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These are difficult stories. We bear witness in this chapter to the role of sport in furthering the settler colonial projects throughout Turtle Island. Here are some supports to access in the community and from a distance:
First Peoples House of Learning Cultural Support & Counselling
Niijkiwendidaa Anishnaabekwag Services Circle (Counselling & Healing Services for Indigenous Women & their Families) – 1-800-663-2696
Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre (705) 775-0387
Peterborough Community Counselling Resource Centre: (705) 742-4258
Hope for Wellness – Indigenous help line (online chat also available) – 1-855-242-3310
LGBT Youthline: askus@youthline.ca or text (647)694-4275
National Indian Residential School Crisis Line – 1-866-925-4419
Talk4Healing (a culturally-grounded helpline for Indigenous women):1-855-5544-HEAL
Section One: History
A) The Residential School System
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
We are asked to honour these stories with open hearts and open minds.
Which part of the chapter stood out to you? What were your feelings as you read it? (50 words)
| The main idea of the chapter that stood out to me was this idea of the schools making the children “less Indian”. Throughout the chapter they talk about music, books, and sports that were forced on the children to make them less Indian. The schools used these aspects of the children’s lives to control the way in which they act and what they believe to be right. In the chapter it says “In 1896, for example, E. C. Chirouse, the principal of the Mission school, wrote that “the young musicians have made wonderful progress under the tuition of Rev. Brother Collins; one is often tempted to wish that the Indians were equally talented in other respects”. It is upsetting to read that they changed who these children were because they thought they needed to be less Indian. Many of the schools still have this control over the children now that they are adults. They have changed them so much these individuals have no identity outside of the schools.
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B) Keywords
Exercise 2: Notebook Prompt
Briefly define (point form is fine) one of the keywords in the padlet (may be one that you added yourself).
| The Indian act:
The Indian act was created April 12th, 1876 as a way to take control over the Indigenous peoples within Canada. I picked this photo as it shows 21 things that most people did not know about the Indian act. Some aspects of the Indian act are known by most but these 21 things are not widely known as they are uncivilized and should have never been set in place. |
C) Settler Colonialism
Exercise 3: Complete the Activities
Exercise 4: Notebook Prompt
Although we have discussed in this module how the colonial project sought to suppress Indigenous cultures, it is important to note that it also appropriates and adapts Indigenous cultures and “body movement practices” (75) as part of a larger endeavour to “make settlers Indigenous” (75).
What does this look like? (write 2 or 3 sentences)
| Making settlers Indigenous can look and be expressed in different ways. It can be expressed by taking over their music and dances that go along with the music. The most common example I can think of would be settlers taking over smudging ceremonies, song and dance ceremonies, and sweat lodges. These have been taken over and used as a marketing tool by settlers for years making them seem as though they are being supportive. |
D) The Colonial Archive
Church and State
Fasle familiarity
interchangeable and identities
Exercise 5: Complete the Activities
Section Two: Reconciliation
A) Reconciliation?
Exercise 6: Activity and Notebook Prompt
Visit the story called “The Skate” for an in-depth exploration of sport in the residential school system. At the bottom of the page you will see four questions to which you may respond by tweet, facebook message, or email:
How much freedom did you have to play as a child?
What values do we learn from different sports and games?
When residential staff took photos, what impression did they try to create?
Answer one of these questions (drawing on what you have learned in section one of this module or prior reading) and record it in your Notebook.
| When the residential staff took photos of the children playing and enjoying sports there was an impression they were creating. They were creating this impression of joy and the schools providing the children with an impactful childhood. The photos show happy and joyful children not the children who experienced so much abuse that they are still full of trauma. These photos create the perfect impression of a happy school showing that maybe it was better for the children to be taken away from their families. Which we know is not true but that is the impression they wanted to create with the photos. |
B) Redefining Sport
B) Sport as Medicine
Exercise 7: Notebook Prompt
Make note of the many ways sport is considered medicine by the people interviewed in this video.
| In the video all of the people discuss the ways in which sports have been medicine to them or their ancestors. Playing sports have been a way for all of these people to get a release from whatever is troubling them in life. Playing sports has been the way for them to clear their minds yet still feel connected to the land, ancestors, and the creator. Everyone seemed very grateful for sports and the way it has helped them feel healed from their pasts. The younger athletes were very appreciative of their ancestors past in order for them to have the opportunities to play sports. |
C) Sport For development
Exercise 7: Notebook Prompt
What does Waneek Horn-Miller mean when she says that the government is “trying but still approaching Indigenous sport development in a very colonial way”?
| When she is talking about the government still approaching Indigenous sport development in a very colonial way she means the lack of Indigenous athletes seen in sports, the lack of support for Indigenous athletes, the lack of funding for their sports teams. The government says that they do not take records on who is an Indigenous athlete or not when they play for team Canada however I do not believe that this true. Team Canada promotes being inclusive to athletes of colour and like to talk about their athletes who are not white yet they seem to not know if they have any Indigenous athletes. |
Exercise 8: Padlet Prompt
Add an image or brief comment reflecting some of “binding cultural symbols that constitute Canadian hockey discourse in Canada.” Record your responses in your Notebook as well.
Hockey is one of the most known identities for Canadians. Everyone here is expected to play hockey at some point in your life and most people are shocked when you do not. Even if you did not play hockey most Canadians watch hockey and are supporters of the sport. This photo is from a tournament run by the NHL that just finished. In this photo it shows the Canadian team after winning against the Americans. This photo shows the pride that Canada has for hockey and how important it was to win against the Americans. For as long as I can remember winning against the Americans in any hockey tournament was seen as a must. It was never explained to me why we needed to win these tournament beyond the fact that hockey is Canada. |
Section Three: Decolonization
Please see the major assignment for this half of the term in the final section of this chapter.
