Sask entrepreneurs developing first Indigenous-owned smartphone

Sometimes the biggest dreams start in the most modest places. For Priscilla Netmaker-English, her dream was set in motion at a laundromat.

Netmaker-English, a member of Big River First Nation, had long dreamed of creating a piece of technology that would inspire generations to embrace their Indigenous languages. A Cree teacher at Pasqua First Nation, Netmaker-English had become frustrated with the lack of Cree she heard and saw on everyday items around the province.

“I was looking at my grandkids’ toys and thinking, why can’t this be in Cree? Why are so many things not in Cree? Why is it not being spoken,” she said.

“So I had this plan for like a year but couldn’t connect with anyone to help me with my vision.”

Until a chance encounter at a laundromat with Clayton Dsouza, a computer science instructor and designer from India who, with his wife, was teaching Indigenous children to make their own Roblox games.

Together, Netmaker-English and Dsouza decided to embark on an ambitious plan – to create the first Indigenous-owned and designed smartphone.

“Why don’t we have an Indigenous phone? So we designed everything in the phone to be Indigenous – it is Indigenous built, with apps dedicated to the culture,” said Dsouza.

Netmaker-English and Dsouza are calling their Indigenous phone ‘Maskosis nêhiyawêw’, which is Cree for ‘little bear speaks Cree’.

They plan on creating a device that is fully programmable to any Indigenous language, and which features apps, games, and dictionaries in Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, or any other Canadian Indigenous language. They also plan on having interchangeable cases for the phone, designed as characters like a teddy bear, turtle, or moose, in order to appeal to young audiences.

“When teaching Cree at Pasqua First Nation, it’s all the same old books. Kids didn’t respond to it. Every time I walked into a room I would try to figure out a way to make them learn the language,” said Netmaker-English.

“After speakers like me are gone, who is going to teach them? Technology will always be there, which is why we wanted to make this (phone),” she said.

Netmaker-English and Dsouza currently have a small prototype of the device that they are regularly updating with more features and apps. Currently, the phone has wifi capabilities for free messaging on their Maskosis Messenger app, as well as several Indigenous language apps, a bannock-making game, calendar, and note taking app, all of which are usable in both English and Cree.

They also plan to feature their own music app, ‘tipi tunes’, with royalty-free music. They said their current user-interface is ‘too cluttered’ and plan on undergoing a redesign to simplify the home-screen.

Currently, the smartphone lacks the ability to make phone calls or send texts. The ability to add a SIM-card in order to send and receive which will be added to the design later, they said.

“We want to see the language passed on to our kids, and our kids beyond us,” said Dsouza. “We want them to actually think first and speak in the language.”

After finishing the prototype, they plan on building a full model from a 3D printer. With accessibility in mind, Dsouza said costs of manufacturing are low – about $35 for the computer, $10 for the case, and $10 for the battery. With manufacturing costs of about $55, they hope to sell them for $80-$100 – about $900 less than the price of a new base-model iPhone.

“We want this to be its own standalone phone. If you’re looking at a phone on the market, you could be looking at this instead,” said Dsouza.

With the project currently self-funded, they plan to take the device to investors in Ottawa, as well as different First Nations across the country, to gain funding. They said they want 10,000 units manufactured and distributed by the end of the year.

“We think this can be a mainstream device,” said Dsouza.

For Netmaker-English, making this dream a reality would mean bringing language and culture into everyday life.

“I have to travel up north to find someone who speaks Cree. We want our languages spoken as a daily language,” said Netmaker-Cree.

“We want people to be learning the language, and have fun doing it.”