AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Are you ready for some Truth and Reconciliation football?

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This article was published 08/10/2023 (977 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sometimes sports is much more than just an athletic competition. On rare occasions it becomes significantly more than the “the toy department in the hardware store of life.”

One such time happened last Friday when the Oak Park Raiders hosted Vincent Massey in a high school football game unlike any other ever played in Canada.

The game featured the Raiders wearing special Truth and Reconciliation jerseys, designed by a couple of Indigenous Raiders players. The actual game was almost a side-issue. The focus was on Truth and Reconciliation and what it means to the Raiders football team, to Oak Park school, to Winnipeg, to Manitoba and to the country at large.

Unlike professional sports teams which sometimes wear special jerseys but only in their warmups, Oak Park wore their Truth and Reconciliation jerseys for the entire game.

Dawson Andrews, was given a prestigious Manitoba Indigenous Youth Achievement Award for his Indigenous leadership and community involvement, and whose father is a residential school survivor, approached coach Chris Ollson with the idea of designing special jerseys to acknowledge National Truth and Reconciliation Day.

Coach Ollson loved the idea.

“Our high school has a high percentage of individuals who identify as Indigenous,” says Ollson. “Dawson and his teammates designed a uniform that will allow our Raiders football team to recognize the day of Truth and Reconciliation in a very meaningful way.”

Teammate Rocco Linklater and Educational Assistant Jamie Gatta helped Dawson design and mock-up the jersey. They began the task of finding the right symbols and imagery for the special edition Raiders jerseys, which represent Indigenous teachings and the values of the Oak Park Raiders football team.

The stunning jerseys have two hand patches, one for “Every Child Matters” and another for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). It features northern lights across the front and back of the jerseys to honour Indigenous ancestors, a buffalo skull to connote strength and power, a turtle to signify health and longevity, the crest of Dakota Tipi First Nation (which helped pay for the jerseys) and the word “Raiders” written in the Cree dialect.

Oak Park has produced more professional football players than any high school in Canada. Andrew Harris (Toronto), Sean Jamieson (Montreal), and Nic Demski and Brady Oliveira (Winnipeg) are all graduates of the vaunted Oak Park Raiders football program.

This culturally important “feel good” story created a buzz throughout Manitoba and across Canada. Dawson, Rocco and Coach Ollson were featured on a number of media outlets that told this important story.

There are so many beautiful angles to this touching story. Dawson’s father, Dennis Pashe, is Chief of Dakota Tipi First Nation. He helped secure funding for the jerseys and had the honour of flipping the coin to start the game.

A few hours before kick-off Oak Park had a smudging ceremony. Rocco asked Coach Ollson if he could go. As soon as Rocco got up to head to the smudging, nearly the entire team joined Rocco and Dawson in an amazing show of brotherhood, love and team spirit.

Oak Park will wear the jerseys once every season, at the game that falls closest to the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, to bring attention to the horrors of this dark chapter in Canadian history.

It’s young people like Dawson that provide hope for the future. A truly inspiring human being, he is fiercely proud of his heritage, he’s a leader in his community and at Oak Park, and he’s passionate about making the world a better place.