Taking Back (Cyber)Space: Envisioning Decolonial Futurisms in Indigenous Video Games and Digital Media

Abstract

This paper discusses the generative possibilities of Indigenous-produced video games and digital media projects as a means of resisting settler-colonialism, showcasing Indigenous artwork and stories, sharing cultural knowledge, and disseminating radical anticolonial calls to action. Despite the problematic history of Indigenous (mis)representations within hegemonic Western video game culture, I ultimately argue that Indigenous creatives are taking up and taking back cyberspace, and using “new media” to reimagine Indigenous histories and manifest positive, anticolonial futurisms. I will support this argument with an examination of several Indigenous-led video games, namely When Rivers Were Trails and Thunderbird Strike, and digital media projects hosted within the “cityscape” of cyberspace, such as TimeTraveller™, CyberPowWow, and AbTeC