Daigwade Project

Daigwade Project Logo
The Daigwade Project (NSF Grant #1943630)is a community-based project with Utah State University and Spy Hop Productions. Our project adopts what is called a "culturally disruptive" approach, which requires us to constantly reflect on ourselves as cultural beings and recognize the power and privilege connected to that. For example, disciplines like science are often thought of as “acultural” or without culture, and instead we see science as a rich cultural activity and process. We also employ a unique community-driven design research process where the Northwestern Shoshone are ultimately in charge of the over all process — the goal here is to disrupt the the inherent power researchers have in an academic institution. Together, we want to share and preserve important cultural and historical stories of the Tribe as well as develop and sustain technological and design skills using professional practices and processes. We plan to do this by creating “place-based storytelling experiences” or stories that you can experience in a specific location via your mobile device. We will create these stories at sites that are particularly significant to the Tribe, where they want to share their science and culture with the public. The first site is Boa Ogoi a cultural center being built at the Bear River Massacre site, the location of one of the worst massacre’s of Indigenous peoples in U.S. history. We hope our process will help other tribal communities who might want to engage in similar work and will inform researchers, educators, and designers who think about things like culture, science, and technology.