COVENTRY University students have created a retro-style video game to highlight the struggles of communities in the Amazon rainforest.
The project, 8-Bit Rainforest, had history students interviewing tribal elders in Brazil to form the multi-platform game that can be accessed on computers and mobile phones.
The game takes the player on an interactive journey through the rainforest and the characters tell the player about the culture and belief behind the tribes.
The game also talks about the problems from deforestation and their belief that large corporations do not respect their sacred lands.
Dr Darren Reid, curriculum leader for history, politics, and international relations, led the project and connected students with indigenous collaborator Adroaldo Antonio Fidelis (Duko) of the Indigenous Kaingang people, who was the primary point of contact between students and the tribe.
Dr Reid said: “It was my job to make sure that our students learn by actively engaging with real issues and situations.
“Our approach is to enable students to learn from their connection with an indigenous person, not to learn about indigenous people from a distance.
“Learning from their knowledge and their wisdom allows the students to find new ways to translate that for a diverse audience.
“Having Duko take part was absolutely essential because it’s so important to work with indigenous communities, so that we don’t try to speak for them and that we use our platform of privilege to amplify their voices.
“I was so inspired by this process and seeing what the students have learned, how they’ve grown, how they’ve responded to the challenge, has just been one of the best experiences you can have as an educator.
“And I can’t wait to replicate this and put on more projects like it in the future.”
Second-year history student Genevieve Grant said: “I’m half Filipino and it was interesting to see the similarities between their culture and my culture.
“We also got to learn about the role of women, and I was quite surprised that quite a lot of women have important roles in government, which I thought was quite cool.
“My hope for this game is that people get to learn new things about the issues impacting the rainforest, and they can gain more of a perspective from it.”
