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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)
| Till now when learning about the hardships and forms of assimilations that were used and endured within residential schools, I feel that I never fully understood or learned the depth that settlers went to strip all culture from Indigenous communities. To see things as niche as music (marching bands) or sports be stripped and colonized within Indigenous minds and practice is heart breaking to learn. I find it surprising that they went as far to target the literature these children were reading, the music they were engaging in and learning, and even what sports were appropriate for them to play within their time at the school. It is also even more heartbreaking to understand that these practices and teachings that they were learning so young as children is what they will grow up with and pass onto their future generations. Settlers made it their means to target and assimilate all culture from not just the students within their schools, but their future children as well.
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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).
| Through the introductory lecture it is learnt that there is a difference between colonialism and settler colonialism. Settler colonialism is seen as the act that Europeans came onto already inhabited indigenous land, took their resources, and decided to stay. There was a purposeful mission to assimilate and dominate Indigenous culture that already inhabited the land, Europeans imposed and “normalized” their own values on Indigenous land. Settler colonialism is generational and the effects are still felt today through Indigenous communities through a loss of culture, language, and the endurance of trauma.
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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)
| This chapter uncovers the idea of how the British aimed to make themselves “almost but not quite native” (75 MacLean, 2023). Settlers engaged in the appropriation of years of existing Indigenous practices, some examples were through rugged outdoor physical activities such as hunting, lacrosse, and snowshoeing (75 MacLean, 2023). As settlers aimed to appropriate this culture and make their own “new” version of it, they additionally aimed to exclude the original Indigenous peoples who inhabited the land from the new form of the activity (75 MacLean, 2023).
reference: MacLean, M. (2023). The Absence of Indigenous Moving Bodies: Whiteness and Decolonizing Sport History. Decolonizing Sport.
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D) The Colonial Archive
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.
| How much freedom did you have to play as a child?
I am grateful to have grown up within a society that allowed me the upmost freedom to choose my engagement within sports. In my school every student had the choice and preference to what sport they wanted to play, or if they wanted to play one at all. It is unfortunate to learn that students within residential schools weren’t given this choice that seems so simple and taken for granted now. I remember being anxious in gym class as a kid when we had to engage in certain sports, whether that was because I did not enjoy it or I was worried everyone would make fun of me for not being good at it. I cannot imagine being forced to practice for hours, and even attend sport tournaments, and have the outcome of my performance be based on how I was treated and fed. As I recall how that anxiety within gym class made me feel I begin to think of the students who played these sports as their life and way they were treated depended on it. Anxiety fosters in young bodies and carries on with them into adulthood, this underlining the generational trauma that is left lingering from residential schools.
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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.
| It is inspiring to listen to the various ways these athletes find their sport as a way of medicine. The athletes featured in this video all discuss the connection with their sports to the surviving aspect of residential schools. I understand their stories in a way that these sports were their sense of escape, therapy, and journey to healing. Indigenous individuals took these opportunities to foster their traditional language and keep it alive and well for future generations. All three athletes discuss that if you as an athlete were fortunate to still have your native tongue this was used as an extensive advantage within your game, for you could talk strategy on the field and your opponents would not understand. I find it moving that these survivors were able to still foster and use their language to their advantage even though it was actively being stripped away from many. I additionally found it heartwarming to hear the testimony from the two young female Indigenous athletes today, still finding sport as their medicine in life. Looking back to the concept of sport as therapy, William Nahini actively speaks on this concept through the understanding of sports helping him through the hardships faced with his brother in his residential school, he continues to say that the world is moving to a better place as everyone is understanding the wrongs Canada has made, and how we are now in a movement of reconciliation and healing.
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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”?
| Waneek Horn-Miller is an Indigenous athlete who competed on the Canadian olympic women’s water polo team. She actively examines the issues still circling in Indigenous sport development, calling its approach still a very colonial way. Waneek examines the many barriers Indigenous athletes are facing within their communities. These barriers pertain to difficulty accessing coaches, training, and opportunities that allow Indigenous athletes discover their talent and potential. Although Canada gives opportunities for for Indigenous athletes to compete within big national tournaments like the olympics, it is how they get there that is so difficult for them to accomplish due to the isolating communities they live in, compared to more urbanized areas. It additionally becomes conflicting for Indigenous athletes to represent a country who has harmed them time and time again, and although they are given the chance to engage within their sport, they are doing it for a country that has hurt them for many generations, this leaving them feeling conflicted and confused. Waneek just calls on the government to provide better funding and opportunities to allow young Indigenous athletes to determine their own potential and be given equal opportunities like others who represent Canada. |
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.
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I chose to capture this image that displays the immense amount of Canadian pride that occurred this past February. This picture displays team Canada within the 4 nations league when they won against America’s hockey team. Canadians felt liberated that they were able to show America who the “real owners” of the game were, and that is Canada who invented the sport. This win helped secure the understanding of Canadas pride especially since Donald Trump had been talking on how Canada will become apart of America as the 51st state, Canadians were able to find their pride and image through this game of hockey. I also loved and enjoyed how this team was composed of players who play on American teams within the NHL but all of that went out the door when they were playing for their home country, players we as maple leaf fans hate soon became loved when they were on our team. It felt heart warming to see the power of sports and community that it brings, especially since it can be so assuring to us as a country who is far from becoming the 51st state anytime soon.
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Section Three: Decolonization
Please see the major assignment for this half of the term in the final section of this chapter.
Longer Prompt Question: Read the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action specific to sport again. Choose one of the Calls to Action that have been answered in full or in part and in 300 words explain the steps that have been taken to fulfill them and provide specific examples of what this looks like. Also reflect on how communities and individuals (particularly settlers) can contribute to addressing these Calls to Action.
Call 87 to action states “We call upon all levels of government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, sports halls of fame, and other relevant organizations, to provide public education that tells the national story of Aboriginal athletes in history”. This call helps to ensure that Indigenous athletes stay relevant, are given equal opportunity to be recognized, and understand the importance of representing their community with a sports team. Government of Canada has stated that there is a Tom Longboat award established in 1951 that was given to recognize the accomplishments of Aboriginal athletes for Canadians teams, as well as an additional National Indigenous Coaching award that is presented at the Petro-Canada Sport Leadership Gala, in collaboration with the Coaching Association of Canada (Government of Canada, 2024). Sufficient funding has been increasing since 2017, with as of recently in 2022 the budget continued the 2017 investment with $20 million over 5 years for athletes (Government of Canada, 2024). Next steps listed are understanding the continuous contributions and efforts that have to be made, and additionally communities and individuals can begin to recognize the accomplishments of Indigenous athletes, and advocate themselves to have voices heard. Communities can promote and give a platform to these athletes, most specially news channels or social media platforms. Ensure that Indigenous athletes are heard and appreciated.
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