Native Artist Talk: Akilah Martinez

Akilah Martinez

2025 Rollin and Mary Ella King Native Artist Fellow

Akilah Martinez (Diné) utilizes XR (extended reality) technology to create immersive storytelling experiences rooted in Navajo culture and language. Over the course of her fellowship, Martinez will work on an interactive AR experience focused on Navajo herbology and language.

“This project will empower current ancestral knowledge holders by giving them the opportunity to see their way of life represented in modern media…[as well as]… community members who are trying to reconnect with ancestral knowledge by providing them with education materials that are artistically designed,” said Martinez.

This event will be held in person at SAR and livestreamed on SAR’s YouTube channel.

Akilah Martinez. Photo by Mood. Courtesy of NM Technology Council.

Host or Publisher School for Advanced Research