Mikaela Jade is a Cabrogal Woman of the Dharug-speaking Nation of Sydney. Her company, Indigital, is creating opportunities for 400 million First Nations Peoples in using and designing frontier technologies by teaching cultural knowledge through cutting edge technologies and cutting-edge digital skills through a cultural lens. The Indigital Team is 83 percent female and Indigenous and work remotely from Country. In only 18 months, Indigital’s flagship program ‘Indigital Schools’ has worked with 7,000 students across Australia to improve their understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures through teaching spatial web technologies including augmented and mixed reality.
She is a Member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, an Alumni of Tribal Link Foundation (New York City) and the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. Mikaela is a Member of the Microsoft Australia’s Reconciliation Action Plan Advisory Board, the Advisory Board for Country Needs People and the Pollination Foundation. She also has a Bachelor of Science (Environmental Biology) from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Master of Applied Cybernetics (with Commendation) from the Australian National University. She is the 2022 Schwab Foundation Social Innovator of the Year Awardee for 2022.