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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 part of the chapter that stood out most to me was the beginning when it was talking about residential school principles using play and recreation for cultural assimilation. I think this part stood out the most because although they most likely did not know it at the time but the students probably enjoyed this time they were allotted for play as a bit of an escape for everything that they were going through at the time. Reading this was still upsetting because although they may have had some superficial benefits, they still were forced back into these schools and then further forced to perform their hobbies to manipulate people into thinking residential schools are not that bad.
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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).
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Residential schools were a type of institution where Indigenous children were taken to in attempts to be culturally assimilated into a christianity way of life. The main goal of these institutions was to diminish and make any trace of Indigenous traditions and culture within these children and make it so that they fit the settler guidelines of what a child should do or behave like. They were abusive and negative places for children to be ripped from their homes and forced into, and the children would get paraded around in society to manipulate people into thinking they were positive places for children to go and learn. These institutions were extremely harmful to the children in them as well as the family they were taken from, and forced to change their entire lifestyle and adapt to a new one where their spirits were broken and hope was diminished.
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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 could look like settlers adopting Indigenous traditions or practices such as dances, ceremonies, or physical movements. Yoga would be a prime example of taking Indigenous practices and morphing it into something well respected in the eyes of settlers. This may also include anything deemed to be “Indigenous inspired” things such as retreats and workshops.
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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.
| When residential staff was taking photos they wanted to convey an impression that highlights a false familiarity that other settlers see the photos of children that look like theirs so they must be happy because their children are happy. It uses the children who have been assimilated into another culture without the support of their family, to make people seeing the photos think that the institutions aren’t all that bad and that it is okay for it to be happening. They create a sense of social constructs of the world that influences the ways in which people are viewing the children, the homes they were taken from, and the life they are being forced to accept. It also begs the question about what they are produced to create, not only who or what the photo is of, but why it was created. This was to show people that the children were fine and that what was happening was “beneficial” for them.
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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.
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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”?
| I think that this quote means that in order for there to be beneficial change, then the people that are in charge of making the decision should be more involved in the process. They may see and recognize the need for change but according to Horn-Miller, they need to start working directly with the First Nations athletes to figure out how to get through the discrimination. They seem to be trying to change what they think needs to be changed, from an outside perspective, rather than actually going into the communities and talking to them to figure out what really needs to be done. |
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.
When I think of hockey culture in Canada, I think of the red mittens that were made in honour of Canada and the athletes competing in the olympics. These symbolize a sense of unity and support for those who couldn’t physically be there to support the athletes. It shows how much Canada values hockey and the other winter sports to the extent that they made these mittens for everyone to show their support for their country. |
Section Three: Decolonization
Please see the major assignment for this half of the term in the final section of this chapter.
