Indigenous Success Stories: Métis

September 29, 2023


Métis

New hockey sticks aim to spark conversation about Every Child Matters movement in Canada

Stick designers from Sask. hope they can spread awareness

The Specialized Every Child Matters Hockey sticks at a Extreme Hockey and Sports in Regina.
Some of the Every Child Matters sticks at Extreme Hockey and Sports in Regina. Thousands of the specialized sticks will be sold at sporting goods stores across Canada. (Laura Sciarpelletti/CBC)

CBC News: Thousands of new orange and black Every Child Matters hockey sticks now on shelves of sporting goods stores across Canada are meant to do more than just send pucks into nets.

Clay DeBray designed the sticks to spread awareness about what happened to generations of Indigenous children who were forced into Canada’s residential school institutional system.

“My oldest son is a junior hockey player and I want him to have a stick so his teammate sitting right next to him can look at that stick and ask the questions about what that stick is about,” said DeBray, a Métis man originally from Duck Lake who is now manager of the Snipe and Celly Sports Excellence retail outlet on Flying Dust First Nation in northwest Saskatchewan.

“My son will be able to tell the story. He’ll be able to explain the symbols and use it as a conversation piece.”

The Every Child Matters hockey sticks went on sale at the Snipe and Celly Sports Excellence retail outlet on Flying Dust First Nation on Monday.
The Every Child Matters hockey sticks went on sale at the Snipe and Celly Sports Excellence retail outlet on Flying Dust First Nation on Monday. (Submitted by Clay DeBray)
What story do the sticks tell?

DeBray said the sticks’ colours were not chosen randomly. He said more people are starting to associate the orange and black colour scheme with the movement to teach what happened at residential school institutions.

“That’s what the orange coming out of the black represents.”

The stick features five symbols on the shaft of the stick — an orange teddy bear, an orange teardrop, four shades of skin-toned hands, an Indigenous-drawn turtle with a medicine wheel graphic and a traditional Métis sash — and a sixth on the blade — an orange eagle feather.

“I want to make sure the eagle feather is put on the blade because when it’s raised in the air in celebration after a goal, it’s the closest to our creator,” DeBray said. 

DeBray worked with Muskeg Lake Cree Nation Elder Eugene Arcand throughout the design process. Arcand attended the St. Michael’s Residential School institution in Duck Lake and the Lebret Indian Residential School institution during the 1950s and 1960s. 

‘Every Child Matters’ hockey sticks designed to spark conversations about movement

WATCH| ‘Every Child Matters’ hockey sticks designed to spread awareness about Canada’s residential school institutional system: Duration 2:09

Thousands of new orange and black Every Child Matters hockey sticks are now on shelves of sports stores across the country. The sticks are the brainchild of Clay DeBray who manages a sports store at Flying Dust First Nation in Saskatchewan. He wanted to spark conversations about the Every Child Matters movement and the legacy of residential schools.

Click on the following link to view the video:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/hockey-sticks-aim-spark-conversation-every-child-matters-1.6978472?cmp=newsletter_Morning%20Headlines%20from%20CBC%20News_1613_1267803

Arcand said Canada needs to do a better job completing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. He said that it will be impossible to reconcile before people get a thorough understanding of the truth of what happened at Canadian residential school institutions.

He said he hopes the sticks and other future sporting initiatives can help spread that “much-needed” public education.

Eugene Arcand (left) and Clay DeBray (right) stand with their specialized Every Child Matters hockey sticks.
Eugene Arcand, left, and Clay DeBray, right, stand with their specialized Every Child Matters hockey sticks. (Clay DeBray/Facebook)
Hockey as an avenue to spread awareness

DeBray graduated from St. Michael’s in the 1990s. He said he is grateful he doesn’t face the same traumas as generations before him, but still wants to do his part to spread awareness.

He has previously sold orange T-Shirts, but said he didn’t see them worn on many days other than Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. That’s why he turned to hockey, a passion he shares with people of all backgrounds across Canada. He said he thinks the sticks can keep the topic at the forefront all year.

Patricia Dorion, a member of Okanese First Nation living in The Pas, Man., learned about the Every Child Matters sticks after her nine-year old grandson Drayden saw them on TikTok and asked for one. She said she asked him why he wanted one. “He said people need to know what happened to survivors. He said my great-grandma and great-grandpa survived residential school,” Dorion said. “I’m proud of him for knowing and he’s proud of who he is.”

