Frontrunners
Film tells true story of racism
By Meghan Sired
When they arrived at residential schools, many young aboriginal boys in Canada were already trained athletes. For some, their job was to run in front of the family’s dogsled team and break the path. These boys were known as frontrunners.
In a new film based on her play, Laura Robinson, the 2000-2001 Markin-Flanagan writer-in-residence, recalls the pain of residential schools, and celebrates the tradition and honour of the long-distance runner.
Niigaanibatowaad: Frontrunners focuses on a true event 40 years ago at the Pan Am games in Winnipeg. Ten young runners, all but one from residential schools, ran 800 kilometres over an ancient message route with the game torch. When the runners arrived at the stadium, they were not allowed to enter. Instead, a non-aboriginal runner was given the honour and the boys were told they could eat breakfast and watch the events on TV.
Three decades later, the Pan Am Games were in Winnipeg again, and the eight surviving runners were invited back to the ceremony and issued an official apology.
Robinson, who was covering the games as a journalist in 1999, decided to learn more about the runners’ experiences as athletes and residential school survivors.
“Unspeakable things happened in residential schools ... Canadians really need to understand what went on,” says Robinson.
Patrick Bruyere, of the Sagkeeng First Nation, was the oldest of the 10 runners and plays the role of the grandfather in the film. He says that after he and his peers left the residential schools, no one talked about the racism and abuse they suffered—and Robinson’s film helped motivate him to speak out.
“Without Laura spearheading the project, who knows if we would have spoken up about our experience in residential schools and at the 1967 Pan Am Games,” he says.
The screening will take place on Oct. 12 in the University Theatre at 7 p.m. Admission is by donation. For more information, visit www.ucalgary.ca/stopracism or call Shirley Voyna Wilson at 220-4086.