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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 is just the heinous amount of hate was held towards Indigenous children’s’ culture in residential school, therefore, their sporting practices. At one point in the chapter, the author discusses the assimilating of children through having them partake in sports the “good white people” do. Associating the words “good” and “white” with each other very clearly show the motives of these schools and the kind of culture idealized, at the same time daemonizing and othering Indigenous children and their respective cultures.
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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).
| Settler colonialism: Settler colonialism is used to describe a kind of colonial practice that first originated with the arrival of European settlers to North America. Like other forms of colonialism, settler colonialism involves the dominant culture and people of that culture, imposing genocide, assimilation, and efforts to destroy the original Indigenous culture. What is different from settler colonial to other forms of colonialism is its permanence in how the settlers who moved there reproduce which then results in their offsprings continuing the standards of colonization set by their parents. Due to generations after generations of European settlers contributing to assimilation of the Indigenous culture, Indigenous people become a marginalized minority group, with the settler groups becoming the majority populated group. |
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 display of settlers adapting and appropriating Indigenous culture in relation to sport can seen very clearly in how British and French settler colonists have attributed quite the effort to associate sports and capabilities like snowshoeing and tobogganing as being “Canadian” and part of the “Canadian Identity when in fact the route of these activities is from Indigenous peoples. Settlers have attempted to Indigenize themselves through claiming they have the same physical capabilities as the Indigenous peoples who have been practicing these sports for centuries prior to settler arrival. To claim these sports as “Canadian culture” is dismissive of years of practice and efforts Indigenous peoples have put into creating and nourishing the involvement in these sports. |
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.
| When residential school staff took photos, it is clear they have a narrative that they are trying to push in terms of the perception on the schools. Many of the photos are often taken outside at the front of the school to show the architecture, there is less evidence of the inside of rooms and classrooms. This is likely done to not show the living standards the Indigenous children had to go through. By only showing the architecture of the outside of the school, the impression coming off seems to want to show the idea that the schools hold an air of “prestige”, therefore the Indigenous children being forced to attend would become more “prestigious” is they attended, when in reality it is not that they are becoming prestigious but becoming colonized. |
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.
| Aiden Baker touches on his experience with medicine through sport with the connection of his family and how lacrosse has been a sport that has been played through generations with his family. Lacrosse is a sport that Aiden’s family has played for generations, having familial teachings being passed down through the sport. Aiden talks especially about his connections with his grandfather and how grandfather taught him to play lacrosse. Williams Nahanee talks about his experience with boxing in terms of medicine as being a sport he turned to in a dark time and how it is a sport that allowed him release emotional tension from being in a colonial environment. |
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 saying how government is trying but still approaching Indigenous sport development in a very colonial way refers to how while there are very athletic Indigenous peoples in Canada who have the physical capabilities to be athletes, they do not have the supports to do so. Unlike for someone living in an urban setting, in rural fly-in Indigenous communities there are no pathways presented to athletes to show it is possible for them to go pro, there are no scouts that go rural settings to look for athletes. So when Waneek says this, she is referring to the lack of awareness around the little supports and pathways that are available for 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.
Carey Price was at the top of his game, the beast goalie in the NHL at his time when he stepped down from his position. I remember being a younger and hearing about him stepping down because of the substance abuse issues he was dealing with. I remember how we was demonized for admitting this and stepping down. What many NHL fans failed to realize at the time is lack of supports regarding Indigenous peoples in Canada in the event of dealing with substance abuse issues. Indigenous peoples are Canada have a much more traumatic relationship with drugs and alcohol than those who are non-Indigenous as they were substances brought over and introduced by European settlers. Rather than fans showing support and realizing the tumultuous relationship, many were quick to show hate to Price.
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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.
