{"id":46942,"date":"2023-10-20T15:51:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/meet-the-australian-entrepreneur-using-technology-to-preserve-indigenous-culture-who-inspired-malcolm-turnbull-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:51:51","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:51:51","slug":"meet-the-australian-entrepreneur-using-technology-to-preserve-indigenous-culture-who-inspired-malcolm-turnbull-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/meet-the-australian-entrepreneur-using-technology-to-preserve-indigenous-culture-who-inspired-malcolm-turnbull-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Australian entrepreneur using technology to preserve Indigenous culture who inspired Malcolm Turnbull – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"InDigital<\/div>\n

An Australian entrepreneur is set to launch a new app to help preserve the culture of Indigenous Australians through technology.<\/p>\n

Northern Territory-based founder Mikaela Jade will launch the Digital Rangers app next month at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii in September.<\/p>\n

The app uses augmented reality to tell the stories of culturally significant Indigenous sites around Australia, Jade says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows traditional owners to tell their own stories in their own way,\u201d Jade tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Through the app, users can aim their smartphone\u2019s camera at an object such as rock art, and the app will then provide unique details and tell the story of the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt uses image recognition technology similar to facial recognition in airports,\u201d Jade says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also experimenting with 3D digital animations to bring the figures on rock art to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The app will be launched in three Australian locations initially, with Jade planning to expand its offering to include natural sites, parks and ranges around the world, and even for places that could be damaged by climate change to show what has been lost.<\/p>\n

The app can be bought for $7, with half of the profits going towards the traditional owners involved with creating the content.<\/p>\n

Jade says that many of the people involved with the project were eager to share their culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt creates value in different ways,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough developing the product in the Arnhem region, we\u2019ve had traditional owners basically just come out of the bush on their own accord to come and work on the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey see it as a brilliant way to engage young people in the sharing of that traditional knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Closing the digital divide<\/h3>\n

The Digital Rangers app has been developed by Jade\u2019s company InDigital, which aims to use technology for the benefit of Indigenous communities around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cInDigital is an ethical Indigenous company,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe create digital products for traditional owners and Indigenous communities around the world, and others who want to access Indigenous knowledge in an ethical way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based in the heritage-listed Kakadu area, Jade and her team of three work to develop innovative new ways to digitise and translate knowledge and culture from remote and ancient communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur peoples have been innovating for at least 50,000 years,\u201d Jade says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is tremendous opportunity to combine this with new bleeding edge tech.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest hope is that we close the digital divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities around the world through developing products that use cutting-edge digital tools in ways to benefit the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Aussie entrepreneur will also be heading a UN-supported discussion on ways to do this while also ensuring that traditional owners are protected in terms of data ownership, distribution of content and profit share.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be holding a big forum about the use of augmented reality in Indigenous culture and knowledge with a working group of Indigenous elders from around the world,\u201d Jade says.<\/p>\n

Leading the way<\/h3>\n

It was seeing this digital divide that motivated Jade to leave her 14-year career as a public servant and launch InDigital.<\/p>\n

To do this, Jade enrolled at entrepreneurial college BSchool and moved from Canberra to the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

She says it was especially difficult to bring investors on board to her long-term vision for the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing an Indigenous company it\u2019s probably more difficult than other startups to secure capital,\u201d Jade says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re considered high-risk \u2013 a number of investors told me that\u2019s the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite wanting to find local investment, Jade was forced to look overseas to secure funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt went against what I wanted for the company but once I showed that people from the US want it, now Australians are really listening,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year Jade was named as one of five entrepreneurs to watch by BSchool, and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sung her praise during a speech about Indigenous innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour leadership is so important, your example is more persuasive, more eloquent than any speech by a politician or any book,\u201d Turnbull said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you\u2019re doing is setting an example and inspiring so many others.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says this was a special moment for Indigenous entrepreneurs around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to have a prime minister shine the light on Indigenous entrepreneurship,\u201d Jade says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are quite a lot of Indigenous entrepreneurs now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always tell people if they have a bias round Indigenous people and our ability to do cutting-edge stuff that, \u2018yes, we do use digital technology and we\u2019re really excited about not only using digital technology but designing it as well\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter,LinkedIn and SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Australian entrepreneur is set to launch a new app to help preserve the culture of Indigenous Australians through technology. Northern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,3,4,22,1,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}