Newly Discovered Mayan Temple

 As you all know, Dark Moon has been a Tropical Rainforest for a while now. I like to wander about the jungle exploring. I have already informed you that I had discovered an ancient Mayan Calender on the land; I unearthed it while terraforming . . . but I have discovered more! I was just hanging near the monkeys up near the canopy level of the forest, making sure they had enough bananas, when I noticed a shape in the distance I had not seen before. Maybe some of the lianas had died back, I don't know.

 At any rate, I wandered over to the edge of the hill, near that old bench (I really should replace it, it is rotting) to look more closely. I was not quite sure what I was seeing. But there, in the distance appeared to me some sort of stone structure! Was it Mayan? How did I not notice this before!

 I hurried over to the head of the Red Orchid trail. It is a steep path, but the orchids give off a nice guiding light, and the moon was full, I had my walking stick, so I decided to hike over.

 It gets a little dense further down by the river . . . the river I had forded so many times while exploring.

 Once down to river level I looked up and could barely see the stone roof above the riotous growth of the understory of the jungle. This was going to be a chore, I could see! Ah well, with pet macaw, I set off.

 The river is low this time of year, and the full moon guided my steps across it. It was a bit of a hike up to the east trail through the palms, but I like this area. There are toucans that live nearby.

 There is a very old side trail up a ways to the left here. I managed to scramble up and came to a wall, but I still had no concept of the overall structure, what it was, how big it was . . . I continued forward.

 Finally there was a place where the earth met the stone low enough for me to climb up! From here I could look up and see the top of what turned out to be a pyramid! It was definitely Mayan! I got excited.

 But where was the entrance? How could I get in, or up, or anything??? The Mayan pyramid was buried in the undergrowth. Palms, shrubs and overgrown crotons surrounded it! I even found that somehow I had circumnavigated the building and was farther away! But there was a foot bridge leading back.

 The bridge led through the jungle, and I saw where I had made a wrong turn. Although the drop off to the north was dangerous, I managed to scurry around the north side of the stones, and making my way through the dense underbrush came to so stairs. Now this looked like the main entrance!

 The stairs were a bit of a climb. Being out of breath and sweaty, I found my heart pounding with exertion and a bit of trepidation! This appeared to be a Mayan Temple! Who knows what rites had been performed there? Who knows what secrets . . . or ghosts the temple held? I approached cautiously.

 My macaw seemed to feel my anxiety and flew off as I reached the top platform. There was a small room there with a low roof. I guess he did not want to go inside, but I could not see how there would be a problem. The crowning room was too small and open to be claustrophobic, and some of the stones had fallen out of the back wall. I thought it would be okay. (Macaw by Vinnie Baxter)

 But suddenly the floor of the little room fell away with a loud rasping sound that made me spin around in alarm! I looked down to a chamber at the bottom of a precarious ladder! I was wet with the rain that had began falling washing my perspiration from my climb off my forehead and into my eyes. I could not see clearly and my eyes were now stinging. So I was torn. Do I descend or not? What was in there?

 I decided to go inside. I looked up to be sure I could get out. There was a warm light, some torches burning! This was kind of nice, actually! So after making sure I could get out, I looked around.

 On the far wall, there was another Mayan Calendar! I wondered what mysteries it held!

 So I decided to look more closely, in a leisurely sort of way. Spreading out a blanket and a picnic I magically materialized (you knew I could do that, right?) I examined the calendar. Low and behold, it was ancient, and hi tech! Who knew? Turns out if you click on this calender you can see exactly what the Mayans are anticipating in 2012! Yes, embedded in the calender is a wonderful documentary in Spanish, with English subtitles about the current Mayan world! I highly recommend watching this film!

  I got so involved I forgot to eat the fruit I had brought! But I learned a lot about the indigenous people of Meso America and their spirituality. So please, feel free to come relax in this lovely Mayan Temple (made by Aral Levitt). Cuddle up on the rug and watch a video! (Lovely cuddle rug by Lionna Dumouriez)

Dark Moon welcomes guest and has lots of educational information about rainforests, Mayans, Afro-Caribbean spirituality, and herbal medicines. Please get a notecard from the welcome sign when you come in, and be sure to click on objects! And thank you Aral for this marvelous Mayan Temple!

Dark Moon slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dark%20Moon/88/171/20
Aral Levitt's shop B A H I A  T I K I : http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bahia/167/170/23

Virtual Native Lands: A Great Place to Visit and Learn

Are you Native American looking for a place to go in SL? Are you anyone else looking to learn about Native Americans? I mean really, not the inaccurate myths or romanticized versions of history, but the real deal? Well Second Life has just the place! Virtual Native Lands are a group of sims that represents its own non-profit organization. In fact, Virtual Native Lands exist because Nany Kayo’s project won an award from Linden Labs.

