In the start, in keeping with one version of the Haudenosaunee creation story, there was only water and sky. According to oral tradition, when the sky woman became pregnant she fell through a hole within the clouds. While many animals accompanied her as she fell, she finally found a spot on the back of the turtle. Together with the assistance of other aquatic creatures, they raised the land from the depths of those primordial waters and created what we all know today as our Earth.
The latest immersive experience “Ne:Kahwistará:ken Kanónhsa'kówa í:se Onkwehonwe” is a vivid retelling of this creation story by multimedia artist Jackson 2bärsalso generally known as Tékeniyáhsen Ohkwá:ri (Kanien'kehà:ka), the Ida Ely Rubin Artist in Residence 2022–24 at MIT Center for Art, Science and Technology“An enormous a part of my work is finding latest ways to maintain Haudenosaunee teachings and stories alive in our communities, finding latest ways to inform them, but additionally helping to share and transform those stories because they’re a living a part of our cultural practice,” he says.
A virtual replica of the standard longhouse
2bears was initially inspired to create a virtual reality version of a longhouse, a conventional Haudenosaunee structure, in collaboration with Through the RedDoor, an Indigenous media company within the Six Nations on the Grand River that 2bears calls home. The longhouse isn’t only a “functional dwelling,” says 2bears, but a crucial spiritual and cultural center where creation myths are shared. “As we were developing the project, we were told by considered one of our knowledge keepers in the neighborhood that longhouses usually are not structures and never the materials they’re built from,” recalls 2bears. “It's in regards to the people, the Haudenosaunee. And it's about our creative cultural practices on this space that make it a sacred place.”
The virtual recreation of the longhouse connects storytelling to the physical landscape while providing a shared space for community members to assemble. In the Haudenosaunee worldview, 2bears says, “stories are each enduring and dimensional.” With “Ne:Kahwistará:ken Kanónhsa'kówa í:se Onkwehonwe,” the longhouse was delivered to life with drumming, dancing, knowledge sharing and storytelling. The immersive experience was meant to be communal. “We desired to develop a story that we could work on with a gaggle of other people, moderately than simply having one story author or director,” 2bears says. “We didn’t wish to use headsets. We desired to do something where we may very well be together, which is an element of the longhouse mentality,” he says.
The power of collaboration
2bears produced the project with support from Co-Creation Studio at MIT Open Documentation Laboratory“We consider co-creation as a dance, a way of working that challenges the notion of the only creator, the only standpoint,” says documentary filmmaker Kat Cizek, artistic director and co-founder of the studio, who began her work at MIT as a visiting artist of CAST. “And Jackson does that. He does that throughout the Six Nations community, but additionally with other communities and other Indigenous artists.”
In an individualistic society where the thought of the only creator is so often the main target, 2bears' practice offers a striking example of what it means to work as a collective, says Cizek. “I feel it's very difficult in any discipline to work without some level of collaboration,” she says. “What's different for us about co-creation is that individuals enter the room and not using a set agenda. They come into the room bringing questions and curiosity about what they may make together.”
2bears at MIT
At first, 2bears thought his time at MIT would help him with the technical side of his work. But over time, he discovered a wealthy community at MIT, a spot where he could explore the larger philosophical questions surrounding technology, indigenous knowledge, and artificial intelligence. “We fairly often think not nearly human intelligence, but additionally about animal intelligence and the spirit of the sky and the trees and the grass and the living earth,” says 2bears, “and I see that reflected here at the varsity.”
In 2023, 2bears participated within the Co-Creation Studio Indigenous Immersive Incubator at MIT, a historic gathering of 10 Indigenous artists who toured MIT's labs and met Indigenous leaders at MIT and beyond. As a part of the summit, he presented “Ne:Kahwistará:ken Kanónhsa'kówa í:se Onkwehonwe” as a piece in progress. This spring, he presented the most recent version of the work at MIT in smaller settings with student groups and in a big public lecture hosted by CAST and the Art, Culture and Technology Program. His “experimental approach to storytelling and communication really conveys the ability of what it means to be a community as an Indigenous person and the unique great thing about all of our people,” says Nicole McGaa, Oglala Lakota, co-president of MIT's Native American Indigenous Association.
Storytelling in 360 degrees
2bear's virtual recreation became much more necessary after the longhouse in the neighborhood unexpectedly burned down midway through the method, after the team created 3D scans of the structure. With no constructing to project onto, they used ingenuity and creativity to maneuver on to the present iteration of the project.
The immersive experience was remarkable for its sheer scale, with 8-foot-tall images projected on a 34-foot-diameter screen. Using multi-projector video mapping and 14-channel surround sound, the story of Sky Woman coming to Turtle Island took on a large form. It premiered on the 2RO MEDIA Festival and was enthusiastically received by the Six Nations community. “It was so beautiful. You could look in any direction and something was happening,” says Gary Joseph, director of Thru the RedDoor. “It touches you in ways you didn't think you possibly can be affected by, since you see the stuff you hold sacred being expressed in ways you never imagined.”
In the long run, 2bears desires to make the installation more interactive, allowing participants to interact with the experience in their very own way and create multiple versions of the creation story. “I envisioned it as a living installation,” he says. “It was really a collaborative project and I couldn't have been happier with the way it turned out. And I'm really excited to see where this project goes in the long run.”
