An Indigenous Language and Culture Board Game? Serious Play and Yo’eme Language Reclamation

This article discusses the Yo’eme Language and Cultural Board Game, developed as a language revitalization product and activity for the Yo’eme language community. Aimed especially at youth and young adults, the game is designed to be a decolonizing intervention that fosters language ideological clarification. While it promotes knowledge of the heritage language and culture in a playful but active way by rewarding gamers for correct answers and for engaging in intergenerational communication, it encourages some community members to revise their perceptions of the language as “static”—limited to a traditional past and inappropriate for dynamic interaction in the present. The game is constructed in accord with a Yo’eme cultural logic that deemphasizes the achievement of a single “winner” in favor of the group progressing in knowledge and language acquisition at various levels. Evidence acquired from use of the game with Yo’eme learners suggests that playing the game not only provides linguistic and cultural knowledge but also develops critical Indigenous conciousness and contributes to the health and well-being of users.