June 24, 2020
Vision draws Māori into survival game
A Māori game developer believes her online survival game could be a world first.
Dr Callaghan has a Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund to develop Katuku Island, which draws on work she and her late husband Matua Craig Callaghan did to support Māori education, including developing the textbook 16-year-old Māori Boy.
The game requires players to create their own avatars in the form of Māori warriors with tribal tattoos, design Māori weapons, and overcome a number of literacy and decision-making challenges.
Sketches will be finalised at a hui this weekend to be sent to a 3D animation studio in New York.
She says it uses elements familiar to young Māori.
"It's creating inclusiveness, it's creating confidence, it's taking out the barriers so it's producing this inclusive environment culturally that 'looks like me, that talks like me, right, now I'm ready to game, I'm ready to succeed.' And we all know our young people love technology and we all know they love gaming," Dr Callaghan says.
Dr Callaghan says the COVID-19 lockdown highlighted that many Māori were not set up for the shift to distance learning.
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