This week on Microsoft Unboxed, we’re exploring the ways that mixed reality can be used to preserve and evolve Indigenous culture. To start, Colleen shares a story of how a former park ranger in Australia is leveraging 3D augmented reality to preserve aboriginal rock art. The former park ranger, Mikayla Jade, grew up in Australia and wanted to make sure that the culture was preserved. Upon learning about mixed reality, she created the app Indigital and eventually brought it to HoloLens at the Microsoft Tech Summit in Sydney. She is planning to continue growing Indigital’s preservation efforts, keeping people and cultural stories at the center.

Then, Sonia shares a story of the Heiltsuk people in British Columbia. Shawn Hunt is a Heiltsuk artist who wanted to take a new approach to transformation masks. Hunt collaborated with Microsoft Vancouver and The Garage with a team of artists, designers and engineers to reimagine a raven totem as a wearable cyborg. The HoloLens transforms the wearer of the mask into a raven and even uses Windows phones as the eyes of the mask.

Microsoft Unboxed is a weekly YouTube series from Microsoft, hosted by Sonia Dara and Colleen O’Brien. We’ll look at Microsoft’s latest technology, and the people and stories behind the tech. Tune in every Thursday at 9AM PT for new episodes.