Nebraska Public Media Labs game producer Jacob Schwitzer shares how creating the video game became a moment of pride, representation and connection for his community.
Personal Reflections from Schwitzer:
In August, Nebraska Public Media and PBS Wisconsin launched Powwow Bound: A Menominee Homecoming at the 57th Menominee Nation Contest Powwow in Keshena, Wisc. The partnership allowed us to showcase the game in the same environment that we meticulously recreated digitally – the Menominee Woodland Bowl.
As a First Descendant of the Menominee Nation (as well as being the co-producer and game designer for the project), this experience was the highlight of my year. Powwow Bound is the first opportunity I’ve had to share my tribe’s culture in a video game, and I am glad our team was able to create something unique for my community. In a medium that lacks many authentic Indigenous depictions, our team strived to do better and prioritized authenticity and reciprocity as our principles for development.
The team ensured authenticity by hiring Menominee Nation members and embedding them in every step of development. As a tribal member, I cannot speak for my entire tribe, especially when I am unfamiliar with certain cultural elements. We addressed this by hiring several Menominee knowledge keepers as advisors to ensure accurate cultural depictions and a diverse range of perspectives.
We also hired a Menominee writer and character designer to ensure that our story was genuine and that our characters were inspired by real people in the community, not stereotypes. Lastly, we had to make sure that the community was involved.
Often, Indigenous projects developed by outside entities are extractive and don’t participate in reciprocity with the community they’re depicting. That was not the case here, as our team involved community members at every step of the process: hiring Menominee language speakers as voice actors, playtesting at the local library, working with tribal college students and releasing the game at the annual contest powwow. We practiced reciprocity by keeping the community engaged with development and sharing knowledge with community members.
This all came together at the 57th Menominee Nation Contest Powwow where our team hosted a booth which included an interactive demonstration of the game. Our first players were a group of young Menominee kids who visited the booth several times during set up and were curious why we had so many laptops. Their eyes lit up once we said the words ‘Menominee video game.’
They sat down at the computers and burst with excitement once they saw the recreation of the powwow grounds. They worked together sharing hints on where to find quest items, family members and objects to photograph – a chaotic collaboration at its finest!
Over the course of the weekend, more young players stopped by our booth and excitedly explored the virtual powwow grounds. We would hear a kid say, “Look! It’s me!” and point at one of the characters on the screen, or say, “My family sits there!” or “That’s my family’s food stand,” and point at virtual locations in the environment.
In those words, our team knew that our goal was accomplished – these young Menominee kids saw themselves in a video game.
Celebrating a Moment of Cultural Representation
I’m truly proud of the work we have done on Powwow Bound: A Menominee Homecoming. Nebraska Public Media and PBS Wisconsin have created an experience that authentically depicts Menominee culture and traditions through the lens of the annual contest powwow. Whether or not players are Menominee, or if they live on or off the Menominee reservation, I hope that they can see themselves in the story we created.