+Exhibition Series
Anishinaabe Futurisms
A look into the future with a language revitalization robot for Indigenous languages.
Our children are our future. Exploring the "Anishinaabe Futurisms" art series, we venture a century ahead into the world of the Anishinaabe people, and imagine what toys will our future generations play with. We envision this through a through a 3D printed and hand-made robot named the SkoBot that sits on the wearers shoulder, teaches Anishinaabemowin and sings, and wears regalia.
Meet the SkoBot, a wearable language revitalization robot, seamlessly blending Anishinaabe fashion and technology. This collection builds off of a real-world robot designed by us here at The STEAM Connection that hundreds of youth have built to speak their Indigenous languages through ethical AI. It is used to supplement community language learning and familial relationships for free. We aim to dig a deeper look into how the future could look for our communities through technology to preserve our cultures. Our organization has served 800k+ youth and has distributed 11k+ robots and hundreds of language robots to youth across Turtle Island all for free. Our focus is in providing technical education and changing the narrative surrounding the futures of Indigenous peoples. This exhibition series and robots were created by our founder and Indigenous artist Danielle Boyer who is Ojibwe (also referred to as Anishinaabe) and an Enrolled Citizen of the Sault Tribe.
Debuted at the imagineNATIVE Film Festival at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in the Indigital gallery.
The unveiling of this collection took place at the prestigious imagineNATIVE Film Festival, the largest Indigenous film festival in the world. It was hosted at the renowned TIFF Bell Lightbox within the Indigital Gallery. The robots are scheduled for another debut at the Bedford Gallery in the Re-Discovering Native America: Stories in Motion with The Red Road Project exhibition from April 13th through June 23rd, 2024. The exhibition focuses on changing the conversation around Native American cultures and legacies. Following this release, the robots are poised to embark on a four-year tour in acclaimed museums across North America and details remain confidential to the public at this time.
A video of "Anishinaabe Futurisms" seen at the imagineNATIVE Film Festival.
The week long "Anishinaabe Futurisms" debut at the imagineNATIVE Film Festival in the Indigital Gallery at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The SkoBot (left) is named Gaazhag. The SkoBot (center) is called the “Unicorn Princess” and is a student favorite. The SkoBot (right) is named Aakdehewin.
The prints featured in the Indigital Gallery exhibition by artist Danielle Boyer.
SkoBots seen in action.