Dorion said the residential schools era can’t be a secret anymore.

Line of the Every Child Matters Hockey Sticks at the Snipe and Celly sporting goods store on Flying Dust First Nation
About 700 of the Every Child Matters hockey sticks were shipped to Snipe and Celly on Flying Dust First Nation. (Submitted by Clay DeBray)

Sam McKegney, who teaches Indigenous literature and sport in the English department at Queens University, said hockey rinks are a good place for more Canadians to learn about the Every Child Matters movement.  “Part of what the stick is seeking to do is leverage hockey’s popular cultural capital in order to encourage Canadians to think and act differently,” McKegney said.

“There’s a real opportunity there.”

He said anti-Indigenous racism is persistent in Canadian hockey, and that more needs to be done to tackle it both at both the grassroot and institutional levels. 

Thousands of sticks being sold across Canada

Around 3,000 of the sticks are being shipped to Sports Excellence retailers around the country, including about 700 at Snipe and Celly on Flying Dust First Nation. 

Extreme Hockey and Sport in Regina is also selling the sticks. “We’ve had a lot of inquiries about them. I don’t think they’ll last very long,” Donny Uhren, the store’s general manager, said. “This is something very special to our market and our culture.”

Donny Uhren, the general manager of Extreme Hockey and Sports in Regina.
Donny Uhren is the general manager of Extreme Hockey and Sports in Regina. He expects the Every Child Matters hockey sticks to be popular.  (Laura Sciarpelletti/CBC News)

DeBray said the sticks were built to be used on the ice or in the street. “I don’t want the sticks just hung on the wall,” DeBray said.

Part of the proceeds from each Every Child Matters stick will be split among three groups: the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg, the Orange Shirt Society and the Saskatchewan Survivors Circle.

DeBray said these won’t be the last Every Child Matters hockey sticks. He is already working on the second version with a new design and is looking at expanding to goalie sticks. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Will McLernon, Reporter

Will McLernon is an online journalist with CBC Saskatchewan. If you have a tip or a story idea, send him an email at will.mclernon@cbc.ca


August 6, 2020


Indigenous Partnership Council

The 2021 Canada Games Host Society – is excited to announce the historic signing of a memorandum of understanding with a newly formed Indigenous Partnership Council (IPC) that will aim to reinforce the presence and engagement of Indigenous communities in the events leading up to and during the Niagara 2021 Canada Summer Games. The IPC will be comprised of representatives from local, provincial and national Indigenous communities and groups including”

  • Six Nations of the Grand River,
  • Niagara Regional Native Friendship Centre
  • Fort Erie Friendship Centre
  • The Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation,
  • Metis Nation of Ontario,
  • NPAAMB, Inuit and
  • Brock University.

In collaboration with the 2021 Canada Games Host Society, the IPC’s vision will be to build a legacy for an inspiring, unifying and transformative 2021 Canada Summer Games by sharing the diverse cultures of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples. Their mission will be to co-welcome and educate the athletes, their families, guests, the larger Niagara community, and viewers nationwide on the original peoples and their beautiful ways of life by sharing their distinct cultures, traditions, songs, dances, and craftsmanship to create a unique cross-cultural experience for all at the 2021 Canada Games in Niagara.

In order to achieve that, the IPC will play an important role in the Games’ Opening and Closing Ceremonies, Niagara Place, the 13-for-13 Cultural Festival, and the celebrations surrounding the reintroduction of the Indigenous game of lacrosse to the Canada Games.


February 21, 2018


“Gathering ” at University of Manitoba

Inaugural “Gathering” at the University of Manitoba explored ways to achieve the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s nine Calls to Action related to sport (#87 – #91) and education (#62 – #65) that will support the development of culturally relevant sport, recreation, and physical education systems.
The forum identified a variety of core issues related to sport and recreation at the Indigenous level, and recommendations on how to move forward:

  • Indigenous youth face far too many barriers in accessing adequate sport and recreation programs in their communities
  • the crucial need for sport and recreation champions in the Indigenous community.
  • need to re-design long-standing sport and recreation funding and organizational structures to incorporate Indigenous values and ethics.