will be used to document the culturally significant artifacts. Each of these aspects of the project will produce a model of community and science partnerships for researching and preserving knowledge and artifacts of great cultural and community significance.
Being Aware of Our Beginnings (Llangarlluku Lucillerpet Cuumi) PI: Helen Morris Awardee: Chugachmiut Award Number: 1153566 Award Expires: 06/30/2014 Program Officer Name: Anna Kerttula de Echave Program Officer Email Address: akerttula@nsf.gov Program Officer Phone Number: (703) 292-7432 Some five years ago, Chugachmiut began reclaiming its intellectual heritage. We developed "heritage kits" that are now in use in the classrooms of the four school districts in our region; offered three three-credit graduate-level courses about Chugachmiut culture and history online to teachers; and worked with Elders to codify, record and produce videotapes on Chugachmiut culture and history. In the process we found that many of the physical tools and accompanying knowledge that enabled our ancestors to live prosperously and sustainably in Prince William Sound and the lower Kenai Peninsula are missing and, in some cases, forgotten due to two centuries of contact with Europeans and Americans. Only the Elders remember precise environmental information. Meanwhile, we observed that the public schools our children attend have contributed to the loss of cultural knowledge. Textbooks are written in the Lower 48. Not a single text mentions the Sugpiaq people in general nor the Chugachmiut in particular. This speaks to the general level of almost complete ignorance about our culture and it translates into an educational experience for our children that is far removed from their environment, knowledge, and potential. Parents declared this an unacceptable situation. Finally, we noted that the ascendancy of computers presents both a challenge and an opportunity: Like youth everywhere, ours are seduced by the ease, promise, and beauty of this medium – yet we have not had the wherewithal in the past to capitalize on this tool as a way to extend Chugachmiut cultural knowledge. This project offered an opportunity to do so. Although our organizational interests tend toward our own people, we are equally mindful that the work we do to make the information available to our children through the Internet will also benefit the worldwide community of researchers and interested individuals. Funding from the National Science Foundation allowed us to focus both research questions and activities on a search for and presentation of our cultural heritage. We located Chugach collections worldwide – approximately 700 non-archaeological objects in more than a dozen museums; photographed objects at the National Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C.) and the Burke Museum at the University of Washington; contacted museum curators throughout the world and nation (Berlin, Helsinki, Copenhagen, London, Oxford, St. Petersburg, as well as Washington, D.C., Berkeley, Seattle, and Philadelphia) to explain our project’s goals, learn their policies for the use of digital images, and set the stage for future visits to examine their Chugach objects; and undertook a pilot visit by Elders and youth to the National Museum of Natural History to determine the benefits and requirements for their future involvement in examining Chugach objects in museums. We conducted focus groups with youth and elders to determine specific areas of cultural interest, the type of interface they prefer in an online environment, and what messages or information they would like the information to convey to the world at large. We redesigned the Chugachmiut website (under separate funding) to accommodate the database interface so that the data we gathered could be made available online. We formed an advisory committee to determine a storyline for a virtual online exhibit of Chugachmiut museum objects; explored the potential of Augmented Reality as a user interface that could enhance the experience for viewers; developed specifications for photographs to be included in the digital archive; and purchased, developed policies for, and began populating a Content Management System (Proficio Re:discovery). Our exploration of Augmented Reality resulted in one of the project’s most popular outcomes – the linking of high-resolution photographs of objects to related media such as videos, historic photographs, and close-ups of objects. We also experimented with software to develop three-dimensional renderings of the photographs in a manner similar to the way artists’ drawings of dinosaurs, human anatomy, and battle scenes have been rendered elsewhere. We found the software did not deliver the desired seamless images, but we are continuing to work with the University of Illinois Augmented Reality laboratory to make this part of the project a reality. In sum, Chugachmiut now has in place a database with an interface to its website. We are posed to expand the information in the database with more images, digital accession records and physical descriptions, and Elder commentary. We have in place a plan for a virtual exhibit that can be developed with further funding. We have obtained commitments from scholars who are interested in preparing essays for a virtual (and, perhaps, print version) catalog of the objects on topics ranging from artistic styles to uses to Sugt’stun translations.
