If there’s one thing about Blackfullas, it’s that we love community and are stronger for it.
And through their love of gaming, this mob has created a unique online community and First Nations content creator collective, called BlakoutGG.
BlakoutGG was created after the group met through a NAIDOC initiative on the streaming platform Twitch in 2021.
The event brought the gamers together online from across the country and featured them on the platform for special events to celebrate NAIDOC.
Now, they play online together every week, talk everyday and meet up at conventions and festivals like PAX and DreamHack.
Josh, who goes by Cuzb0t on Twitch, is an Erub man and former professional Call of Duty player.
He says he has met some of his closest friends in becoming a part of BlakoutGG.
"The people I met through the NAIDOC program with Twitch are now some of my closest, best friends... family, really," he told NITV.
"I speak to them every single day."
A Kuku Yalanji man, who goes by Yoko Yakashi online, says this community is different to others.
"It feels mine, it feels home in a way," says Yoko.
"It's not just a group, it's family."
The group met online and now travel from all over the country to meet up in person. Credit: Supplied
Most Twitch streamers play games, but genres on the platform range from ‘Just Chatting’ to live broadcasts of e-sport competitions and subscribers can monetarily support their favourite creators.
Josh says it's like "supporting your favourite sports team or athlete."
It’s a niche topic area, but the online gaming community is huge.
Twitch has 140 million active monthly users, so it can be difficult to find your people.
Rubii says when she first started gaming, she didn’t know where to find other mob.
"When I first was coming up, I didn’t really know anybody and I didn’t know where to look,” says Rubii.
“So we wanted to create something where people would know where to look.”
Rubii Red and Lupawolf152 gaming at DreamHack. Credit: Supplied
A naturally shy person, Tessa says finding the community has helped her become more confident.
“I’ve definitely come out of my shell,” says Tessa.
“I’ve had friends tell me that they’ve seen how much more confident I’ve become.”
BlakoutGG want to continue to grow the community and have created a mob-only Discord for people to come together and discuss a range of topics in a safe space online.
The group has created a server on the platform Discord, where they can chat, vent and lean on each other.
"It's been really great to see the Discord grow," says Rubii.
"We want for it to grow further and get more mob involved."
