Ancestors’ Voices Pithouse Experience
- Interpretive Media, Learning, multimedia, Museum, Video Production
About the project
Ancestors’ Voices is an immersive multimedia projection installed in a recreation of a traditional pithouse environment at the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre.
The installation presents a chap-tik story from the Okanagan Nation. Visitors do not receive information panels or didactic explanations — They enter a story.
Client location:
Osoyoos, BC
The pithouse interior was designed as an immersive storytelling space rather than a visible media environment. Four concealed projection surfaces wrapped the perimeter behind scrims painted as log walls, remaining invisible until illuminated. Ambient exterior sounds welcomed visitors into the space, while a motion sensor triggered the experience once the audience was seated. Key scenes were projected on opposing walls to ensure shared sightlines, supported by lighting effects for water and illuminated salmon models behind scrims, creating the impression of salmon swimming upstream around the audience.
This project grew out of our selection to produce the feature film Coyote Spirit for the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre. Building on that work, our team collaborated closely with Elders to research chap-tik stories and oral traditions, shaping a narrative arc that connects legend, history, and environmental stewardship within a living cultural context.
Stories were illustrated through animation and grounded with filmed moments of Elders and children gathered around a campfire, alongside archival footage from the Osoyoos Indian Band documenting contemporary salmon restoration.
The work was developed in close coordination with Aldrich Pears and Associates, aligning media and narrative design with their interpretive goals, architectural constraints, and the show-control and hardware systems defined in their plans and budget. As the experience took shape, we also proposed targeted site and hardware refinements to elements still under development, strengthening narrative impact while remaining within the approved technical framework and budget.