Nany Kayo of Virtual Native Lands

Ms. Kayo is a Cherokee citizen who happened to work with software in a high tech industry. She came into Second Life see what her employer was doing. Turns out, she loved it, thought it was fun, bought land, and had an idea to meet other Cherokees. One thing led to another, until she discovered the need for a project like this! A contest for good ideas, sponsored by Linden Labs, attracted her, and she wrote up the project. The proposal was one of 3 winners, another being Virtual Ability, and she got a few hundred dollars, and land for a few months to see what they could. That is how Virtual Native Lands got a full sim finally. So Second Life’s own Virtual Native Lands are indeed a non-profit based completely on work in Second Life.

Talking to Nany in Florida

I went over to Virtual Native Lands to explore. I arrived in Florida! The main landing point is situated in the Southeastern United States, although the now five sims cover the United States, Canada, and Mesoamerica. Philosophically speaking, Nany says the project does not have a linear path, and in a way that makes sense. You can wander about through the loosely ordered structure of Virtual Native Lands in a way that reflects a native view of things. Not so linear. Wandering the sims is in parallel process with Native thinking. About time for instance, what modern Americans consider the far future or past are not so far in the past or future to tribal peoples. Everything is more here and now. The ancestors are very real and present to Nany, and most Native Americans. In fact, the actual production of a representation of the land reflects this. It is symbolic. Face it, the size of avatars to land on a sim make it a requirement that things be out of scale, in a project this big. On the notecard about Virtual Native Lands, it says:

"The regions are not all geographically oriented and are not to scale.  Entire
 mountain ranges are represent by a single mountain,  river systems are
hinted at, and some regions extend around corners ending up adjacent to
areas that are far distant in real world geography.  As with all
representations in Second Life, idea is to tell the best story possible with
available resources."

 And this quality truly represents the cultures of Native Americans. The scale of time is very long to Native peoples. There is a sense of great depth of history, not just the individual, but that one is part of a much larger, and older existence. This is a cultural trait, to not feel so individual or separate, more collectivist in everyway. You really get a feel for this on the sims too.

The sims of Virtual Native Land

So after arriving in Florida, I took a tour on a feather that flew me from the Southeast all the way to the Artic. I flew past my own RL neck of the woods, the Pacific Northwest rain, totem poles and all, and back down through the Southwest, and finally the pyramids of Mexico! Lots of fun. I highly recommend you take a friend on this tour, two to a feather you know!

Read all about it

When I talked to Nany Kayo about Virtual Native Lands, she had just come back from a meeting of Non-profit Commons, a collection of 80 non-profit organizations in Second Life, and boy was she excited about the collaborative nature of the work everyone is doing. But Kayo’s big news is about working with The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), one of the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of museums. Kayo said, “Virtual Native Lands is a solution provider and is assisting with a program co-sponsored by the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian.” This would involve a contract using collections from the museum rendered in 3D exhibits, interactive content, designed by the NMAI. The Virtual Native Lands team will create the content, scripting, machinima, native plants, and everything else under their direction. Exciting news indeed!

Now it is official Nany got the contract

Meanwhile, Nany and the team at Virtual Native Lands are already providing educators with authentic and helpful information for RL and virtual projects. Nany gives tours to educators regularly. Does your group want a tour? IM Nany Kayo! One project involved a group of middle and high school teachers who wanted to build and interactive exhibit about a Native American tribe as an educational forum. Nany was able to have an Apache tribal member of her organization consult with them. Through Virtual Native Lands one can contact a tribe member, and get accurate information on culture. Belonging to a tribe gives one a national identity, not just a background. The difference is in knowing the politics, and being involved in day-to-day activities. Nany described the difference to me using Irish Americans, who say, have a background, a history of a culture behind them, and people living in Ireland today. Actual tribal members have a different culture and perspective than those who are not. Most Virtual Native Lands members have tribal affiliations.

The facinating Apache area

Aside from providing education in SL, Virtual Native Lands supports Native American artists through jobs. And there is a marvelous Indian Made craft store in the sky you can shop at complete with frybread and tacos! YUM!

TP upstairs for fry bread

But back to the land itself! Nany knows the Southeast, being Cherokee and all, so this part of project is most well developed at this point. She does not expect to do it all either. Nany is always on the look out for contributors from various tribes to participate. You will see unobtrusive, artfully done slide shows near each exhibit scattered throughout the land. Each part of the landscape shows how native life reflected the land: the homes, the crafts, and the rituals. The Apache exhibit in particular explains several native rituals that are just beautiful. So from the tropics, to the woodlands, to the Great Plains, the mountains, the deserts, and the cold north, Virtual Native Lands have week’s worth of lessons, more probably. So come back often and check it out in little bits. Don’t forget, this project is not even done yet.

Pacific NW, my neck of the woods

Inuit territory

Turtle Island is beautiful

Let me tell you, Nany has thought of every detail! One would not want the natural landscape lit up or littered with billboards, therefore Nany has even put tiny lights over the exhibits to keep it discreet. Great idea, I say. So it it’s dark when you visit, don’t change the sun, click a light to read by. Nany says “it was real tricky trying to represent something that large with avatars out of scale with land" She tries to continue the "narrative" have information, and design fluidly, to make it visually compelling and authentic. And guess what? It really works! Check it out inworld! Here is the SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Native%20Lands%20East/212/34/22

The Rocky Mountains

Seminole Chickee