Braiding tech with Indigenous knowledge

On the second floor, inside the University of Vermont’s Votey Hall sits the creative tech world of the student-run Fab Lab. Their tagline, a place for innovation, creativity and digital fabrication. Make your ideas come true — aligned with our dream of creating three-dimensional topographical models of visual storytelling tools.

Judy Dow, Executive Director of Gedakina, teacher, artist and storyteller employs a framework of braiding Indigenous knowledge with science to teach students and teachers how better to read the land.

She emphasizes in her teachings to never lose sight of the cultural component of science — for, it is there that we stand to truly be able to read and understand what the land is telling and teaching us.

Once we connected with, Ryan Poliquin at the Fab Lab we set about sharing screenshots and layouts in order for Ryan to create digital layout files with the proper elevations and projections to feed into the 3-D printers in order to fabricate three models. The first was to be of the Lake Champlain watershed, the second, of the Connecticut River watershed and the third, of the Penobscot Watershed.

A month later — we sat with Ryan as he shared the methodology behind the creation of his models while Judy shared her stories.

A shout out of appreciation goes to the crew at The Fab Lab for their creativity and tech savvy!!