Staff become ‘spies’ for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

PhD tauira Sequoia Short with one of the puzzles she uses in her escape room which centres on Indigenous data sovereignty.

An Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka- University of Otago postgraduate tauirais hoping an innovative approach to a tricky subject will inspire the next generation of tertiary students.

Sequoia Short (Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Toa Rangatira), a PhD student within Te Kura Pakihi- Otago Business School, has developed an escape room centred on Indigenous data sovereignty.

The game sees players become spies on behalf of mana whenuaand they are tasked with securing stolen data and intellectual property, such as mātauranga Māori, artefacts, and genetic sequences.

Whilst the game is filled with plenty of puzzles, hidden beneath the surface are important topics that lead to significant discussions once the game has finished.

Staff from throughout the University will be giving it a go this week as part of Te Wiki o te reo Māori, helping Sequoia refine the game in the process. She has had huge support from the Te Maea Māori and Indigenous research theme.

Sequoia, who describes herself as a "bit of a puzzly, gamey person", created the room in July and says it provides an opportunity to awaken people to the importance of data sovereignty.

"Trying to gameify the topic and get people learning about inaccessible aspects of research was really appealing to me," she says.

"Science communication is a passion of mine - being able to simplify and communicate to any person the impact of your research, especially kaupapa Māoriresearch - if you can't take back what you've learned to your community, then there's no point at all."

A final refined version will be presented totauirathroughout schools in the Ōtākou Murihiku/Otago Southland area towards the end of the year. The aim is to help year 9 and 10 students understand more about the topic and develop positive engagements with the University.

Sequoia says the camaraderie and competitiveness makes it a hit for older groups, too.

"I obviously set out to design this escape game with a purpose in mind - to speak to and engage with rangatahi. But others see a huge variation in uses for it, which is amazing, because realistically the more people who are engaged with it the better.

"Even non-puzzle people seem to like it which shows there's mass appeal - not just for people like me."

Whilst there has been a positive reception so far, the escape game is just one of the many hats Sequoia wears. With a PhD still to complete and ongoing teaching commitments, she understands the escape room has a limited time in more ways than one.

"I'm just trying to make as much impact in the little time I have."