In Their Moccasins

Abstract

In Their Moccasins is an online game environment based on the “choose your own adventure” storybook format. The game supports the education of allies about Indigenous ways of knowing, learning, and being. It fosters empathy toward the experiences of Indigenous peoples with the goal of building solidarity with an Indigenous resurgence in higher education and beyond. Many Canadians think of Indigenous issues as a thing of the past, yet the horrors of colonization continue to have an impact. Indigenous students display a great deal of resilience in navigating their day to day lives; However, we need to move away from placing the expectation of resilience on the individual, and towards societal change. This game, designed by Indigenous students, will be a helpful tool for educators and folx looking to build their Indigenous knowledges skill set. As a team we created a group of fictional characters whose paths intersect at school. We chose fiction as a resistance to the barrage of requests for Indigenous folx to rehash and perform the traumas of their personal lived experiences for the education and consumption of settlers. Fiction allows us to interweave our various truths while being free of constraints such as personal identification or even the conventions of time and space. In thinking about creating Indigenous characters, it was important to first note the one dimensional, deficit based, mischaracterization of Indigenous folx throughout history. The colonial project has required a clearly demarcated other to justify it’s gross injustices. This othering and negating of Indigenous humanity continues to this day through history texts, public discourses, media coverage and pop culture misrepresentation. In Their Moccasins was an opportunity to create characters that speak to multi-faceted intersecting Indigenous identities. In this resource you can read through a character's story and make decisions or participate in quizzes. You can toggle back to change your decisions or answer questions differently, and you can go back and see what would have happened if you made a different choice. Afterwards, you can play through as a different character. Feel free to experiment, and there's no need to fear mistakes. There are no right answers, but in some instances there are more or less helpful choices. This project has generated a learning resource that is informed by and rooted in the reality of the lived experiences of Indigenous students navigating postsecondary education. Indigenous students report feeling isolated, misunderstood and marginalized in postsecondary education, in part due to the systemic underrepresentation of Indigenous staff and instructors in the academy (AFN, 2018). By enhancing participants’ cognitive understanding of Indigenous students’ lived, day-to-day experiences and personal histories, this work aims to help improve the postsecondary learning and training experiences of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples.