Indigenous people in video gaming

Indigenous people have a long history of collaborating on the creation of video games. It has only been with the release of Never Alone though that broad media attention has been paid to these projects. There have been a growing number of game gatherings and community organizing around indigenous games happening in the United States and Canada. Indigenous creators of video games have been featured in the DIGITAL MEDIA ART+CADE as part of imagineNATIVE and in Memories of the Future/Souvenirs du futur at SAW Video Media Art Centre in Ottawa. Many early video games that depicted native people were often racist and perpetuated negative stereotypes (see Custer's Revenge). Video games created by indigenous people allow the creators to self-determine how they are represented and they allow indigenous people to picture themselves in the future.

Indigenous people have been involved in a range of projects where they have the opportunity to depict themselves. These games range in the style of the collaboration from games that consult with a single indigenous person to games that are entirely developed and designed by indigenous people.

There are indigenous people working on a range of large blockbusters to small indie collaborations. Many of these individuals are also creating other artistic content such as comics, board games, machinima, and fine art.

There have also been numerous video games translated into indigenous languages. For example, Pinnguaq has localized osmosis, Ittle Dew and Beneath the Floes.

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