Website: https://mila.ss.ucla.edu/
Principal Investigator(s): Maja Manojlovic, Writing Programs
Tongva VR/AR is an interdisciplinary research project that aims to create VR/AR models of two Tongva villages: Yaanga, one the largest Tongva villages near downtown Los Angeles, and Koruuvanga in West Los Angeles. In addition, this project is intended to serve as a teaching platform for a Digital Humanities course.
This VR/AR modeling project will continue building on the UCLA American Indian Studies Center’s “Mapping Indigenous LA Project.” This project worked to empower local indigenous communities to tell their stories through relevant maps, documents, photographs, and testimonies. In this sense, it provides a powerful point of departure for us to begin examining the erasure of indigenous cultures in North America and elsewhere.
Tongva VR/AR is currently in its initial research stage of development, exploring relevant scholarly resources and VR/AR technologies.