A digital archive for Indigenous healers and diverse learners

Evolving Web partnered with the University of Denver to create an archive website for the Our Stories, Our Medicine Archive (OSOMA). The website serves as a vibrant and accessible new hub for information on traditional Indigenous knowledge – including the stewardship of intellectual property, cultural artifacts, genealogy, and health information. OSOMA is also a place to share stories, because, for many Indigenous peoples, storytelling is a way to share historical cultural knowledge while creating new ways of healing trauma.

The University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) attracts diverse, creative educators, scholars and social workers who advance social justice through courageous ideas and action. Inspired by social change that begins with individual actions, the GSSW works to build and strengthen connections within the school and with their communities, to advance change and promote equity and diversity.

OSOMA is a community-based, community-owned, participatory archive that centres traditional Indigenous knowledge. It provides a meaningful alternative to historically colonial models of research and archiving.The archive reclaims knowledge through narrative, highlighting community resilience in the face of colonization and ongoing systemic inequities.
 

The OSOMA website project had a multifaceted purpose rooted in community empowerment, cultural preservation, and accessible learning. It was envisioned as a digital space that would honour and safeguard Indigenous knowledge systems, particularly those related to health, wellness, land, identity, ceremony, and food. Central to this vision was the creation of a platform that could hold diverse forms of community knowledge, from oral histories to digital artifacts, in a way that is respectful, secure, and engaging. The archive also needed to support exploration by theme and encourage storytelling as a method of cultural continuity and healing. By centering Indigenous voices and making these resources accessible to both community members and learners from diverse backgrounds, OSOMA sought to create a lasting, community-owned digital presence.

Since OSOMA was a new digital archive, one of the first steps was figuring out how users would interact with the content. A major challenge was organizing the different types of information, such as stories, healing practices, cultural items, and profiles of community members, in a way that was easy to navigate and true to the archive’s purpose.It was also important to map out how the site would be structured and how users would move through it.

At the beginning of the project, OSOMA was using a platform called Mukurtu, an Indigenous Drupal-based solution designed to support Indigenous communities in managing digital heritage. While Mukurtu reflected many of OSOMA’s values, the system had not been updated from Drupal 7 and came with technical limitations. To better support the archive’s goals, the team decided to move to a more modern and flexible Drupal solution that could grow with the project.

Evolving Web built a visually rich and community-centered digital archive website, allowing users to explore knowledge and digital artifacts with specific filters and search tools. The new website also allows Indigenous users to log in and contribute to or access protected content.

Our work included: 

Technical Implementation

• Developing a new digital archive website in the latest version of Drupal.
• Using the Group Module to create communities within the new website and ensure that private cultural information will remain accessible only to certain community members. 
• Delivering a secure private section for Indigenous community members to collaborate and share resources.
• Implementing the Gin theme to provide a modern, user-friendly editing experience for contributors.

Helping Users Navigate and Learn

• Building robust browsing and filtering tools that let users explore content by theme, such as Plants, Food, Ceremony, Identity, and Land.
• Creating individual profile pages for community members that display their personal stories, interviews, and related knowledge items tied to their experiences.

Visual Storytelling and Identity

• Supporting the OSOMA team in showcasing cultural medicines through dedicated pages, including videos of contributing community members.
• Creating a visually rich experience using photography of people, land, and cultural assets to reflect Indigenous worldviews and storytelling traditions.
• Incorporating OSOMA’s visual identity into the site through its colour palette and circular image frames.
• Writing clear, welcoming headlines and organizing content by theme to invite exploration.

Making it Accessible and Easy to Use

• Meeting WCAG AA accessibility standards with clear layouts, high contrast colours, and plain language.
• Created a user experience that is welcoming and usable for a wide range of audiences, including Elders, youth, and non-specialist visitors.

The launch of the OSOMA website marks a meaningful step in creating a digital space where Indigenous knowledge can be preserved, shared, and explored with care. By organizing stories and health teachings around themes like plant medicine, food, birth practices, and ceremony, the archive supports cultural continuity, community wellness, and learning across generations.

OSOMA now offers a trusted space where Indigenous community members can share their experiences in their own words, and where learners can engage with this knowledge with respect, context, and intention. The site provides a foundation for continued growth, collaboration, and cultural preservation.