While the St. Thomas University women’s rugby team is well known for wearing the distinctive green and gold, once a year, STU turns orange.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was celebrated on Sept. 30 and to honour it the women’s rugby team held an event before their game on Sept. 29.
On game day, the team had a smudging ceremony in the locker room led by co-captain Savannah Simon. A speech from Wolastoq Grand Chief Ron Tremblay followed the ceremony.
The game ended with a loss for the Tommies 62-17 against Mount Allison University.
“I think what stuck most was asking everybody to take this time to reflect and also to educate themselves about Canada’s history of residential schools and New Brunswick’s history of Indian Day Schools,” said Simon.
Canada’s residential school system, operating from the 19th century until the 1990s, aimed to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture, resulting in widespread trauma and loss of their culture.
“For me, this game represents St. Thomas’s dedication and commitment to their journey of reconciliation,” said Simon. “I think it speaks to how good of an ally STU is to their Indigenous student body.”
Born in Eel Ground First Nation, Simon said that the purpose of truth and reconciliation is to “touch the hearts of those who don’t quite understand it.”
“Being an Indigenous athlete, I think it’s part of my responsibility to share my experiences with those who aren’t from an Indigenous community,” said Simon. “I think it’s a good chance for me to step up as a leader to promote reconciliation, not just from my community, but to the student community as well.”
STU women’s rugby coach Gabriel Kim, who is in his first season with the team, played an important role in making this event possible.
“He had a great amount of respect for the Indigenous students, it wasn’t just another event for him,” said Simon.
Kim said that some people do not realize that the communities are still around, so this was a great opportunity to learn.
“I know a lot of my athletes learned about [residential schools] at school, but for me, I’m not even 10 years older than them and we didn’t learn that at school,” said Kim. “I’m very aware that there has to be a lot of learning on our end as a ‘colonizer’ and so that’s why I wanted to do something meaningful.”
For Coach Kim, the smudging ceremony was important for him to reflect and he said it “helps to plant [his] feet on the ground and sort of brush the worries away.”
“We’re sports, we’re not politics, but we do want to acknowledge [the Indigenous communities],” said Kim. “Maybe it’s just the seed, planting that seed in there and I hope for the community, it did some good.”
Maleah Welton, a second-year STU women’s rugby player, said she felt very emotional during the ceremony as she said it is “very heartbreaking, the history of Indigenous people and what has happened.”
“We were playing not just for ourselves and not just for our team, but we’re playing to honour the Indigenous people, the families who are watching and our community as a whole,” said Welton.
