The city wants to raise awareness around the Aboriginal experience in Thunder Bay by rolling the dice.
The Walk a Mile board game was developed by the city's former Aboriginal liaison Anna Gibbon and now the city is in the process of having the game produced with the hopes of distributing it to various organizations, including school boards.
The game was developed as an aid to corporate orientation work with city employees to give a basic understanding of the Aboriginal experience in Thunder Bay, said city clerk John Hannam.
A player makes their way around the board, landing on coloured squares and then taking a corresponding card in categories like stereotypes, history or determining if something is fact or fiction.
Players then discuss the information on the card and have to either move forward or backwards based on what the card says.
"You'll find a lot of the cards move you backwards in sort of a one step forward, two steps backwards and it helps portray the challenges Aboriginal people face in being a full participating member of society," said Hannam.
Aboriginal liaison Ann Magiskan said the game is a valuable tool in any form of education.
"A game such as this, which is interactive, engaging, helps to promote and create dialogue, will work towards getting rid of some of the stereotypes and myths and cementing some truths of our First Nation people and sort of our history," she said.
The city is in the process of finalizing the design of the game and Hannam said they are getting price estimates on what it would cost to have Walk a Mile printed.
They hope to have it available in the next few months.
