Thámien Ohlone
Augmented Reality Tour

The spoken words below follow the film’s published English captions. Visual descriptions and on-screen text are included in film order. The community’s song lyrics are not translated.

Opening: Ohlone history on campus

An illustration shows an Ohlone village with rounded thatched houses, people, and trees. On-screen text: “For thousands of years Santa Clara University was the site of an Ohlone Native American village…”

A present-day photograph shows Mission Santa Clara, palm trees, lawns, and campus paths. On-screen text: “Yet this history is largely unrecognized on our campus.”

The next card asks: “How might we use augmented reality to reveal this hidden story?” The title card reads: “We Are Still Here — The Thámien Ohlone Augmented Reality Tour.”

The tour in use

News segment and tour-audio excerpt: Several Santa Clara University departments partnered with the Ohlone tribes once native to the land this campus is on to bring their stories to life with the use of augmented reality on cell phones. For thousands of years our ancestors called Thámien home. The Thámien Ohlone AR tour transforms the SCU campus back to what it was thousands of years ago. Three stops on the tour were launched Monday but soon visitors will be able to scan QR codes across campus to learn the stories that these tribe members want people to never forget.

An ABC7 news segment shows a reporter outside Mission Santa Clara and visitors using phones near the campus fountain. As a visitor moves a phone, its screen places a thatched house in the campus landscape. Inside the virtual house, a fire is visible. A tour sign displays a QR code.

A design editor shows a three-dimensional village arranged around a model of the campus fountain. On-screen text: “In the Indigenous tradition of place-based storytelling…” followed by “The tour explores novel design methods for connecting stories to the land of our campus.”

An aerial campus map labels three stops: “Thámien Village,” “Names in the Sky,” and “Pow Wow.” On-screen text: “ ‘Why here?’ is a guiding question for each of the three stops.”

Three tour stops

Monica V. Arellano’s village narration: Welcome to the center of Thámien Village. For thousands of years our ancestors called Thámien home. Once an oak Woodland with year round water sources, this village likely had 300 to 500 native inhabitants. As you look around, you can see homes made of tule reeds.

1. Thámien Village. On-screen text: “Historical site of the Thámien Ohlone Village, showing what the village looked like here.” A phone screen shows an illustrated village panel beside the real fountain and full-size virtual thatched houses. The camera moves toward a house entrance. The film identifies the narrator as “Monica V. Arellano, Vice Chairwoman, Muwekma Ohlone.”

Gloria E. Gomez’s Names in the Sky narration: Standing in front of Mission Santa Clara, using your device look towards the sky to see all of the known Chochenyo names of our 2,475 ancestors who were buried at this location right here.

2. Names in the Sky. On-screen text: “Look up at the sky to see the Chochenyo-language names of the thousands of Natives who lived and died at Mission Santa Clara.” The phone is pointed toward the mission and the sky. Large red names appear above the building and palm trees. The film identifies the narrator as “Gloria E. Gomez, Member, Muwekma Ohlone.”

Gloria E. Gomez’s Powwow narration: Every year the St. Ignatius lawn becomes a vibrant hub for the Powwow at Santa Clara University, featuring traditional food, music, and dance. Listen carefully and you can hear a sacred Healing Song in our Chochenyo language as it was sung by Jose Guzman

3. Pow Wow. On-screen text: “Images and sounds from the annual gathering of Native American tribes held here every spring.” Photographs of a gathering appear as panels positioned on the campus lawn through the phone screen. The film again identifies the narrator as Gloria E. Gomez.

Co-design and community authorship

Captioned sound: [Music]

A group works around a table with laptops, a large campus map, and pink and blue sticky notes. Participants discuss the map and arrange notes at campus locations. On-screen text: “The tour is co-designed with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe” and “This story is their story.”

Four people stand at microphones in a recording studio. On-screen text: “These songs are their songs.” The aerial map of the three tour stops returns with the text “This land is their land.”

A photograph shows a woman holding an abalone shell, with other people in the background. On-screen text: “ ‘We are still here’ is their message.”

Film credits

The film’s Muwekma Ohlone credits list Gloria E. Gomez, Monica V. Arellano, Sheila Guzman-Schmidt, Rachel Schmidt, and Isabella ’Amne Gomez.

The Santa Clara University credits list Cinthya Jauregui, Dominic Woetzel, Tiffany Nguyen, Mohan Raj Chandrasekar, Sarah Hazel, Liam A’Hearn, Pinak Paliwal, Shea MacDonald, Madison Nguyen, Isabella ’Amne Gomez, Lee Panich, Amy Lueck, Danielle Heitmuller, and Kai Lukoff.

The closing screen displays the Santa Clara University Imaginarium, Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, Community Heritage Lab, and HCI Lab marks.