Board game creator inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations
Trigger warning: readers may be triggered by the subject matter of Indian Residential Schools. To access a 24-hour National Crisis Line, call: 1-866-925-4419. Community Assistance Program (CAP) can be accessed for citizens of the Anishinabek Nation: 1-800-663-1142.
By Kelly Anne Smith
COWICHAN BAY — People are astounded learning truths of our history in the new board game, The Truth in Truth and Reconciliation. The game’s inventor from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, James Darin Corbiere, says it’s Canadian history.
“The difference is that you’re going to hear the other side of the story… I’m an old police officer. I’m just about the facts. That’s what I’m presenting in the game.”
In The Truth in Truth and Reconciliation game, being Indigenous has the goal of collecting four Eagle Feathers on Turtle Island before land, language, culture, and identity are taken by the ‘Church’ and ‘Crown.’
“I went to farmers markets and teachers’ conferences. When I set up the game, I have examples of the card stock out and then people will come by and they’ll look at the game and walk up and they’ll pull a card and read it. And I can tell, I don’t have to talk to them or say anything. I can watch them and can see they’re reading the card. Then, all of a sudden, they’ll have that movement, that jerky kind of movement. I can see people connecting that way when they read those facts and then they go, ‘Whoa’,” Corbiere says. “I think that’s what happens when people go by and they read those cards and it catches them like that. It just makes them think, you know, this stuff is real. This really happened… Some will come to me and they’ll say, ‘I heard about this but I can’t believe that it’s true.’ Some people might come up and they might start to argue with me about these facts and and I’ll just stand there and I’ll say, ‘I just pulled it off the same internet that you can access. You have access to this information. I just compiled it all and put it in a game format’.”
The artwork on the box is also created by James. It’s called ‘the hunger’ in Anishinaabemowin.
“You are hungering for the truth, Ba Ka De,” says James.
The journey to publishing The Truth in Truth and Reconciliation Game started with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action (actionable policy recommendations) for decolonizing education. Then in 2016, the Ontario Secondary School Teacher Federation asked Indigenous teachers to contribute to a tool kit for teachers to teach the truth in truth and reconciliation. An Anishinaabemowin Secondary School teacher at the time, James created the board game, which was originally called The Colonization Game. The inventor says Catholic entities and school boards turned the game down.
“In the game, there are shame cards. As you go around the board, you land on those spaces, you draw a fact like Indigenous children report having to eat their own vomit in the Residential School System. So the church would earn a shame card. That’s just one of the softer facts,” Corbiere explains. “Medicine Wheel Publishing was specific about putting all the necessary advisories in place. There’s a trigger warning. This is the truth about Canada. We advise caution when playing the game. There’s a set of recommendations about what to do. It is going to cause some pain.”
James says actions are needed from Canada who historically was the abuser in the nation-to-nation relationship.
“They don’t know what to apologize for. Oh, reconcile? Yeah, we can reconcile. They can say, ‘I’m sorry, we acknowledge we’re living on your land.’ But what are you going to do to actually go through that process to reconcile? Once they understand all the harm that’s been caused, then hopefully from there, they’ll get it.”
James has been presenting the game to schools and universities in his local area, which is in BC now and he just took part in an online conference with university and college counsellors. He and his new game are making a difference.
“I’m still here trying to absorb it all. This is happening. This represents about eight years of my life devoted to the promotion and publication of this game. Now, I’m daring to think beyond about the next level because I’ve seen glimpses of how the future might appear if things work out.”
James would be pleased if one of the phrases from the game’s comic book became iconic.
“I created a character named Joe Stuckinthepasta. He looks like a teenage boy wearing a backward ball cap and he’s stuck in an elbow macaroni, a little piece of pasta. That’s Joe stuck in the pasta. That’s the little iconic name or figure,” Corbiere explains. “And then, shtat a haw. Shtat a haw and ska naw because they’re both in the game. When you get a shtat a haw card, it’s a celebration. If you get a ska naw card, it’s ‘Oh no.’ So, I think those words will become iconic as well. You’ll have white people out in BC saying ska naw 20 years from now…Ska naw is something that you say to someone if they messed up on something and they should have known better. When you know better, you should do better – ska naw.”
James Darin Corbiere will be home in Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory soon.
“I miss the people. I miss Lake Superior and Lake Huron I used to swim in. When I was a kid, I was in Lake Huron everyday. Down at Wiki, right up from the beach, I’d be in the water. I miss my fresh water. The water spirits here are different than the ones I grew up with. I have to learn what they like. Water spirits in Ontario like strawberries.”
Medicine Wheel Publishing is now accepting pre-orders for The Truth in Truth and Reconciliation Game for the August 28 release.