The Untapped Potential of Extended Reality for Indigenous Medicinal Knowledge: A Review of Cross-Disciplinary XR Applications

Abstract

Many sectors are quickly moving toward XR for education and professional training. These technologies, which include Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality, are not being applied equally across different types of knowledge preservation. This study aims to review how effective these technologies are and whether they have overlooked the preservation of Indigenous Medicinal Knowledge. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, relevant literature from 2019 to 2026 was gathered from major academic databases, including IEEE Xplore, Scopus, and ScienceDirect. After removing duplicates and non-English papers, 23 out of 39 publications met the selection criteria. The findings show that while XR is a proven technology in many sectors, it remains underused for documenting the medicinal knowledge of communities such as the Kayan and Kenyah. This lack of progress is not caused by technical limitations, but by internal organizational barriers and weak project planning. The evidence, therefore, points to a procedural problem rather than a technological one.