I’m on a train hurtling through the beautiful and frozen Ontario countryside between Kingston and Ottawa.
I spent the last number of days attending the National Aboriginal Physical Activity Conference at Queen’s University. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet amazing people who are doing amazing work in Aboriginal communities from coast to coast to coast. I was also fortunate to be exposed to many great ideas about the role of physical activity in improving lives and communities.
The theme that jumped out at me the most was about how meaningful involvement in physical activity can build strength, confidence and happiness – three important factors that are needed to help heal communities that have been greatly hurt by the legacy of colonization in our country. One keynote speaker spoke of his days in the residential school system. His story made me shudder as he recounted the many horrors, including the fact that many children disappeared after being stolen from their families and communities.
These children were never seen or heard from again. He told of how many people who went to residential school grew up without knowing love and the difficulties that caused throughout their lives. Then he showed a picture of a residential school hockey team and pointed out the striking fact that all the boys were smiling in the picture. Playing hockey, for many, was the only source of happiness. It greatly illustrated for the audience the importance of physical activity and sport to the overall well-being of a person – the positive impacts on body, mind and spirit.
Another presenter spoke of having Aboriginal women be physically active for strength. Instead of training to meet some ideal weight or body image, the entire purpose of training becomes to be a strong woman. In doing so, Aboriginal women are able to bring back the strength that they had before colonization, in the days when they wouldn’t have been impacted by European culture. Physical activity, in this way, can be an affirmation of culture – a way to overcome oppression and heal individuals and communities. I like this concept of training for strength. It’s a positive way for all of us to challenge the dominance of unhealthy food and sedentary behavior in our modern day. Eat well and exercise to be strong – to lift yourself and your community up and to challenge those things that we leave unexamined that cause much harm in our lives.
Cape Breton is a playground. Go out and play!
Wayne McKay is the Mi'kmaw Physical Activity Project Co-ordinator and he can be reached at (902)562-1608 (office), (902)574-3227 (cell) or email@example.com.