Sami Game Jam: Learning, Exploring, Reflecting and Sharing Indigenous Culture through Game Jamming

The Sami Game Jam 2018, held in February in Utsjoki, Finland, examines how a five-day game jam can serve as a tool within Sámi Pedagogy, a culturally grounded educational model developed in response to the historical assimilation of the Sámi people and the endangerment of Sámi languages. The event brought together 44 participants, including Sámi community members, Finnish and international game students, and experienced developers, who were organized into teams led by experienced game makers and paired with local Sámi experts. Teams worked with twelve Sámi-themed prompts, including language loss, border divisions, and ethnostress, and the event opened with a day of cultural immersion and lávvu-based learning.

The jam produced six games spanning VR, tablet, PC, and custom-controller formats. Notably, these were among the first computer games published on Sámi topics or in Sámi languages, drawing on all three Sámi languages spoken in Finland, and they largely avoided common cultural clichés. Observations gathered through qualitative, ethnographic participant observation and content analysis suggested the event was effective for learning and reflection and aligned well with the goals of Sámi Pedagogy.

The findings also surfaced significant strain. Participants reported ethnostress, one participant withdrew early, and an organizer was left overburdened without an adequate support network, pointing to the need for better preparation and care structures in similar projects. The planned international exhibition never materialized, and national press coverage was minimal.

The authors conclude that game jams hold promise for indigenous education contexts, while acknowledging that their conclusions rest on the subjective observations of two researchers, both indigenous or indigenous-connected, and that the event cannot be readily replicated. The study thus offers a grounded, if limited, account of how collaborative game creation can support indigenous knowledge exchange and reflection.