Community/Nation/Tribe: Ojibwe, an enrolled citizen of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians (also referred to as the Sault Tribe)
Materials/Processes: robotics; digital audio; digital fabrication with sustainable materials
Themes: Indigenous futurity, language revitalization, sustainability, reciprocity
Online Resources:
Statements/Bios in Artists’ Words:
Danielle Boyer is a 22-year-old Indigenous (Ojibwe) robotics inventor and advocate for youth who has been teaching kids since she was ten. Driven by her family’s own inability to afford science and technology education, she is passionate about making education accessible and representative for her community so that no child is left behind. Danielle creates equitable and innovative learning solutions for Indigenous youths with robots that she designs, manufactures, and gives away for free. In 2019 at age eighteen, she created The STEAM Connection, a minority and youth-led charity that has reached hundreds of thousands of children worldwide with technical education with an emphasis on language revitalization. The STEAM Connection focuses on the future: ushering in a new age of education via personal and wearable robotics, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. Informed by the past and present, The STEAM Connection utilizes traditional knowledge to uplift and protect Indigenous communities with an emphasis on language. Her goal is not necessarily to get youth into STEM careers but rather to equip them with the skills to solve the problems that they see in their communities now. This must be done with technology the kids can relate to… and she’s creating it.
Her flagship invention is Every Kid Gets a Robot (EKGAR), an innovative educational robotics kit that costs less than $20 dollars to make and is sent to youth for free, increasing their technical competency and understanding with a culturally competent curriculum. Her most recent invention is the SkoBot, created alongside her mentors. It is a personalized, wearable, and interactive Indigenous language revitalization robot that senses motion and speaks. The students build the robots themselves. Built to take tech learning out of the classroom, the robots were made to supplement community language learning for free. It has been a success in enabling youth to bring the robots home to learn with their families and in creating learning tools they resonate with.
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Growing up, I saw my little sister struggle to access technical educational opportunities. She’d beg to learn about coding and robots, but the opportunities that did exist were just way too inaccessible. Later on, I’d witness local robotics teams and students struggle to purchase expensive educational resources. I never saw myself represented in STEM careers and I never felt like I belonged. It wasn’t fair then, and it isn’t fair now. Sadly, it is an all too common experience for many youths. But why does this matter?
Technical education is crucial for Indigenous communities, it promotes self-determination, empowers tech career opportunities, and overcomes systemic barriers. Despite facing challenges like limited computer and internet access, lack of role models, high dropout rates, and underrepresentation in STEM, technical education can bridge the digital divide, enhance career prospects, and assert control over technological development. It empowers Indigenous communities by addressing disparities, amplifying voices, and fostering inclusion in the tech world. We need to have our voices represented in STEM.
To bridge this educational gap, I created The STEAM Connection, a minority and youth-led charity on a mission to make technical education accessible for youth through the power of robotics. We have reached 800k+ children with technical education with an emphasis on language revitalization. We focus on the future: ushering in a new age of education via personal and wearable robotics, ethical artificial intelligence systems, and augmented reality. Informed by the past and present, The STEAM Connection utilizes traditional knowledge to uplift and protect Indigenous communities.
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