Self-Determination in Indigenous Games

LaPensée, Elizabeth

doi:10.4324/9781315730479-13

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…. digital games are a path for self-determined Indigenous representations by passing on teachings, telling our stories, and expressing our ways of knowing through code, design, art, music, and audio” (LaPensée, 2018: 129). In this sense, digital storytelling affords opportunities for helping communities and individuals transform by employing traditional ways of knowing (Palacios, 2012: 46) and embedding Indigenous methodologies into the very foundation of game design.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sami-digital storytelling: Survivance and revitalization in Indigenous digital games

Nijdam

2021

New Media & Society

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This article examines how digital games on Sami culture can draw attention to Indigenous issues when produced in collaboration with Sami community members. Through a case study that probes the design, game mechanics, and user experience of Gufihtara eallu (2018), this article frames Indigenous digital games and game development as a form of digital storytelling that is able to educate players on Indigenous knowledge systems and intangble cultural heritage. By looking at the way Gufihtara eallu engages Sami oral traditions in particular, this article demonstrates how digital games are capable of embodying Indigenous methodologies in such a way as to not flatten understandings of Indigenous traditions to a mythologized historical moment; instead, games produced by and for Indigenous people are capable of presenting storytelling traditions as contemporary, interactive, and constantly evolving, incorporating traditional themes as much as contemporary issues that are being perpetually redefined by modern Sami experience and new technologies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sami-digital storytelling: Survivance and revitalization in Indigenous digital games

Nijdam

2021

New Media & Society

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“…In order to establish a formal method of acceptance there needs to an adoption of the protocols of evidence that are based on the reception theory of evidence. This in itself owes to the episteme of the Indigenous peoples which originates from their cultural framework and reverence to land (Russell, 2009: 240, quoting Worl (1998: 66)).…”

Section: Protocols For Admissibility Of Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous storytelling and admissibility in common law courts: Developing the protocols for the reception theory of evidence

Akhtar

2023

The International Journal of Evidence & Proof

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The claims for the restitution of legal estate by the Indigenous peoples are often without the benefit of a written agreement when they have to prove a spatial and temporal connection with ancestral lands. The witness testimony from a storyteller who is keeper of the historical records is in the absence of documentary evidence and the court has to be convinced of the probative value of the evidence before the oral testimony is admissible as an exception to the rule against hearsay. This presents immense obstacles to Indigenous litigants, who are governed by customary laws and whose narratives regarding the claims on land are conveyed intergenerationally. The court structures based on common law exclude such evidence as hearsay, which has prevented claims on land in North America, and in Norway, which has a Eurocentric court structure. There is a need for a framework in the procedural codes of the common law courts and by extension of all courts where Indigenous people own lands or exercise rights over them to formalise the reception theory of evidence. This will contextualise the terminologies, expressions and idioms that are included in Indigenous story testimony and their authenticity can be framed in protocols which courts could resource before ruling whether the narrative testimony is admissible.

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“…When developed without the involvement of Indigenous people, video games with Indigenous representations often fall into stereotypes and/or appropriation (Lagace, 2018; Vasalou, Khaled, Gooch, & Benton, 2014). However, when Indigenous people are in lead roles, video games can be dynamic spaces of self-expression through code, design, art, and sound (LaPensée, 2017, 2018a). Such games have the potential to be sovereign, in terms of development (LaPensée, 2018a) as well as content, including the interactions they facilitate (Byrd, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, when Indigenous people are in lead roles, video games can be dynamic spaces of self-expression through code, design, art, and sound (LaPensée, 2017, 2018a). Such games have the potential to be sovereign, in terms of development (LaPensée, 2018a) as well as content, including the interactions they facilitate (Byrd, 2016). As described by Batchewana First Nation elder, scholar, and writer Carol Nadjiwon (1992), sovereignty means Indigenous communities sustaining rights to self-governance and self-expression.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As described by Batchewana First Nation elder, scholar, and writer Carol Nadjiwon (1992), sovereignty means Indigenous communities sustaining rights to self-governance and self-expression. In the context of video games, sovereignty can be enacted in how games are developed, with consideration for who is involved and in what roles, how funding is gained and distributed, how intellectual property rights regarding Indigenous knowledge are managed, and how decisions are made regarding who can access a game and in what ways (LaPensée, 2018a, 2020). Sovereignty further protects self-expression (Martinez, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards Sovereign Games

LaPensée

Laiti²,

Longboat³

2021

Games and Culture

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Video games can be dynamic sovereign spaces for Indigenous representation and expression when the self-determination of Indigenous people is supported. Where games are concerned, self-determination involves the autonomy and right of Indigenous people to make key decisions regarding the process of how a game is developed as well as what that game entails. A game is sovereign when self-determination is a respected practice throughout all phases of development from conceptualization to distribution. In what ways can games be sovereign and what challenges may be faced? Utilizing comparative case studies of the self-determined games Lost Memories, Terra Nova, and When Rivers Were Trails, this research identifies possible approaches and challenges for sovereign games looking at development as well as the resulting designs.

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Self-Determination in Indigenous Games

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Sami-digital storytelling: Survivance and revitalization in Indigenous digital games

Sami-digital storytelling: Survivance and revitalization in Indigenous digital games

Indigenous storytelling and admissibility in common law courts: Developing the protocols for the reception theory of evidence

Towards Sovereign Games

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