Human wellbeing depends significantly on our entanglement with the natural environment, including the ocean and its resources. The ocean is a space and place with which people often form intricate and diverse relationships encompassing values that extend beyond economic considerations and contribute to various non-material aspects of wellbeing, health and happiness. The ocean and the diversity of these values hold great importance for individuals and have been sustaining communities culturally, historically, spiritually, medically, and economically for centuries, highlighting the nuanced ways communities and cultures establish connections with the ocean.
With a particular focus on digital technologies, this research examined the significance of ocean heritage and the numerous ways coastal communities benefit from and relate to it. This research explored how the development of new digital approaches can surface and preserve diverse ocean knowledge, community and personal perspectives and values that underpin coastal life and are expressed through physical and intangible cultural heritage, histories, customs, identities, spirituality, art and traditional medicine. By investigating the role and use of immersive technologies with a focus on augmented reality and photogrammetry to support ocean heritage, the research found novel means to record and share ocean heritage in Namibia. The opportunities and challenges of augmented reality encountered during the co-production processes are discussed in the broader context of how this might ultimately help preserve knowledge and heritage of these ocean cultures in the long term through knowledge documentation and sharing.
The thesis reflects on existing collaborative theories and co-designed augmented reality technologies that support community development and cultural heritage. Adopting participatory design as the overarching methodology coupled with rapid ethnography, this research conducted focus group workshops and collaborated with coastal community members (referred to as co-researchers). Through the workshops, an augmented reality application titled Efuta Letu Sida Hurib translated as ’Our ocean, Our ocean’ in Oshiwambo and Khoekhoegowab, was created with the aim to surface and preserve some aspects of the deep community knowledge of and relationships with the ocean.
This research highlights the importance of ocean heritage as shared by co-researchers. It emphasises the efficacy of collaborative research work and how it was employed to facilitate the co-production of Efuta Letu Sida Hurib.
