Federal funding will go towards further developing immersive video game where players learn the Anishinaabe language, culture and ways of life

TORONTO, June 4, 2024 鈥� , a sociology professor at 91亚色鈥檚 Glendon Campus, is the recipient of for her Indigenous-led metaverse project Biskaabiiyaang: Creating a path towards healing and reconciliation. , associate professor in theatre and creative technologies at 91亚色鈥檚 School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), is a co-applicant. Robyn O鈥橪oughlin joins the team as co-applicant working within the New Brunswick Ministry of Education. 91亚色 and the are also partners in the grant application. The award was created in response to Call to Action 65 to establish a national research program to advance understanding of reconciliation. It is a joint initiative of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Chacaby鈥檚 immersive virtual game is set in a post-apocalyptic world invaded by linguicidals responsible for the death of the Ojibwe language Anishinaabemowin. It challenges players to learn the language 鈥� and save it from extinction 鈥� by exploring ruins, listening to the teachings of Elders and taking lessons from nature. Players discover how Indigenous history and culture have a role in returning beauty and magic to this world where Anishinaabe ways of life prevail. As an Indigenous community-led research project, Nokiiwin Tribal Council guides the work ensuring that Indigenous communities are first and foremost in the project鈥檚 direction.

鈥淢etaverses, as we see them in the Western world, are spaces where Indigenous people do not exist,鈥� says Chacaby, who is Anishinaabe, Beaver Clan from Kaministiquia (Thunder Bay). 鈥淭hat is a form of colonial erasure happening in these new technologies that I really want to disrupt.鈥� Part of the groundbreaking interdisciplinary research program Connected Minds: Neural and Machine Systems for a Healthy, Just Society, Biskaabiiyaang works to address the impacts of colonization on Indigenous communities, support culture-based healing practices and encourage language reclamation.

Chacaby, a research associate with the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages, has long promoted Anishinaabe culture and language through courses she鈥檚 developed at Glendon. In 2016, for her online classes, she crafted a Dungeons and Dragons-style, card-based role-playing game in Anishinaabemowin. This gamified approach to learning led to soaring proficiency levels, with grammar and other difficult areas of language acquisition becoming easier as students developed characters and completed quests. But Chacaby wanted anyone to have access to this education. That鈥檚 where the metaverse came in.

An avid gamer, Chacaby noted how within massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft and Fallout, players use and coin terms that are only understood by other users and immediate team members. That made her realize these virtual worlds were environments ripe for learning. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥業f young people can talk in this very sophisticated technical language about a made up world, we can do the exact same thing with the culture鈥�,鈥� says Chacaby.

The project uses research-creation methodologies to build an audio and visual archive that is the foundation of the Biskaabiiyaang metaverse. Scott Baker, the education manager for the Nokiiwin Tribal Council, describes his excitement about Elders鈥� teachings making their way into the virtual world. 鈥淲hat the SSHRC grant is going to open up for us is to start collecting these stories,鈥� says Baker.

鈥淲e're actually documenting stories and teachings, and these will live long beyond when I'm gone,鈥� says Audrey Gilbeau, executive director of the Tribal Council. A co-creation with community Elders and Indigenous youth, the virtual world is a community-built and -owned archive that鈥檚 alive, growing and changing. She says that Elders and Knowledge Keepers who have passed away over the past five years, since work on Biskaabiiyaang began, continue to live on in the recordings and stories captured in the project.

The best way for a community to hold an archive is in a format that people can access, says Caines, adding: 鈥淭he metaverse is the archive.鈥� The researchers have partnered with , a virtual world platform, to build the metaverse and bring the archive to life. Content in the metaverse is based upon Anishinaabe worldview and culture as well as family histories and individuals鈥� lived experiences. The virtual world is a place where players learn by undertaking quests and interacting with traditional tools and objects, teachings, and language learning modules using culture-based game mechanics.

In partnership with AMPD鈥檚 new program opening at Markham Campus, undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral research fellows will come together with Indigenous teens from the region to work on the metaverse at the new facilities, as well as gain on-site training in Northern Ontario. Biskaabiiyaang is the first step in a decade-long project running in tandem with the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages. A multi-year project, it is a direct response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action 65.

Visit the Biskaabiiyaang to learn more and download a free demonstration.

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TORONTO, March 9, 2023 鈥� Thirty years ago, in his novel Snow Crash, science fiction author Neal Stephenson imagined the future metaverse with humans as programmable avatars 鈥� interacting with each other and software agents in a virtual space. While he can now create his own avatar and experience life in the virtual world as he once predicted, he is bound to face some of the issues that come with it.

According to 91亚色 experts at Osgoode Hall Law School, as the metaverse grows fast and furious with major companies investing in this cyberspace, legal issues are emerging at the same pace.

鈥淥ne of the biggest fears is that businesses will collect our biometric data without our permission,鈥� says law Professor , director of Jack & Mae Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security. 鈥淲e may think that we are entering the metaverse to play a silly game, but what we may actually end up doing is revealing an intimate portrait of our lives without even knowing it.鈥�

The metaverse also poses several challenges for workers, says artificial intelligence (AI) and labour regulation Professor . 鈥淭he technology has introduced new problems such as intensified electronic surveillance and reinforcement of some existing biases,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he metaverse increases risks of cyberbullying, discrimination and to be misclassified as independent contractors 鈥� thus losing access to labour and employment protection.鈥�

Choudhury and De Stefano will be presenting at symposium today, Thursday, March 9 at noon. Other topics to be addressed by their colleagues at the symposium include constitutional, criminal, tax and intellectual property law, as those relate to the development of the metaverse.

Choudhury can discuss the following topics:

• Can governments 鈥� which have traditionally been the sole protectors of human rights 鈥� continue to be so with the emergence of the metaverse? 
• Who should be the ones ultimately responsible for protecting our human rights 鈥� corporations or governments?
• How do we get corporations to prioritize the protection of our human rights?
• Why is holding corporations accountable for their unauthorized data collection and other human rights infractions in the metaverse so difficult? 

De Stefano is available to discuss:

• What are the ongoing challenges and opportunities facing workers as the metaverse develops?
• How does algorithmic management and electronic monitoring of employees affect human rights?
• What workplace health and safety issues are caused by widespread electronic monitoring?
• What are the implications of labour regulation and platform/gig work based on the metaverse?

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