By Andy Wanning
Just two days before the opening ceremony of the 2010 Olympics, I was very fortunate to sit down with Aaron Marchant to discuss the First Nations Snowboard Team (FNST), of which he is the Executive Director. FNST is one of the groups envisioned by the First Host First Nations (FHFN) as a community organization which would continue providing benefits to Aboriginal peoples throughout Canada long after the Olympics leave. As I would find out, it is a remarkable organization with an impressive record of achievement in its brief history, and a very promising future indeed.
Andy Wanning: How did you get involved with the FNST?
Aaron Marchant: During the IOC bid phase, I saw a bunch of Indigenous youth snowboarding, and thought, “What if we could start a snowboarding club?” They’re amazing – I didn’t know there were people in our community who had actually tried it. But there were three kids who had done it – probably the only ones in our community.
A friend of mine had distributed equipment to South Korea, and he said, “I can get you equipment at cost.” And then a friend named Steve Podborski said, “Why don’t we get the resorts involved?”
Andy: And how long ago was this?
Aaron: This was 2004.
So off we went. We had a program, we had a concept. This was to take ten youth, and to certify them to teach younger kids, so we can grow. So right away we’re going to give them leadership skills – speaking well, being educated about indigenous issues, fact-based information, and cultural teachings. So the kids who were teaching the younger ones can go out and get a job at the resort as well.
So the first year, we built our capacity. In the second year, we grew from 10 to 66 athletes. And then the following year, another First Nation liked what we were doing. Steve said, “Let’s not just do this for the Squamish and Lil’wat Nations – let’s do this for all of British Columbia, if not Canada.”
So that was the concept – to develop a model from the very beginning, with all the sports experts here for the 2010 Winter Olympics Games, and we could show other communities how to do it.
Then we got a call from the Westbank First Nation. We have a high-performance division there now.
You know, we wouldn’t have any Olympic athletes, NHL athletes, etc. if they didn’t have community programming. At our level, we’ve never really had access to that level of community programs; so we were able to develop the first of its kind in Canada that competes in the mainstream. We don’t segregate ourselves anymore, and go compete in our own Indigenous games.
In the first year, our ten kids would all sit together. When you went to a competition, you could see, “This is the FNST corner.” Now we’re in the sixth year, and we have about 30 members at a competition, and you can’t even tell where our members are – they’re scattered amongst the whole group. They make friends, work at the resort, and so on.
We had a goal to get an athlete on the podium…
Andy: The “Ultimate Goal”, I saw on your website…
Aaron: Right, the ultimate goal. But the other goal is – we have kids who have been struggling, and are on the verge of making the right or wrong decision in their lives, and have committed to our program, gotten a job, kept healthy, and have now set goals for themselves. Some have gone to university – one young girl, Treanna Delorme, just won a scholarship at the University of British Columbia; now she’s attending UBC, and her goal is to be on the provincial team. She just did a speech at the Royal RBC Banquet. Another young guy, Jan Charlie, when we first met him, he basically just had a backpack on, and was heading for wherever our program existed. Now he’s a successful business owner in Kelowna.
In a broader sense, before contact, First Nations people used to go into the mountains for a week, even a whole summer, and collect food, meditate, fast, and bring all this information back to the community. But for the past 100 years, that’s been missing; there’s been no reason for our kids to go up there, and it’s been too expensive. So really this is just bringing an old practice back.
At the same time, it’s a great meeting ground for resorts and First Nations governments, who now have something in common; their support and pride of FNST.
Andy: So this program fosters cooperation between Aboriginal groups and the resorts themselves?
Aaron: Yes. We go there and introduce our model for the program – there has to be quality control, because we don’t want to start 100 programs and lose what they’re about. We want to monitor every athlete and make sure they’re doing well in school, maintaining their athlete agreements, doing extracurricular activities like tree planting…
Andy: So it started off as snowboarding, but it’s turned into a lot of other activities.
Aaron: Right. Snowboarding is really just a medium; they earn their snowboards and their passes once they’ve committed to the dry land activities.
What we’re doing in the rural communities, as we go north – we’re working with other organizations who want to develop programs. One way of doing this is by sending out instructors who are certified to certify other instructors. We get the local FNST branch together with the mainstream snowboarding organizations, and they can hold events together. This also helps re-brand the perception of Aboriginal youth; they’re doing well in school, they’re winning medals, teaching younger kids, and generally being part of the resort community. To be a snowboard bum who hits the mountain every day and lives out of a Volkswagen – that’s not so cool anymore.
Andy: So it’s not just affecting these athletes; it sounds like it’s changing the perception of Aboriginals among your own people, as well as educating the public at large, who may have very little idea of who Indigenous peoples really are at present.
Aaron: It’s so diverse everywhere we go, though. Every area is so unique. For instance, sometimes we go to Fort St. James, which has a huge Aboriginal population. There’s 5,000 people; half are from First Nations, and half are non-First Nations. You can almost drive across the border.
