The virtual reality experience “Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation” (DOHR) was recently peer-reviewed in Reviews in Digital Humanities volume 3 issue 1 on January 18th, 2022.
The DOHR project uses VR to explore the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children (NSHCC) as part of the curriculum for Grade 11 Canadian History students in Nova Scotia. NSHCC was opened in 1921 and operated until the 1980s and former Residents have come forward with stories of the physical, psychological, and sexual abuse they suffered there as children.
The DOHR project focuses on the oral histories of former residents and takes a restorative approach to the redress of historical harms in education.
DOHR is a community-based partnership among former residents of NSHCC, the NSHCC Restorative Inquiry, Victims of Institutional Child Exploitation Society (VOICES), educators, historians, legal experts, and gaming specialists, including Games Institute members and project leads Kristina Llewellyn and Jennifer Roberts-Smith.
Jasmine Clark, the Digital Scholarship Librarian at Temple University, commented that the “narrative approach” of the experience “emphasizes emotional impact while avoiding a sense of voyeurism.” Clark was also impressed by considerations of agency and consent (for both the survivors and students) and concludes that “The DOHR VR experience is a strong example of a restorative pedagogical VR project.”
You can read more at Reviews in Digital Humanities and on the DOHR website.