Walk a mile in someone else's shoes during Sydney Festival â literally Save Normal text size Advertisement To truly understand another person's experience, weâre told, first walk a mile in their shoes. It's a well-worn aphorism but still contains more than a kernel of truth. Now visitors to the National Maritime Museum can try stepping into other people's shoes â literally â while they listen to a recording of their story on headphones. All the stories concern the migrant experience. The shoes might belong to a Catholic refugee who recalls fleeing Vietnam on a tiny fishing boat crammed with 99 other terrified passengers and the horror of of seeing shoes floating in the water from other desperate refugees who had drowned.