By Kelly Anne Smith

THESSALON FIRST NATION — Elders roll first in the new game Teepees and Wigwams. Thessalon First Nation inventor Des Barry created the new game along with a Junior Version, which only has 25 squares, looking like a bingo card.

Barry is a busy single dad to Emily, 11 years old, and son MJ who is 10. Dad is also an artist, t-shirt designer, professional pool player.

“About 2007, I played pool on a team called Bearclaws with legendary First Nation players like Stan Tourangeau and First Nation snooker legend Jimmy Bear. These guys are legends in the game.”

Years ago, Barry started thinking about the concept of teepees and wigwams.

“I saw Wayne McKenzie and he had that Pow-Wow-Opoly. It was like a remake of monopoly. I was thinking, ‘Why can’t we come up with a simple game like chutes and ladders using our Anishinaabe culture?’”

As he made up the grid for the game, Barry thought of traditional ways.

“The portal to our ancestors is through the fire. That’s done within sweat lodges and teepees. They portal you anywhere on the board. If you land on a sweat lodge, say if you land on number four, it jumps over to number nine. One brings you down to seven, but jumps to 44. Each sweat lodge and teepee bring you to different parts of the board.”

Barry showcases important characters in Anishinaabe culture.

“The bigfoot: if you land on him you, have to go back five spots. And then the trickster; he is one of my paintings I do — he’s in our culture, too. He is a shadowy figure. He is a shape-shifter. He plays pranks on you too if you disrespect him. If you see a snake crawling over there and it happens to be one of these tricksters, if you go step on that snake, he is going to pull a prank on you. So, if you step on that trickster on the board game, he’ll send you back to start, back to 50, or back to 25,” he explains. “Now the little people. There are three spots here for the little people. In our culture, they are magical healers. They are also like little pranksters, too. Say a person has a goiter or a cancer and the medicine man doesn’t have anything at that particular time to help you, sometimes he’ll tell you to seek out the little people to see what they have. What happens on the board game is you move off the board game onto the secondary board game. You roll the dice and you have to go all the way around on the spots until you land on back to the game. Then you go to your original spot. This is the Little Peoples Healing Circle, your healing journey. Sometimes that journey is tough and you have to redo things.”

Barry’s children have fun playing Teepees and Wigwams with their cousins.

Son MJ says, “if you roll big numbers, it can hop you right to the end.”

The inventor is expanding the development of the games and has shown Teepees and Wigwams to a lawyer in Sault Ste. Marie who in turn sent Des to his app guys.

“He saw the Junior Version and said it will be a good phone app for kids to play against each other. And when you land on say number one, we could add more in there, some Anishinaabe history could pop up.”

The development, manufacturing, and distribution of the game could be a huge success for the community, explains Barry.

“Many youths would benefit by working in the Tee Pees and Wigwams warehouses. They would learn laser wood burning, 3D printing, and vinyl printing. It will grow into online games and virtual reality game designing.”

Barry strives to offer his example of Mino bimaadiziwin (to live a good life), and is proud of his sober lifestyle over the last 10 years.

“I hope that what I do and have done somehow the youth and young parents around me see that they too can push themselves to achieve the biggest goals in life! When I moved back home, there was nobody at my level [in pool] so I took up art work — painting… The passion that I had playing pool was now directed towards my artwork! Today, I am sober. I am an artist. I am a pro pool player, a First Nation apparel designer, and a colouring book and board game designer.”

Des explains that his father was in a Day School and his grandmother was forced into the Indian Residential School System. He didn’t really understand the terrible legacy of Indian Residential Schools until he was asked to help a Survivor.

“Clifford Solomon was an actor who attended pool tournaments in Vancouver. He told me he wanted my opinion on his court hearing. Wow! When I was done reading all the stories, he did say, ‘You will learn about who you are’,” he recounts. “The stories changed my view on everything I thought I knew! When I was done reading, I then understood why people did drugs. I understood why people drank! I soon quit drinking and by doing that, it started to improve my pool playing ability! It improved so much that I become pro plus – the highest level of play in Canada.”

For more information or inquiries on how to purchase the fun game from inventor Des Barry, e-mail: teepeesandwigwams@gmail.com.