Traditional revolution: Mik Jade

Is it provocative to say traditions change? Or, that traditions adapt, mould to the times, are not isolated from the societies they exist in? That the way we tell stories evolves?

Innovator Mik Jade has taken huge risks on her mission to use the best technologies to protect and share Indigenous Knowledge. 

A Cabrogal woman of the Dharug-speaking nation, she leads with a community-first approach, building towards a better together world and using technology in innovative ways to do so.

Through the company she founded, Indigital, Mik is introducing communities to the skills needed in today’s high-tech world and introducing organisations to the considerations they need to make for working on Country, using machine learning and holograms to increase educational opportunities, foster collaboration and build respect.

In this episode, Mik spoke to us about turning Songlines into holograms, bringing Country to those who can’t make the journey, and making one of the largest murals in Australia through a community’s use of machine learning.

Image: Tasmanian Aboriginal woman, Julie Dunlop, tries out the technology

Innovation doesn’t have to disrupt tradition. And, conversely, tradition does not have to stifle innovation. Innovation can be harnessed to support and strengthen tradition, as can be seen in the work of Mik Jade. 

Mik has been aligning the high end of technology to the aims of Indigenous communities for many years. Her work has led her to addressing the UN and making The Australian’s 100 Top Innovators list.

She wants to make sure people everywhere “not just consume tech but create it”.

Even though she’s gone all over the world, and worked on big projects, she speaks with the most wonder about her projects on Country with her Aunties and Uncles. Particularly in Dharug-speaking regions, a water tank is to be emblazoned with possibly the largest mural in Australia, produced through the community using machine learning to build an image of their culture. 

It all started when she saw archeologists and academics having more say on how her cultures were represented in national parks than those directly living those cultures. She wanted to empower Indigenous people to tell their stories – and she wanted to use the latest technologies to do it.

Rather than reading the signs in the park, written by archeologists analysing the rock carvings, she envisioned an experience of the life and meanings of those carvings through a phone app, created by the local Indigenous community.

Building up from rock bottom and pushing forward with rugged determination towards her vision, the app became a reality at a time before 3D scanners and drones were a common resource. Through the showcase and start-up events she attended, Mik crossed paths with a Microsoft exec who challenged her to turn the app into a HoloLens product in three weeks.

HoloLens is the Microsoft product of an augmented-reality headset: a gesture-led, head-worn device that allows the wearing to see their surroundings whilst interacting with digital imagery appearing before their eyes.

Having little understanding of the technology, but having partnered with an engineer based in India, she flew to the country to work on creating the first holographic experience of Aboriginal culture. 

Mik met the deadline, and was on stage at Microsoft Ignite to promote the work. 

As she says in this episode about hologram technology:

“It really worked well with our cultural ways of knowing, being and doing because, since we were colonised, we've had to express our culture through the written word - through English - but we always imagine the world in 360 degrees. So being able to share the right story at the right time, at the right place, with the right language, for the right reason as a hologram makes a lot of sense to a lot of our communities.”

Now, as founder and CEO of Australia’s first Indigenous edu-tech company, Indigital, she focuses their work on looking into connecting technology infrastructure with on Country practices for better long-term sustainability of environment and communities, supporting communities facing industrial transitions, and inspiring through technologies.

Through Mik’s work, it is evident that technology can be super versatile, if you can imagine the possibilities. She proves that the modern technological world is not separate to our ancient cultures, cultures still living and existing today. Her work, and that of Indigital, shows that these cultures can enhance the modern world by giving us an extra lens to see it through, and they can be strengthened by having more platforms to connect with all of us.