INDIGENOUS INSIGHTS FOR TORONTO RAPTORS
Saskatoon-born woman was hired to promote inclusivity, writes.
From Saskatchewan's biggest city to Canada's biggest city — it's been a wild ride for Saskatoon product Tenneya Martin, who currently works as organizational culture manager for the Toronto Raptors.
Martin is a mixed-nehiyaw woman who graduated from Marion Graham Collegiate in Saskatoon before making the move east, when she became a student at Durham College in Oshawa, Ont.
After she stumbled upon volunteering with the Raptors' 905 squad in the G League, she parlayed that into a full-time job as operations coordinator with the team before making the leap to employment in the NBA this season.
During her time in the Raptors organization, she has been a part of Toronto visits for La Loche students and community members, who attended games in the years following the 2016 school shootings.
Her role now centres around promoting inclusivity both internally and externally.
Q What do you enjoy the most about the role?
A Being able to not only impact people based on their hobbies or passion, like basketball, but also having them identify with a team to a deeper extent.
Q What do the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 calls to action, such as land acknowledgments, mean to you and mean to your role?
A I think it's important to recognize that we can't do anything within Indigenous spaces without Indigenous input, so the 94 calls to action are a great road map. That being said, I don't think the 94 calls are where it ends. We have identified four calls that make sense for us to focus on and from there we continue to add Indigenous perspective into how we effectively create right relations moving forward.
Q What do you identify as the biggest struggle that you face as the only Indigenous member of the Raptors?
A Being the only Indigenous person has its learnings for sure. With Toronto having a different relationship with Indigenous communities than Saskatoon, it is strange to sometimes be someone's only reference to an Indigenous individual. I think it's exciting to be able to invite others into the space so that the true diversity that exists in the Indigenous community can be experienced.
Q That's kind of your vision with the job is to create that, right? How are you trying to go about that?
A Tupac has a really good quote, “I'm not going to change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world. And that's our job ... to spark somebody else watching us.”
I don't think I will be the change, but I think by being one of the first steps I will help to create an inclusive space that will welcome in the people that will create the change.
Q What's that like to be the first step?
A I think, like all things, it comes with the good and the bad. It's hard to be one of one but it is also important to be able to open doors to include Indigeneity and Indigenous voices in spaces that they traditionally have not been included.
Q You mentioned Saskatoon. What would you like to bring from what you see in Saskatoon every day to the organization?
A I mean, I can always bring more Saskatoon kids, too (laughs). I think there are a lot of things I would like to bring from Saskatoon to the Raptors but the main thing I would like to bring is more Indigenous celebration. I think we are moving in the right direction, with Kyana Kingbird's halftime performance on April 3. She set the stage and it will be exciting to see how we can continue that momentum.
If I can do this, anyone can. I am not anything special. I am a kid from Saskatoon who didn't have a plan. In saying that, I mean, if I can do this, I have no doubt there are a ton of Indigenous youth from Saskatchewan who can do this and do it better than I can. I look forward to finding out who these youth are and helping them get to the next level in any way that I can.