EPISODE 33: AKILAH MARTINEZ

Akilah, also known as Glittering World Girl, is an artist, technologist, and cultural bearer from the Navajo Nation. Her creative path began early, watching her grandparents—unilingual Navajo speakers—left with television programming only available in English. That moment sparked her lifelong commitment to create media that honors Indigenous ways of life and preserves Native cultures and languages.

Her work centers on community-based media, blending modern technology with circular Indigenous-based social entrepreneurship. Akilah is known for producing Navajo-language videos, radio ads, and musical features in Diné bizaad, using creative storytelling to spark dialogue and strengthen connection across community, art, and technology.

Akilah’s artistic practice often explores Indigenous futurism, weaving Navajo superheroes, traditional foods, and pop-culture elements into augmented reality (AR) experiences. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from the University of New Mexico with a focus in electronic and emerging XR technologies. Her interactive oscillator shoes were showcased at FATE Biennial 2013. She later spent five years living primarily on the Navajo reservation working in language-preservation media.

In 2019, Akilah received an Immersive Technology Fellowship with XR company Crux, splitting time between New York City and Los Angeles to learn from leading XR creators. She went on to graduate at the top of a Cultivating Coders cohort and, in 2022, earned funding from The Andy Warhol Foundation / 516 ARTS Fulcrum Fund for her third AR project.

AKILAH’S GUIDING BELIEF
“We are part of Creator, therefore we were given the ability to create… Through imagination and the ability to select from infinite potential, we’re able to externalize abundance and create new realities for our people.”


NATIVES IN TECH

Akilah’s LIFT project, NATIVES IN TECH, is a series of AR environments redefining how contemporary Indigenous art shows up in museums, galleries, and entertainment spaces. Built for Indigenous social media users and young creators, the project offers a playful, culturally rich digital interface that lets users Indigenize their surroundings in real time.

Through a blend of contemporary visual art, pop culture, and ancient Indigenous iconography, NATIVES IN TECH creates a borderless sense of ancestral community and provides a platform for positive, culturally aligned representation in interactive technology.