Events Archive

Survivance: An Indigenous Game for Change
Presentation by Elizabeth LaPensée

Wednesday November 6, 2013 at 10:30AM PST
Room 3400, The School for Interactive Arts + Technology
Simon Fraser University, Surrey Campus

Survivance is a game for change based on Wisdom of the Elders’ health and wellness project Discovering Our Story in Portland, Oregon, USA. As an intergenerational path to healing, players listen to storytellers, complete quests, and create art or a story (an “act of survivance”) in any medium, such as oral stories, songs, poems, short stories, paintings, beadwork, weaving, photography, and films. The acts of survivance are shared online and with the community. This presentation describes the experiences of players, acts of survivance, and the influence gameplay has had on the urban Indigenous community in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Elizabeth LaPensée's work addresses Indigenous determination in media such as games, animation, and web comics. She draws from her Irish, Anishinaabe, and Métis ancestors to inform her art, design, and writing. Her web comic The West Was Lost (2008) was shown at imagineNATIVE 2010. Her experimental animation The Path Without End (2011) premiered at imagineNATIVE 2011. She is Ph.D. (ABD) at the School for Interactive Arts + Technology, Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada. Her dissertation looks at the Indigenous social impacts of the game Survivance (2011), which encourages healing through storytelling and art.