Five-year-old Joan sat with her father, Joshua Herron, at their home in Minneapolis, playing the newly launched video game, Reclaim! Azhe-giiwewining.
“What’s asemaa?” Joan asked her father as they played through the first arc of the story.
The various characters ask the player to bring asemaa, or tobacco, Herron explained to his daughter. Asemaa, or tobacco, is a sacred medicine used to make offerings in numerous Indigenous cultures, including Ojibwe.
The game’s storyline follows a girl who falls asleep in the woods during a visit to her grandmother’s house. The teen, Miskwaa, wakes up in a dreamlike place filled with talking animals and spiritual beings. She must use the cultural teachings she has learned and her language skills to find a way back home.
“This is a new way to tell a story,” Mary Hermes, director of Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia, said.
Hermes, a professor at the University of Minnesota, cofounded Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia over two decades ago to strengthen Ojibwe language revitalization efforts. This is the first game development project the nonprofit has tackled.
The game, which debuts Thursday, offers an accessible method for learners of all ages to engage with the Ojibwe language outside the classroom, adding to the opportunities for families and communities to practice language in everyday life.
