Reclaiming Tom Longboat by Janice Forsyth

Author:Janice Forsyth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Regina Press
Published: 2020-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

The Struggle for Meaningful Inclusion, 1999–2001

In 1998, the afn transferred responsibility for the Tom Longboat Awards to the asc, a national multi-sport organization established by Indigenous people in 1995 to advocate for and coordinate the development of Indigenous sport and recreation in Canada. The asc had emerged during politically charged times that served as a catalyst for broader changes in Indigenous sport. The crisis at Oka in 1990 was a particularly pivotal event. This seventy-eight-day standoff between the Mohawks (Kanien’keha:ka) at Oka, a First Nations community in Quebec, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Armed Forces prompted the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, a five-year investigation into Indigenous living conditions on- and off-reserve. The commission based its four-thousand-page final report on data collected from nearly a hundred meetings with Indigenous people throughout the country, and as such it represented the hopes and challenges of being Indigenous in Canada.1 It identified sport and recreation as essential facets of Indigenous life and important vehicles for Indigenous community and social development, especially when they were tied to the fostering of healthier lifestyles.2

The Royal Commission was the first federal study to show that sport and recreation were not just activities that Indigenous people did for fun in their spare time or strictly for competition, nor were they luxuries to enjoy when other basic needs were met. Rather, they were central to individual and collective well-being, especially for youth, since national concerns revolved around high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, low educational outcomes, and increasing suicide rates. Indigenous people were adamant that sport could help address these problems as well as provide youth with an outlet to feel good about themselves and their culture and find role models to keep them inspired.3 This vision of sport was radically different from that found in the mainstream system, which treated sports as a source of entertainment or as a vehicle for Canadian nationalism. Significantly, the commission recommended as a first step that an “Aboriginal sport and recreation advisory council” be established and funded to work with federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments to “meet the sport and recreation needs of Aboriginal people” at all levels, in particular the grassroots.4

Although the Royal Commission was important, it was not the only factor paving the way for the creation of the asc, for the work done by the commission coincided with a renewed state interest in sport, physical activity, and health.5 The federal government held a series of meetings in the early 1990s to review, discuss, and recommend action in those areas. One of those meetings, the Minister’s Task Force on Federal Sport Policy, held the mandate to examine the purpose and place of sport in Canadian society, including how sport contributed to the lives of Canadians and the potential scope for government involvement in amateur sport development.6 Alwyn Morris, 1984 Olympic medalist and three-time Tom Longboat Award recipient (1974, 1977, and 1984), was at the helm of the push for a new Indigenous sport movement.

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