
10+ Years Experience
Copywriter/Content Marketer/Creative Nonfiction
Available For:
Custom Commission, Collaboration
The Myaamia Center at Miami University wanted to create a timeline of their story on the wall outside of the Wiikiaami room – a modern, circular meeting space in the Armstrong Student Center inspired by the shape of a traditional Myaamia home.
The room, however, was hidden among a maze of hallways in the student center and difficult to locate. The Myaamia Center sought to capture the attention of more passersby while also creating something educational.
As the lead writer for this project, I first met with some of the Myaamia Center members to better understand their expectations and why they proposed a timeline. In my previous work and research with the Tribe, I understood that Myaamia stories are told using different devices and techniques, and don’t always have clear beginnings, middles, or ends. A timeline or chronology is a Western construct; I wanted to explore other narrative techniques that felt truer to the ways Myaamia people tell their stories.
While telling the Myaamia story using non-Western narrative techniques was an important cultural decision, it was also a practical logistic one. Because the Wiikiaami room is in the middle of a long hallway, people may approach from either direction. A circular, less time-bound approach allows the narrative to be viewed from any direction and still make sense.
View the full work and case study of this environmental storytelling project on my website: https://aliciaboettjer.com/blog/myaamia-environmental-storytelling