What is Sankofa Trails? Geolocation Storytelling in Barbados
we are shfyting again! Introducing, ’Sankofa Trails, Story Shyft’s latest initiative that blends nature, technology, and art along the Barbados Trailway. We are diving into geolocation-based storytelling, a creative and engaging way to shyft bodies in space and time. What does that really mean? Once within the area of the story loop along the Trailway, the Sankofa Trails app will unlock audio stories and images transforming the experience for walkers, hikers or limers as audiences.
The Sankofa Trails app will unlock audio stories and images, transforming walkers into audiences.
Over the last decade, there has been an explosion of device-based, self-guided walking and gallery tours where the information you read, view, or listen to on a mobile device tells a story about the space as you’re in it. People go beyond using GPS maps to simply find a location. They listen to historical stories about a street in Louisiana or view audiovisual information on monuments in Mexico, architecture in Kenya or dramatic landscapes in Reykjavik, activated while they are in the space looking at the subject. This is geolocation storytelling.
When you're out in nature looking at your phone the whole time is the last thing you want to do.
We chose an audio-led approach for this mixed reality project because when you're out in nature, looking down at your phone the whole time is the last thing you want to do. While engaged with the Sankofa Trails stories, listeners continue to be immersed in the natural beauty of the four initial locations along the route of the old Barbados Railway, now repurposed by the Future Centre Trust as the Barbados Trailway. While their bodies are in the present, they’ll be hearing customised stories about possible futures of the locations, written by speculative fiction master-author Dr Karen Lord. The future story worlds are each brought to life with digital illustrations by Barbadian visual artists. The heritage aspect of Sankofa Trails is featured in the augmented reality (AR) option which displays archival images of the railway at each specific location, completing the time loop inherent in the meaning of Sankofa, looking to the past for wisdom to plan for the future.
The Trailway path runs from the heart of Bridgetown through urban and rural communities, old and new, fields, gullies, bush, and coastal land. Each square-foot of space must be home to thousands of tales, tall, small, individual and collective along its path from Bridgetown to Belleplaine, but for practical reasons, we selected four locations to spark your imagination.
Each story has its own visual cover art created in collaboration with four local visual artists. The Augmented Reality Option provides location based archival images of the railway.
Each location and story has its own visual cover art created in collaboration with four local visual artists. Believe me when I say, the locations picked the artists. The atmosphere of Tent Bay in St Joseph called for the whimsical watercolour style of Illustrator and Puppeteer Cherise Harris, while Matthew Clarke’s crisp futuristic comic book art was perfect for an imagined view of the St George Valley. The collage-like, symbol-filled style of Alanis Forde is perfect for the layered meanings of a location such as Joe's River Bridge, while Russell Watson’s digital art, juxtaposing undersea-scapes, landscapes, starscapes and humanity was in the pocket for a future story set in Bridgetown.
The “sound of these futures” is being designed by musician and audio designer Simon Victor of AuraVision Creative, and tying them together digitally is the Sankofa Trails app being developed by Maurice Durant of Caribbean VR, specialists in tour based Mixed/Extended Reality (XR) digital projects.
Sankofa Trails prompts movement of our bodies, our memories and our imaginations through immersion in the story space. This Story Shyft initiative aims to create a shyft in how we interact with our outdoor spaces, encourage actions rooted in hope for a shared future, and will launch in November 2026. Come join us!
Sankofa Trails is supported by funding of Barbados' SuperNova Lab's Heritage Lab programme.
Sankofa Trails prompts movement of our bodies, memories and imaginations through immersion in the story space.
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