Andy: They’re totally separate.
Aaron: Yeah. And there’s really – not to be insulting, but there’s nothing to do there. There are no role models in the community. They have serious, serious criminal offenses that take place there. There’s not a lot of hope. So when we go there, we say, “Join our club – we’re part of your team.”
Here’s our Olympic athlete, Caroline Calve, and she’s now your teammate. Jonathan Redman, from the BC Team, is here to teach you for the day. Do well in school, commit to your athletes’ agreements, here’s your equipment provided by your mountain, here are your season passes, now let’s go.” So they just go. They run with it, they get better, they go to the coaching clinic and pass the word on – and it starts going through their families. So it’s good business for the resorts as well.
This is also because we’re empowering these Aboriginal youth, and there’s a shortage of labor at the resorts – so when they leave the reservation and feel comfortable enough at the resorts, they’ll stay around and look for a job.
Andy: And where do you get your coaches?
Aaron: Todd Allison and Steve Podborski just gave us a pool of resources to work with. Steve was Chair of our Board for four years, now Todd Allison is. They’re both former National Team members. Steve is one of the “Crazy Kanucks” – Dave Murray, Steve, Dave Irwin and Ken Read, who dominated downhill skiing for Canada in the 1970s, put Canada on the map for skiing.
So with their expertise, and Todd shared his templates for athlete agreements – sort of like gymnastics training. It’s a fast-track sport.
Andy: Meaning it’ll take a few years to make it to an elite level, not ten years like the gymnasts?
Aaron: Right. And this was a huge step, since – for instance, when I used to go visit my cousins in the valley, they couldn’t even think about getting a pass and equipment – they were more worried about what they were going to eat for dinner that night.
We have some kids saying, “If it wasn’t for your program, I’d never be able to go snowboarding.” There was one 8-year old girl who was so tired because her parents had a party until 3:00 am. But this kid is still getting up to go snowboarding, because this is the best thing going in her life. So if it wasn’t there, then what are her options?
And we’ve given all of our instructors training to be good instructors. We make them a part of this program, and make them so pumped about this, that they help us push the program. We send them out to send products – jackets, snowboards, T-shirts, pins, all with the FNST logo – and people in the community see them, and want to get involved.
Andy: Sounds like a great program, and you’re obviously very excited about it. What are some of the challenges that you face?
Aaron: One of the biggest challenges is going into the councils of our communities, and having to convince them that snowboarding is a worthwhile activity. We want a long-term commitment from the community to get behind the program and provide the resources.
Our program is funded by the Aboriginal Youth Support Legacy Fund. We go into a community as consultants, and charge no fee. We do charge an association fee for the first year – we manage the budget, bring the equipment and mountain passes. After the first year, we turn the operation over to the community.
And a lot of the communities are progressing very well. Since they have ownership over their organization, they put even more work into it. So if our office shut down today, they’re still going snowboarding next year at Big White with that Westbank Recreation Department, for instance.
Andy: But since you’ve worked in so many communities, I imagine some of them are not so successful. Has this been a challenge as well?
Aaron: Yes – no capacity. No recreation department. Simple communications, setting up meetings – it’s not set up.
Andy: So you’ve had a few athletes make the higher teams?
Aaron: Yes – Caroline Calve, of the Algonquin Nation, is on the Canadian team. We met her three years ago, and offered her support. And she had 170 kids in our program looking up to her. After that, she went up to number 6 in the rankings, and last year she was number two in the World Cup. So she has a good chance of being one of the only Aboriginal athletes competing in the Games to get a medal.
Then there’s another Aboriginal girl from Alaska, Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, who’s competing on the U.S. Snow Boardercross team. And we’ve put four athletes on the provincial BC team. But at that point, they need a lot more resources to go to the next level. Whereas Caroline just got sponsorship with Nike. And our program receives sponsorship through Nike and RBC.
Andy: How much exposure have you gotten in the media thus far?
Aaron: Up until a month ago, we had about 30 televised clips on us – probably one international, five national, and lots of little local broadcasts. And an additional 30 in magazines and newspapers. In the last month, we’ve received about 30 interview requests – BBC News, the Wall Street Journal, C Net, CTV national news, Global TV, King Five News in the U.S., etc. Also, we’re launching our new website, and the first thing you’ll see is our kids carrying the torch. In fact, 32 kids in our program have carried the torch.
Andy: Whoa! How many kids are in your program?
Aaron: We have 200. Yeah, in most communities our kids are ambassadors, so their names get put forward.
Andy: Are any of them going to be carrying it in the next day or two?
Aaron: Myself – I’m the last one carrying it.
Andy: Yourself?
Aaron: Yes, today.
Andy: Wow!
