Related Guides
Xwi7xwa Library Guide
Introduction to Indigenous Video Games
Video games are increasingly part of daily life as both entertainment and education. Video games have historically misappropriated or stereotyped Indigenous cultures – this still happens today, but there are more and more video games created by, for, and about Indigenous peoples. Indigenous video games as a genre are gaining momentum. This guide showcases Indigenous video games and apps, including Indigenous language apps.
Note: Titles with a dollar sign ($) notation have a cost associated to play the game.
Featured Video Games
- Never Alone ($)
"Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) is the first game developed in collaboration with the Iñupiat, an Alaska Native people. Play as a young Iñupiat girl and an arctic fox as they set out to find the source of the eternal blizzard which threatens the survival of everything they have ever known." - Never Alone: Foxtails ($)
The much anticipated sequel to Never Alone. - Thunderbird Strike
Thunderbird Strike is latest game from Elizabeth LaPensée, and 2017 winner of the Best Digital Media Work at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. In this side-scrolling game, players can "fly from the Tar Sands to the Great Lakes as a thunderbird protecting Turtle Island with searing lightning against the snake that threatens to swallow the lands and waters whole."
Language Apps
- File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council Education DepartmentIndigenous language apps from Treaty 4 territory in Saskatchewan.
- First Peoples' Heritage Language and Culture Council Apps (BC Focus)First Peoples' Heritage Language and Culture Council produces a great variety of language apps.
- Honour Water"Honour Water is a singing game for healing water available for free on iPads that passes on songs in Anishinaabemowin, the Anishinaabe language."
- Maskwacis Cree Language AppThis Maskwacis Cree language app is from the Samson Cree Nation.
- Ogoki Learning Systems AppsOgoki Learning Systems produces a wide variety of Indigenous language and gaming apps; includes BC First Nations languages.
- Thornton Media AppsProduces Indigenous Language Apps for a variety of First Nations groups across Canada.
- Nadleh Stella Dakleh Language AppLearn about the language, cultural practices, ceremony, and traditional lands of Nadleh and Stellat'en First Nation.
Other Apps and Games
- Gravity Ghost ($)A puzzle-based physics game. Non-Indigenous creator.
- Path Of The EldersLearn more about the history of the Anishinaabe and Mushkegowuk peoples. Includes teacher's guides for grades 4-10.
- Qalupalik (in development)A stealth/suspense game to be released in 2020, which is based on a modernization of traditional Inuit stories. Non-Indigenous creator.
- Sleep GuardianChase the bad dreams away with a dream catcher.
- Spirits of Spring ($)"Inspired by familiar struggles with bullies and isolation, Spirits of Spring is an empathy game rooted in deeply emotional storytelling. "
- When Rivers Were TrailsA point-and-click adventure game about the impact of colonization on Indigenous communities in the 1890's.
- Spirit LakeUses math to explore historical Native knowledge and culture of the Dakota (Sioux) people. Non-Indigenous creator.
- Growing Up OjibweRelevant to Wisconsin area.In Growing Up Ojibwe: The Game, players take the role of an Ojibwe youth, sent on a mission by their grandmother to learn important knowledge that has been forgotten by many.
- Assassin's Creed III ($)Main character Ratonhnhaké:ton, or Connor, is from the Kanien’kehá:ka tribe. Non-Indigenous creator with Indigenous consultants.
Video Game Developers
- 7 Generation GamesNon-Indigenous creator.
- Ivy GamesNon-Indigenous creator.
- Minority MediaNon-Indigenous creator.
Related Websites and Resources
- AbTeC: Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceResearch-creation network whose goal is to ensure Indigenous presence in cyberspace.
- Games as Enduring Presence [article]By Elizabeth LaPensée.
- Initiative for Indigenous FuturesPartnership of universities conducted by AbTeC; offering workshops, residencies, symposia, and archives.
- Playing with Reconciliation: Engaging Primary School Students with the Values of Reconciliation Using a Video Game [article]By Anna Ursyn and Ebad Banissi.
- SKINS: Aboriginal Storytelling & Video Game Design WorkshopsDigital-media workshops for Aboriginal youth offered online through AbTeC.
- Video games encourage Indigenous cultural expression [article]By Elizabeth LaPensée.
- Indigenous Digital Interactive Media and Video Games Reading List 2019Created by ImagineNATIVE. See their previous years' festival catalogues here: http://www.imaginenative.org/festival-catalogues
- Transmissions Expanded"Transmissions Expanded is an online portal to educational materials related to Lisa Jackson’s Transmissions art installation: an opportunity to dig deeper into the languages, the revitalization efforts and the cross-disciplinary thinking that animates the artwork. Transmissions Expanded gives a glimpse into what the Elders mean when they say “the culture is in the language.”"