Thunderbird Strike is a free new video game launched this week at the ImagineNATIVE fest in Toronto. It is created by Elizabeth LaPensée, an Anishinaabe, Métis, and Irish games developer, and assistant professor of media and information at Michigan State University. The game affords players the opportunity to destroy as much of the oil industry's machinery and pipelines as they can by controlling a thunderbird, a symbol found in many North American Indigenous cultures.
If nothing else, it's great for teaching kids about Indigenous culture and what's important in the world-- my darling little Haalie loves it, relishing its destructive power only as a preschooler can. As for the rest of us, it's a somewhat satisfying antidote to our generalized feelings of impotence when facing down the ever increasing forces of greed and power. Just don't let yourselves become addicted to it because there is too much important work to be done fighting for Gaia.
You can learn more about the game and the muy talented Ms. LaPensée here.
BTW, Stanley Kubrick would have dug the ImagineNATIVE fest's trailer.
If nothing else, it's great for teaching kids about Indigenous culture and what's important in the world-- my darling little Haalie loves it, relishing its destructive power only as a preschooler can. As for the rest of us, it's a somewhat satisfying antidote to our generalized feelings of impotence when facing down the ever increasing forces of greed and power. Just don't let yourselves become addicted to it because there is too much important work to be done fighting for Gaia.
You can learn more about the game and the muy talented Ms. LaPensée here.
BTW, Stanley Kubrick would have dug the ImagineNATIVE fest's trailer.