Teen takes aim at Indigenous Games
Zoe Lazarus, who grew up hunting with her family, can now showcase her skills
Zoe Lazarus lifts up the sleeve of her jacket to reveal scabies, a skin infestation she has had on both her arms since she was a toddler.
The 15-year-old grew up on the Kashechewan reserve near James Bay, site of an E. coli contamination in 2005 so dangerous it was described as “the next Walkerton,” referencing the tragedy five years earlier that saw seven people die and 2,500 more become seriously ill directly from drinking E. coli-contaminated water.
More than 50 Indigenous communities were under “boil water” advisories at the time and body sores were prevalent, especially in young children such as Lazarus, who was first photographed as a 4-year-old by the Star as it was covering public health issues in remote reserves.
Access to clean water remains a concern on the reserve, says Lazarus, and people boil it to mitigate the chance of consuming contaminated water.
“One time I was stuck in the hospital for a week,” said Lazarus, competing as a rifle shooter for Team Ontario at the North American Indigenous Games.
Kashechewan is a remote fly-in community and Lazarus will only venture away for two reasons — hockey tournaments or a doctor’s appointment related to her scabies. The Games were an exception.
Lazarus was in good spirits Tuesday, her second day of shooting.
She sat down for lunch after a morning of shooting at the Toronto International Trap and Skeet Club in Cookstown, one of the Games’ northernmost locations for competition. She ate a ham sandwich — after removing the roasted red pepper on it — and sat with Alex Laliberte, one of her coaches and an alumnus of the Games.
She was happy with her perfor-
“I hunt geese, ducks, moose, deer.” ZOE LAZARUS
mance on the day despite sitting second-last in the standings, and was feeling “confident” heading into Wednesday’s competition.
When one of her coaches told her that Team Canada was shooting skeet at the club, she grinned and said “I’m going to ask them for a shot,” and pretended to aim and shoot a rifle.
Lazarus started shooting on family hunting trips at about 8 years old, learning from her father and her brothers.
“I hunt geese, ducks, moose, deer, partridge,” she said. She also traps rabbits and foxes.
Hunting is good preparation for rifle shooting. In competition, the targets are static, unlike animals, and the rifles are lighter and easier to handle.
Lazarus, who also plays basketball, baseball and hockey, has high aspirations as a shooter.
“I would like to go further,” she said, hoping to reach a national level of competition.
Lazarus prefers to shoot in prone (lying down), but must also shoot while standing and kneeling for competition.
Either way, the scabies itself doesn’t appear to bother her while she’s aiming at her target.
Aside from winning, Lazarus wants to “have fun and meet new friends,” goals she says she is accomplishing. She went shopping at the Woodbine Centre and she’s impressed by the amount of people in the GTA and the skyscrapers.
Lazarus is one of three athletes from Kashechewan at the Games. Another, Gavin Wesley, won a silver medal in the under-19 male six-kilometre cross-country race on Monday.