Game unites First Nations
On a baseball field in Winnipeg on Saturday, teams from Whitedog First Nation in Ontario and Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan will meet in the inaugural Rookie League Fall Classic.
The competition will be fierce but, to the representatives from the Jays Care Foundation’s Rookie League programs in Kenora, Ont., and File Hills Qu’Appelle, Sask., the game will mean much more than whatever the final score reads.
“For most of these kids, it will be the biggest moment of their lives,” says Tara Griffith, the File Hills Qu’Appelle Rookie League co-ordinator.
Three years ago, Jays Care Foundation, the charitable arm of the Toronto Blue Jays, partnered with the Kenora Chiefs Advisory — a committee “dedicated to providing culturally appropriate health and social services ... in our affiliated First Nations” — to create an Indigenous, inter-communities, intergenerational baseball league in northwestern Ontario’s Treaty 3 territory. Funded by Jays Care, the league was devoted to engaging entire First Nations communities and addressing the challenges they face.
“It promotes peer support, not only with the kids and within their own team but also the peer support within the community,” says Lorraine Cobiness, one of nine First Nations chiefs that make up the Kenora Chiefs Advisory. “It strengthens our relationships, it strengthens our elders’ relationships because they come out a lot and support their kids ... Most importantly, it just reaches the kids’ spirits to be not only competitive but to want more, see more, do more, try harder.”
Coming into the leagues, some families may not have liked each other, says Joe Barnes, executive director of the Kenora Chiefs Advisory. Now they do.
“It’s like having a community picnic twice a week ... and rebuilding those subtle relationships that were broken through residential schools and The Sixties Scoop that tore families apart. Our organization is aimed at trying to help communities rebuild, empower them to be healthy and be the proud nations they once were.”
Scores are calculated by more than just how many runs each team puts up on a given day; communities earn points for things like having parents on the field with kids and having community barbecues at games, among other things. The community with the most points travels to Toronto to visit the Rogers Centre and catch a Jays game.
The power of the league has exceeded expectations. Barnes brought the program to the attention of the File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council, which started its league this season with involvement from each of the 11 nations the tribal council represents.
Griffith says Jays Care took away barriers such as transportation and a lack of equipment and uniforms so kids and their families could focus healing through sports.
Griffith had heard about the impact the league could have from her counterparts in Kenora but was still overwhelmed when she experienced it herself.
“I was almost brought to tears ... I was like, ‘Wow.’ Jays Care can tell you what this league is but you don’t know until you actually witness it,” she says.
“It was amazing to see how it really brings people together and potentially transforms people’s lives.”