
As an oral history educator, Llewellyn’s questions about how other students could witness and hear Smith’s story and those of other former re e nts in a place-based way led her to the Games Institute at Waterloo. As a self-professed non-gamer, she was reluctant about finding her place in the space but admits that the Institute is more than what we think of as gaming.

Finding belonging at the Institute led Llewellyn to collaborate with other passionate interdisciplinary researchers including Dr. Oliver Schneider from the Faculty of Engineering and Michael Barnett-Cowan from the Faculty of Health. Together, they launched the Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation (DOHR)

"The DOHR "It brings the silenced histories of institutional harm out of the shadows and into public light, in a way that can collectively transform racist and unjust relations."

"This 15-minute VR experience has been carefully designed to position the listener as someone who is witnessing the events of the storyteller to relate to them, but not to be immersed in the visual work of the virtual world," Schneider shares. "We’re trying to disrupt the sense of presence at key moments. We’re trying to help people to remind themselves that they are sitting and listening to this experience."

The experience is crafted to allow listeners to engage with the tragic history, think about their own positionality, and carry the learnings forward into social justice action to address racism in their communities.
Schneider, who specializes in computer haptics, the technology that enables the sense of touch, shares that this element will be part of the VR experience when it is shared for an exhibit at the Black Cultural Centre in Nova Scotia in the coming months.

"We’re also focused on how restorative processes can inform the development of the technology... and as we develop this technology, we’re learning methods and processes that others can use to develop their technology in a justice focused way as well," he says.