Students Explore Anishinaabe Culture in a Minecraft Version of Manitoba

Story and photo by Lenard Monkman, CBC/Radio-Canada

Students in Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School division got the first chance to learn, build and explore Manitoba’s Anishinaabe environment this week through the virtual world of Minecraft.

Winter Cameron-Catcheway, a Grade 4 student at Marion School, was one of the first students to explore Minecraft’s Anishinaabe virtual world Manito Ahbee Aki. (Lenard Monkman/CBC)

Winter Cameron-Catcheway, 9, is an Anishinaabe student at Marion School, which is part of the Louis Riel School Division. She has been playing Minecraft, a popular video game where players explore a world and build items and structures, for two years and was one of the first people to play Minecraft Education’s Manito Ahbee Aki, a teaching resource that celebrates and explores Manitoba’s Anishinaabe community.

“There’s a bunch of animals…. You can build houses and a community, a bunch of interesting things,” said Cameron-Catcheway.

The game was developed through 13 months of collaboration between Indigenous elders, knowledge keepers, education consultants and Microsoft Canada.

Read the full story and view the video here.