Film of ’67 Pan Am Games snub launches discussion

In 1967, Canada’s centennial year and the year Winnipeg first hosted the Pan American Games, 10 young First Nations men were chosen to run 800 kilometers over an ancient message route with the Games torch.

The young men, nine of whom were students at residential school, started their run in St. Paul, Minnesota and arrived six days later in Winnipeg. When they tried to enter the stadium, they were denied entry and instead, the Games torch was passed to a non-Aboriginal runner to complete the final lap around the stadium.

In 1999, when Winnipeg again hosted the Pan Am Games, the city apologized to the men and during the opening ceremony, seven of the 10 men who were then in their fifties entered the stadium in war canoes. One of them held the Games torch.

The story of these young athletes is told in a 48-minute film titled Niigaanibatowaad: FrontRunners made in 2007 and recently screened at Toronto’s Bloor Street United Church by their Social Justice Committee.

The organizers felt it was timely to show the film for two reasons. This year marks the end of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and in July, Toronto is hosting the Pan American Games.

The film delves into the abuse suffered by the boys at residential school and how they used running as a way to rise above it.

A panel discussion following the film, led by two residential school survivors, Murray Crowe and Michael Cheena, focused on the history of residential schools, as well as their own personal experiences.

Murray Crowe said he had experienced the worst of what has been discussed about residential schools. When he left the school, he put it all behind him to the point where he did not reveal he had attended residential school, not even to his wife.

It wasn’t until he registered for compensation that he finally told his wife of 22 years. His 18-year -ld daughter said she understood why she used to hear him crying in the night when she was growing up.

Michael Cheena, Cree from Moose Factory, was removed from a traditional hunting and trapping lifestyle with his family.

“Before residential school, all I spoke was the Cree language,” he said. “When the Indian agent came along and took me to residential school, my life began to change.”

Many Canadians don’t know about residential schools, Cheena told the audience of about 25 people, and it’s especially true for new Canadians.

“The removal of children under the Indian residential school policy was an act of genocide and it falls within the UN Convention of genocide,” he said.

“There’s a lot of historical tension out there,” caused by 150 years of history and misconceptions about Aboriginal people,” Cheena said. “Canada’s future depends on a new deal with First Nations,” he continued. “And whether settlers realize it or not, they’ve been implicated as a party to genocide and colonization.”

As for his own personal experiences, Cheena said he was traumatized, physically and sexually abused and indoctrinated to become a Christian.

“Every time I walk into a church or see a person wearing a white collar, I get triggered,” he said. Cheena was part of a residential school survivors class action lawsuit and after 20 years, received a settlement in January of this year.

While there was no discussion about the Toronto Pan Am Games following the film, it is worth noting that the 2015 Games promise to be very different from the 1967 Games. The 2015 Games will celebrate diversity and inclusivity, and in keeping with that theme, Mississaugas of New Credit will be the Host First Nation and will be welcoming athletes and visitors to their traditional territory.

Metis artist Christi Belcourt has designed the medals for the Games and so far, at least one Games Torchbearer, Cameron Sault, has been chosen.

Twenty-eight-year-old Sault is a former professional hockey player, current youth worker at Six Nations and member of the Mississaugas of New Credit.

And the Frontrunners? They’ve been invited by the Chair of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games, David Peterson to participate in the opening ceremonies.