Film 1: Coming to Terms. This film covers racism, stereotyping and dehumanization.
Film 2: We Are All Treaty People. This film covers the process of colonization and the treaties.
Film 3: A Legacy of Struggle. This film covers Canada’ s forced policy of assimilation: the residential school system.
Film 4: Targets and Heroes. This film covers the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women.
Film 5: The Way Forward. This film covers overcoming racism and building healthy communities.
The innovation of the project began with its funding; rather than being funded by the municipality or perhaps a provincial / federal arts granting agency, the project was largely funded by the community itself. Only 10 per cent of the project costs were funded by the municipality, the balance( approximately $ 50,000) was funded through sponsorship by businesses, organizations and private individuals who shared in the vision for a tool that could help advance a greater understanding of Aboriginal peoples and help build more positive relationships across the community.
To complement the Walk A Mile Film Project, the City of Thunder Bay also approached an indigenous curriculum writer to develop a facilitator’ s guide that will teach content via modules to four different audiences: elementary and high school, college and university, the workplace and community groups. Each module contains supplementary teaching materials( quizzes, discussion guides, facilitator’ s speaking notes) that frame each film so they can do what they were intended: to teach, inform, engage, and to build bridges and relationships in a very effective and kind way.
Following the completion of the curriculum, the films and curriculum were released as a DVD / CD set and led to funding from the provincial Ministry of Indigenous Relations & Reconciliation to reproduce the films and materials as a bilingual( English / French) product. That funding continues to support today
18 Q3 2017 www. amcto. com
Thunder Bay City Clerk, John Hannam, CMO, AMCT,( r) accepting the E. A. Danby Award from AMCTO President Steph Palmateer, AMCT.
the delivery of training with Walk A Mile Film Project to City employees and at large in the community by providing honorariums to the training facilitators at no cost to the City. Senior management at the City of Thunder Bay have made the decision that all employees of the Corporation shall receive facilitated training with the Walk A Mile Film Project. That training kicked off with an address from the Honourable David Zimmer, Minister of Indigenous Relations & Reconciliation, on April 9, 2015.
The Walk A Mile Film Project has become the foundational training for City employees to aid them in better understanding the Aboriginal community that we serve. Departments and divisions have built on the training to create stronger relationships with community, both at an organizational level as well as with individual customers. Having had the training, employees have expressed greater confidence in reaching out to engage with the Aboriginal community to better understand service needs and to resolve service issues and concerns. This is most particularly seen in the
Community Recreation & Culture Division and with Thunder Bay Transit, two departments with the greatest frequency of front-line service delivery contact with the community.
Beyond City departments, Walk A Mile has been adopted by both the acute care and chronic care hospitals / health-care provider groups in the city, and has been presented to staff and management at a wide range of community organizations, impacting understanding and relationships across the community.
Walk A Mile-facilitated training has been seen to advance understanding of the issues confronting our community and has provided a base to move forward in developing greater understanding and better relationships between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities: the third Canadian solitude. Recognition from the Aboriginal community, including at the political level, for the City’ s efforts in promoting the development and use of the Walk A Mile Film Project stands as a tangible example of the City’ s commitment to its Aboriginal community.