VISION
To utilize the power and the economy of the games industries to strengthen communities, create opportunities, and diversify the economy of Indigenous Nations and communities in the United States, then onwards to other indigenous and aboriginal peoples around the globe.
GAMES AS A MOTIVATING FORCE
Often considered simply as entertainment, games play an important role in our culture and society. Games and sports provide a platform that allows us to apply knowledge and skills into practice under safer conditions through challenges and competitions.
From an economic perspective, the combined games and esports industries are estimated to be worth almost $200 billion on their own, while creating and boosting other industries around them.
Games are a great way to preserve heritage and culture, enhance identity, bring communities together, create jobs, and bring economic opportunities to the often under-represented Indigenous Nations, peoples, and communities across the globe.
Identity, Community, and Unity through games.
WHAT IS PROJECT QUIPU?
We are a diverse group of academics, entrepreneurs. and esports professionals, utilizing the ubiquity and power of games to further our mission to enhance cultural and social cohesion, and to create new career and economic opportunities for indigenous peoples across the globe.
Beginning our journey in the United States, Project Quipu is a newly established nonprofit corporation currently applying for our 501(c)3 status with the IRS.
While the paperwork is ongoing, we have already begun laying the groundwork for our mission by connecting with Indigenous Nations and communities across the United States, various aspects of the entertainment gaming industry, and the world of esports.
OUR MISSION
To present video gaming, competitive gaming, and esports as a vehicle to enhance cultural and social cohesion, and to create new career and economic opportunities, beginning in and across Indigenous Nations and communities in the United States, then onwards to other indigenous communities across the globe.
Like the quipu, each strand is separate, unique, and distinct; like the quipu, the connected whole creates strength, beauty, and utility.
Identity, Community, and Unity through games.
WHY QUIPU?
A quipu or khipu is a device made with strings used by a number of cultures in the Andes, similar to traditional devices used by cultures in China and Hawai'i. Consisting of a series of strands with knots positioned on the strands, the Quipu is used for everything from collecting data, keeping records, and monitoring obligations to recording census information, calendars, and military organization.
Beyond its function, the quipu also embodies the metaphor for our approach, with strands representing individual member Nations and Communities and knots being the initiatives and programs being executed with members. Strands and knots can be strategically linked to another for strength, at the same time remain separate, maintaining each strand's flexibility, individuality, and sovereignty.
The quipu allows us to highlight the importance of the uniqueness and heritage that every Nation and Community represents. By allowing each Nation and Community to bring that diversity unto the whole, while at the same time, drawing upon strength that can only come through the coming together of leaders and representatives, educators and community members, this lights our path to achieving the Project’s tenet, “Identity, Community, and Unity through games.”