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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)
| What stood out to me most within this chapter was the aspect of sports in the residential school system. Especially, that often these schools would compete against white schools, and would win a majority of them. In this sense, the coaches would capitalize off of their talent, and use it to their own advantage. It is just another way that the residential school system took advantage of the innocent children. Moreover, girls were not allowed to play these competitive games, so it instilled more misogyny in the system, and negatively affected their self-esteem. |
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).
| Assimilation through sports:
Assimilation through sports is a more “hidden” type of assimilation in my opinion. However, it is very real, and very prominent within residential schools. The way they played competitive sports in residential schools was done in a specific way that would ensure it would not cause any cultural connections for Indigenous children. In Chapter 1 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, they explained that the way Indigenous children played in their reservations and their communities was a but “rougher” than how white children would play, and this was due to cultural differences, and differing values which is completely common. However, all of the notions of sport Indigenous children held from their culture would be striped, and replaced with “clean” rules. Due to sport being one of the only outlets for Indigenous children who were living a nightmare, they would assimilate to these rules in order to have some sort of fun.
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C) Settler Colonialism
Fill in the missing words:
1. If colonialism is typically temporary, settler colonialism is not-temporary.
2. In contrast with colonialism, in settler colonialism, settler from lasting attachment to the land.
True of False
1. Settler colonialism often grows out of colonialism. TRUE.
Multiple Choice:
1. What is the role of sport in settler colonial projects?
Controlling the bodies of Indigenous peoples, and appropriating the body cultures of Indigenous peoples.
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)
| Settlers consistently capitalize off of Indigenous cultures in the endeavour to make settlers Indigenous. In the context of sports specifically this has been done by reconstructing the originally Indigenous sport of Lacrosse. Settlers have adapted the rules to make it “cleaner” than how Indigenous communities would, however they capitalize and profit off of the sport and the players regardless.
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D) The Colonial Archive
Fill in the missing words:
1. Most photos were taken for official reporting reasons and therefore “connote meanings tied to church and state objectives.
2. Images curated to suggest “a sheltered and productive school environment” that was “efficient, well-managed, and orderly” created a false familiarity or readers who are invited to superimpose their own educational experiences onto what they see”
3. Widely circulating generic images convey a sense that faces are interchangeable and erase individual Indigenous identities.
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 residential staff took photos, what impression did they try to create?
From the photos offered through the story of The Skate, they seem to look fairly “normal” in a sense, which I assume was their goal. Although, most students were not happy at Residential Schools, the photos the staff would take was intended to recruit more Indigenous families to send their child to be assimilated. Specifically, in the picture of the girls baseball team, while some of their smiles looked genuine, to me a great majority of them do not reach their eyes. Even those who are smiling genuinely, I doubt it to be because their school, but rather that they are able to play a sport that allows them to forget where they are. The point of these pictures was to create an idealistic world, where people would want to live like those in the picture, when in reality, I believe if they were to live like them, they would think much differently. |
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.
| The main point of this video was to show that sport is medicine because it is an outlet, it’s a release. For 2 of the interviewees, they were subjected to residential schools at a young age, and both found that their respective sports was their way out. It was their ticket. Especially for William Nahini, he still boxes to this day as therapy to deal with the trauma he faced at residential school. Aidan Baker, and the Treadwell girls did not experience residential schools themselves, but the residual trauma has been brought down to them, and they also use sport as a form of therapy.
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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 Waneek Horn-Miller states that the Canadian government is trying, but still approach Indigenous sport development in a very colonial way, I believe she means this in a variety of ways. Firstly, Horn-Miller is one of the few Canadian Olympians that identify as Indigenous. This is not because Indigenous athletes cannot be Olympians, it is because they are not offered the same resources as white athletes. So, one of the ways in which the government is approaching sport development in a colonial way is by not providing spaces for Indigenous folks to participate in organized sports. Furthermore, Horn-Miller also explains that for the Canadian Olympic team as a whole to use Indigenous athletes, they must work together to create a genuine safe space for Indigenous athletes, as well as providing accessible and inexpensive spaces to practice their respective sports. This is especially true for Indigenous athletes that live in fly-in communities. Although they might have a rink to practice hockey, or a field to practice a variety of other sports, there is so much more to training than just a space. So, the government of Canada must begin approaching sports in a different way in order to include all members of society. |
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.
Personally, when I think of Canadian Hockey, I often think of the final Olympic games. For me, this picture is the epitome of this because, the women’s hockey team in the 2000s has won 5 gold medals for the Olympic team, while the men’s team has won 3 gold medals in the 2000s. While the men’s Canadian hockey team is exceptional, the women’s team does not get enough recognition for their play. But, I believe that women have a huge part in Canadian hockey cultural symbols because women are greatly encouraged to play the game, and are cheered for as well. Canada also now have 3 PWHL teams, with the majority of the players (75 out of 159 players) are Canadian. |