Aaron: Yeah I had a hard time sleeping last night, thinking about it. And it’s ironic too, because it’s up Nancy Greene Way to the sky ride at Grouse Mountain. And when I received the email about where it was going to be – the night before I had just shaken Senator Greene’s hand. And I’ve had a chance to have dinner with Prince Edward, and one of our athletes, Jonathan Redman, has had lunch with him. The amount of places we’re asked to speak at – for instance, yesterday I did a presentation at the Suncor Energy Group.
Andy: One overarching question is – there’s this unprecedented participation by Aboriginal peoples in general, with the FHFN etc. – how does this influence the exposure you’re getting? Or do you just get exposure since you have a great program, with some well-known athletes?
Aaron: I think it works both ways. I think media feeds off us to them, and vice versa. Tewanee’s helped us with our key messaging, and is always there for advice. We’re family friends – I used to pick his daughter up from school. With his skill and communications, and the way he’s trained people – he’s definitely made us visible, and we’re getting territorial recognition because of that.
Andy: What exactly is that?
Aaron: Acknowledgement that the Games are being held within our traditional territories. That’s what it comes down to – why we’re getting all this exposure.
Andy: This is land your people used to own? Do you still own any of it?
Aaron: We own small reserves of it – about .04% of the original total. But the perceptions and relationships with governments and other partners are developing. We’re saying, “It’s not your fault, it’s not our fault, but we have this on our plate – how are we going to do this together?” So the approach of Tewanee and a lot of our other leaders is to be involved, rather than be on the outside watching in.
For instance, at Sun Peaks Ski Resort had a protest up there six to eight years ago because they had a sign up saying “Provincial Government – No Indians Beyond This Point”. So you get a statement out there, and create a lot of perceptions within the province, but at the end of the day, is anything done?
In contrast, two years ago, our snowboard team went up to meet the Austrian ski team, and Sun Peaks was in Ski Canada to develop relationships with First Nations. So at least the youth were able to enjoy the event, while the adults sort out our business – there’s some common ground, and it’s a lot less conflicting.
Andy: Actually that was going to be another question – obviously there are some protesters who take another stance on this – I guess they figure since it’s stolen land originally, so why should we be handing over the keys to the kingdom, hosting the Olympics, and not even bringing up this issue. So what would you say to them? How much have you been able to accomplish by working with these entities to tell the protesters that it’s worth it?
Aaron: I understand where they’re coming from, because my family, in the Squamish Valley, they live on the land – my uncles fish in the river, my dad hunts in the valley. And yes, we’ve seen depletion of salmon, depletion of game. But if something’s going to be developed, it’s better to be involved – we can have a say in the size of it, in the environmental impact it’s going to have, and have our opinion heard. At least it’s heard in a diplomatic forum, where, if what we’re saying does make a lot of sense, there could be ground to not go ahead with the project.
If you want to use the 2010 Games as a platform to show the world what’s taking place in Canada, do it in a structured environment. And a good place to start is, that Canada has apologized for what happened with the residential schools.
Andy: Can you briefly go over what that was?
Aaron: Aboriginal kids were taken from their homes, beaten for speaking their language, thousands died across the country…
Andy: This was what took place in the early 20th century?
Aaron: Right. And these people went back into their communities, had kids, and had no idea how to be parents, or part of their society. There was lots of abuse. And then they had kids. And you’ll find that a lot of the protest groups – that’s where their story originates from. All that weight and anger is going in that direction. And I think if it was going out in an educational way, to share, then this would be more productive.
Andy: So the apology was a big step forward. Beyond that, you’ve been able to carry out projects through these partnerships – I just heard about a cultural center, the Squamish-Lil’wat Cultural Center, up there on the mountain. So it sounds like they can benefit from their land somewhat, even if they don’t own the land. Is there anything else that you can point to as beneficial from working within the system, or other comments about this debate?
Aaron: There’s a lot that needs to get out there in an educational way. If the protesters want to go out there and say, “On stolen land,” I think they could be organized and do it in an interesting way – maybe a short four or five minute movie. They could put a twist into it, showing how it was before, and how it is now.
Just to clarify, the Squamish and Lil’wat signed a shared legacy agreement in 2001 – this was not the Four Host First Nations. This included the cultural center; the sea-to-sky highway signage; the Aboriginal Youth Sport Legacy Fund; 300 acres in the sea-to-sky corridor transferred from the Crown; and building capacity through jobs. And we manufacture snowboards there – they’re made in China, but we make the designs. The same artist who made the Four Host design did our snowboards. They’re great.
Andy: Do you want to say anything else about FNST’s goals for the future?
Aaron: Well, wherever there’s a resort, there’s usually a reservation. What are those kids doing in that community? Because if they’re not going to that resort, can we come and help? So what we’re doing now is training our existing partners to be able to deliver to their neighbors. If they sign on, great – the next year, they’re stoked, and they’re on their own. This works well, because you can only stay so motivated for so long – eventually, you need new people to take the reins, start fresh.
Andy: Thanks so much for coming by and talking to me, and I wish you and the FNST all the best. I’ll see you later on today when you carry the torch!