Onkwehón:we play: Decolonizing videogame ecology and disrupting environmental racism

• Author / Creator

  Barnes, Kateryna Sarah Ellwood

• Environmental racism manifests in videogames and is an under-explored facet of
  videogame ecology, as are Indigenous worldviews such as relationality. Using primarily
  decolonial poststructuralist semiotic analysis and Indigenous Métissage, this thesis
  highlights the signs and simulacra of environmental racism (eg. resource extraction,
  water access, climate change, borders) in videogames that affect bodies of colour in real
  life such as the migrants from Central America, Black folks in North America, and
  Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. The hope is that this critical exploration can work as
  a starting point for social justice education about environmental racism and relationality
  from Indigenous worldviews (specifically those of the Néhiyaw, the Iñupiat, and the
  Haudenosaunee). The games analyzed in this experiment are SimCity BuildIt,
  Civilization VI, Fallout: New Vegas, and Kisima Inŋitchuŋa (Never Alone).

• Subjects / Keywords

  • videogames
  • environmental racism
  • anti-racism
  • Indigenous Métissage
  • relationality
  • pedagogy

• Graduation date

  Fall 2021

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-2h62-yy35

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.