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By Patty Pitts
Christine O’Bonsawin is already realizing the benefits of her recent move to the West Coast from eastern Canada. For the first time, with winter approaching, the life-long soccer player and new director of UVic’s Indigenous Studies Minor Program is not heading indoors to play her sport.
“I couldn’t believe it when I was told that you can play outside all year,” says a happy O’Bonsawin, whose interest in both her Aboriginal heritage and athletics has defined her academic career.
Although most of her extended family lives in northern Ontario, and their Abenaki relationship is with the Odanak reserve in Quebec, O’Bonsawin was raised in Toronto. Her father moved south as a young man to improve his employment opportunities after the sudden loss of his sight.
“He was the only member of his family to leave the community,” says O’Bonsawin, who earned an undergraduate degree in sport management from Brock University. “I wanted to learn more about my Indigenous background.”
Her two interests merged during her master’s and PhD studies at the University of Western Ontario, home to the International Centre for Olympic Studies, where O’Bonsawin studied how Aboriginal representation in sport is used for nation-building purposes.
“I wanted to understand how Canada used images of Indian-ness to represent nationhood. Sometimes Indigenous people were sent as delegates to the Games; at other times non-Aboriginal groups appeared dressed up as Indians. Aboriginal athletes are great role models, but when an athlete succeeds, they also become vulnerable to the way they are portrayed in the media.”
O’Bonsawin gained extensive behind-the-scenes experience in the power of sports media when she completed work terms with CBC Sports during several Olympics. “During the Sydney Games I went to work at 3 a.m. in Toronto when the crew in Australia was just going off shift.” O’Bonsawin tracked the feeds from the Olympic cities and monitored video used by affiliate and non-affiliate stations.
While she’s seen the positive impact that Aboriginal Olympic athletes such as cross-country skiers Sharon and Shirley Firth and water polo player Waneek Horn-Miller can have in their communities, O’Bonsawin also supports increased interest by Aboriginal people to preserve traditional sports that have less of an emphasis on competition than mainstream sports.
O’Bonsawin is looking forward to being in close proximity to next year’s North American Indigenous Games scheduled for the Cowichan Valley—another perk of West Coast life. She’s also looking forward to expanding the Indigenous studies program.
“At the moment we only have two courses in the program, the others approved by the program as having an Indigenous focus are from various departments including history, anthropology, women’s studies and sociology,” says O’Bonsawin. “Eventually, I’d like to see more courses offered directly through the IS program.”
In the meantime, she’s adjusting to seasonal differences of West Coast living. “I’m really enjoying it here.”
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