Board Game: Nitassinan

Seven days to cross the forest and bring the game back to the Shaputuan: around the table, nobody plays against anybody.

Nitassinan, Terre des Innus, is co-published by the Institut Tshakapesh, which handled its development and production, and by Jeux Face 4, a publishing house co-founded by Joel Legrand, which distributes it. The game grew out of an idea by Sébastien Magnan, who taught at the Pakuaushipu school in Pakua-Shipu. It is illustrated by Lyne Maïkan Washish, an Innu artist from Pessamit, and Valérie Trudel did the graphic design.

The cards show each animal under its Innu name and its French name: Mush, the moose, or Nishk, the Canada goose. A digital cultural booklet, along with an exclusive playlist, presents Innu stories and traditions.

Format: cooperative game for 1 to 4 players, ages 10 and up, games of 30 minutes or more. Solo mode available.

How to use: players take on the role of hunters travelling across the ancestral Innu territory and work together to bring as much game as possible back to the Shaputuan before the end of the seventh day.

Origin: designed and made in Quebec; co-published by the Institut Tshakapesh and Jeux Face 4, of La Prairie, in Montérégie. Jeux Face 4 uses 100% Canadian cardboard for its games.