Commemorating Stolen Generation experiences through virtual reality

Abstract

State sanctioned removal of Australian Aboriginal children from family, culture, and country has had harmful and traumatic effects on the Survivors of this process and their children. Known as the Stolen Generations, children were detained in government settlements and church missions and stripped of Aboriginality. This article explores ways that a virtual reality reconstruction of mission environments may be implemented to memorialise and commemorate Survivor experience that avoid narratives of victimhood and destructive post-colonial overlays on their stories of survival. Our project is to develop a virtual reality model of Carrolup-Marribank Mission in Western Australia as a living digital memorial for use by Survivors and their families to help address their displacement and loss of culture and identity. This article shows how virtual reality may be a potent didactic tool to convey difficult histories as well as a purveyor of powerful stories that contest stereotyped perceptions of Aboriginal people.