CALGARY—LeeAnne Ireland was searching for ways to adapt a popular Indigenous story and graphic novel for a more modern platform when a light bulb turned on at a virtual reality arcade.

The VR gaming centre was a reward trip for the kids Ireland and her staff work with at the Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth (USAY), a Calgary-based non-profit. Out of a series of graphic novels published by the group, the most popular issue was Ksistsikoom (Thunder), which is based on a traditional story about a man who journeys to defeat the powerful thunder spirit before learning the necessity of storms in nature.

Seeing VR’s possibilities inspired Ireland and USAY to work with Mammoth, a local gaming studio, to adapt the novel and create Thunder, a virtual reality game for the Oculus Go headset. Most importantly to Ireland, the game doubles as an educational tool to teach the basics of the Blackfoot language.

Players hear Blackfoot words in the game and use deductive reasoning and the process of elimination to tie those words to images, animals, numbers, and other basic concepts. The game’s ending also contains a traditional Blackfoot prayer.

Ireland acknowledged the game just teaches roughly 100 words, but she hopes Thunder will generate interest in its users to pursue learning the language further.

“Seeing Blackfoot not as a static language or a dead language or as something that’s not relevant today, but bringing it into a more contemporary setting, I think for youth, provides more value and worth than learning it. Because it’ll have a more meaningful connection to them,” said Ireland, USAY’s executive director.

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USAY provides educational programs that reach about 3,000 Indigenous children per year.

Thunder was first released in April for free to download from the Oculus store. An official launch party for the game is scheduled for June 17 to coincide with National Indigenous Week, where USAY will also showcase other educational VR programs being working on.

Ireland said USAY also plans to bring 30 headsets to schools, reserves, community groups and other places that request to rent them, so kids can play the game without worrying about the price of Oculus gear.

“We can provide these experiences and then open up dialogue and conversations around reconciliation, what it means to be Indigenous, how we can support our community in reclaiming our culture,” Ireland said.

Chaz Prairie Chicken did the first voice-over for Thunder, being a Blackfoot speaker who has been affiliated with USAY for more than six years.

He was later replaced by the voice acting of Indigenous elder Randy Bottle, but Prairie Chicken said he was impressed when he first saw the game. He added he thinks language learning will be more accessible and fun for kids through interactive gaming.

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“I learned Blackfoot all throughout elementary school, and I wish that growing up that I had something like this, something that would make learning a new language fun,” Prairie Chicken said.

“Kids, sometimes all they want to do in class is talk and fool around. But if they had something like this in a classroom to play games during school hours, I think they would have been all in for it.”

Thunder supports USAY’s overall goal to empower urban Indigenous youth while upholding traditional cultural values. Ireland said she hopes these tools can bring communities together and spark conversations about reconciliation.

“Projects like this may seem just like educational tools, but they’re part of this larger decolonization movement in our community,” Ireland said.

“Indigenous culture, languages, teachings, they’re important and they’re relevant and we have to find ways to bring them forward with us with the technology that we have now.”

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