“Interconnectedness and interdependence”: Never Alone, Thunderbird Strike , and Indigenous Relationalism in Video Games

Abstract Among popular cultural artifacts, video games represent an increasingly prevalent source of political thought, and Indigenous game designers have become a more visible presence in the industry over the past decade. While the games created by Indigenous teams vary widely in their content, I argue that they offer an important medium through which to convey Indigenous political thought and that they have offered a site for the articulation of an Indigenous relationalisms. That is, these games typically depict social life as being composed not of free-standing individuals or entities but as being characterized by constant, inextricable interconnection. In a departure from the anglophone and sinophone relationalisms that have received the most attention in International Relations, Indigenous relationalisms have placed more emphasis on place and nonhuman entities in the interconnected world they envision. Through an examination of Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa) (2014) and Thunderbird Strike (2017), I contribute to a burgeoning literature on Indigenous relationalisms, and I demonstrate that even relatively niche video games can be used to convey such thought and can have political effects.