Two Worlds: Native Culture Preservation

“I think a lot of people think about indigenous cultures as ancient or backward. But what I’ve found is that Iñupiaq culture — think about how innovative that culture was to be able to survive to now.”
Sean Vesce, E-Line Media

Indigenous innovation is a declaration of survival written by the creative utilization of existing resources in new and sustainable ways. While the mainstream tends to express indigenous innovations as “artifacts” on display in museums around the world, innovation by indigenous peoples did not end when European contact started.

Every day in communities urban and remote, indigenous peoples are innovating and adapting… creating, preserving, sharing, and surviving. Indigenous peoples continue enriching their own communities as well as the world around them.

Two Worlds - Native Culture Meets TechLast week in our Native Language Meets Technology topic, we explored how Native Americans are using technology to preserve Native American languages. Another convergence of indigenous innovation and technology, the newly released video game “Never Alone” (Kisima Ingitchuna) offers a Native Alaskan cultural adventure spoken in the Iñupiaq language.

This video game was developed by a Cook Inlet Tribal Council enterprise (Upper One Games) in partnership with E-Line Media and members of Alaska’s Iñupiaq communities. Using a process known as “inclusive development,” Iñupiaq elders, storytellers, artists and youth worked directly with Western game developers to create the video game experience. It is refreshing that “Never Alone” is free of the racism, appropriation and misrepresentation often found in many mainstream films and games about indigenous cultures. Instead, E-Line Media and the Iñupiaq contributors influenced each other throughout the game’s development, authentically representing Iñupiaq art, music, language, culture, tools, and environment in the game.

"Never Alone" video game screen shot

“Never Alone” video game screen shot

Interestingly, the central tale of “Never Alone” was adapted to fashion an engaging and entertaining game in much the same way an Iñupiaq storyteller would put their own spin on a common story. In the game, players join a young Iñupiaq girl, Nuna, and her arctic fox companion on a journey to find the source of the unending blizzard that is devastating Nuna’s village. The story reflects traditional Iñupiaq themes like humanity’s relationship, connection and reliance on nature for survival, as well as sacrificing for the greater good of the community.

Although based on a traditional story and narrated exclusively in Iñupiaq, the experience of “Never Alone” is delivered via engaging and entertaining play that bridges the gap between Elders and youth. For Upper One Games, Never Alone is about preserving Iñupiaq culture for future generations while sharing the culture with the rest of the world. Subtitled in ten languages, the game connects the Iñupiaq and mainstream as well.

 

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2 Comments

  1. Posted January 29, 2016 at 10:38 pm | Permalink

    I read your blog with great interest. Thanks……

  2. Posted February 1, 2016 at 10:02 pm | Permalink

    Thanks for this blog is very useful i want to read again and again…

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