12/20/21

Why a film about basketball?

Basketball is fun. Basketball is a big thing back home in Prince Rupert and the north coast of BC. It’s also a serious pursuit that motivates a lot of people in First Nation villages and settler towns alike.

I like showing films in my classroom at UBC. It helps put studnets into the places and with the people we might talk about in a course. For a number of years I would show my first year anthropology students the film Bax Lansk – Pulling Together.  This film features hereditary leaders, matriarchs, and elders talking about the importance of Gitxaała culture and went with the book, People of the Saltwater. Bax Lansk, despite moments of levity and humour, is a fairly serious film. For some young settler students the film bothered them, it upset their sense of voice. I think the scenes of older male hereditary leaders speaking in their feast hall voices disrupted (deranged) some young settler students who have been schooled in the belief of their own empowerment, that youth as the future should be front and center. Yet, the elders who speak in the film talk of youth as the future sitting quietly beside them watching, learning, and waiting for their turn to step up. It’s not quite the message youth in mainstream settler society get.

As a person I think my audience should just pause, pull back, and reflect. As a teacher I want that to, but I also know that I need to provide this category of student with the tools to see what is in front of them. I want them to explore the issues of colonialism, Indigenous resurgence, and cultural resiliency. Bax Lansk wasn’t working for my new to university students. That’s what made me think about basketball.

Basketball is fun. It brings people together. It’s filled with excited emotions. It’s also a big deal back home For decades Prince Rupert has hosted the All Native Basketball Tournament that brings First Nations’ basketball teams together from all around the coast. People come from as far south as Washington state and as far north as Alaska.  So I packed up my bags, got my colleague and favourite videographer, Jennifer Rashleigh, on board and north to Rupert we went in February of 2011 to film.

A lot of time has passed by since that initial trip back home to film. Finally though we have a version of the film ready to go.  Over the next several weeks I’ll be posting comments about the filming and editing process, stories about the background to the ANBT. Early in the new year the film will be posted for viewing.