How Canberra entrepreneur Mikaela Jade made the most of lockdown through her company Indigital

Adapting to virtual work and school; pivoting from once solid business models; learning cutting-edge digital skills, and facing rejection based on circumstances beyond their control.

But entrepreneur Mikaela Jade - the only Australian to win a 2022 Schwab Foundation Social Innovator Award - was in familiar territory.

READ MORE:

The founder of Indigital, Australia's first Indigenous edu-tech company, created the firm while working as a park ranger at Kakadu.

"It occurred to me that the way that we tell cultural stories on Country is incredibly inadequate," she said.

"What if you held your phone up to a cultural place or an object or an artwork, and our elders could appear in holographic format and tell you the story in the right language, telling the right stories for the right reason and spoken by the right person?" she said.

As an environmental biologist, Ms Jade had no experience in augmented reality - so she spent two years reaching out to companies around the world. She was continually rejected, until she connected with UK company Harmony Studios.

"I was a park ranger during the day, and then [during the] evening at 11 o'clock at night, I would get on Skype and spend a couple of hours with their CEO, Jason, and he would teach me how to produce augmented reality," Ms Jade said.

She pivoted to create an Indigenous education technology company. Indigital uses augmented, virtual and mixed reality production to provide schoolchildren lessons on Indigenous culture, using the knowledge of local elders.

Indigital was a remote company even before COVID, with many First Nations employees working on Country.

"[We want] to really show kids that we don't have to leave Country to have successful careers, as long as you've got internet connection," Ms Jade said.

"There's a whole world of opportunity to live on Country with your family and have a meaningful career."

READ MORE:

Despite being practised in adaptation, COVID has still thrown Ms Jade some unique challenges. A Cabrogal woman, she was unable to visit her Country around the Fairfield and Liverpool areas of Sydney.

"It's difficult not being able to take my kids there, and spend quality time with them," she said.

Indigital has also had to adapt programs to suit online learning.

"We actually meet up in holographic format with teachers and students and elders," Ms Jade said.

"It's kind of like being in the same room. We can even create environments of countries. So we had [Indigital Queensland Regional Facilitator] Thiwi Rowlands go out onto her traditional Country, which is the Birdsville area of Queensland, last year and gather some drone footage.

"[This] will help us put together the red sand dunes of her Country into a virtual reality experience, so we can meet on Country.

"It is different, but it's the kind of next best thing to being there."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: