How basketball offers urban Indigenous girls a place to belong

When Nicole Cardinal looks at players on the U13 East Van Grizzlies Indigenous girls basketball team, she sees herself and her friends more than 30 years ago.

The Grizzlies' team manager remembers finding a sense of belonging playing hoops with other First Nations girlswhen she was at high school.

Last week, there was disappointment for the team when the B.C. Junior All Native basketball championships in Kelowna was cancelled due to concerns about COVID-19.

But Cardinal knows that being on a team like the Grizzlies isn't just about winning a trophy. It can help reinforce Indigenous pride and identity during players' formative years, which can last a lifetime.

• 'Play for your people': annual All Native Basketball Tournament inspires in Vancouver

Cardinal also knows thatnot everyone gets to a place in their lives where they realize this.

"I think of my friends who didn't make it, I really do. I think of the people who should be here," said a teary-eyed Cardinal, a member of the Dakelh people. "I want them [the players]to understand that we do this out of love."

One team, many nations

Finding that sense of belonging is critically important for the more than 80 per cent of Indigenous people livingoff reserve and in urban areas, wherethey often find themselves disconnected from their people and cultures.

Families move to cities like Vancouver for better opportunities, Cardinal says. Although they retain their identity as Indigenous people, maintaining it can be challenging in the city.

Cardinal, 44, and other team volunteers instillIndigenous pride in the 13 Grizzlies playerswho comefrom different First Nations including Nisga'a, Heiltsuk, Tsimshian and Dakelh, but live in Vancouver or Surrey through supplementaryworkshops and talks.

"We talk to them about the realities of the streetand how we want to give them the best opportunity to have sisterhood," Cardinal said.

Cardinal remembers her own youth 30 years ago in Vancouver, when she says she encountered a lot of prejudice.

"I think about Okaand how hard it was to be proud to be Indigenous," she said, referring to the Oka crisis, the 78-day confrontation in 1990 between Mohawk people andthe police and Canadian militaryover a development on land the Mowak said was a burial ground.

"I don't ever want these girls to grow up not being proud of who they are."

Schooling stereotypes

Thoseideals of identity, pride and belonging carry through into theGrizzlies sister team, the U17 Vancity Nation Reign.Some Reign players help with drills at the Grizzlies practice.

Reign players list camaraderie most often as the thing that motivates them to win.

"Some of our players come in from Richmond and Surrey to practise, and that means a lot to me," Nadia Humchitt said. "Back home in Heiltsuk, everything was just 10 minutes away, so coming all that way means a lot to me."

For Kiara Yeomans, it's dispelling the stereotypes of Indigenous people ending up on the streets that motivates her.

"I want to show that there's a good side of East Van. That we know how to behave, that we know how to play basketball," she said.

From player to coach

Grizzlies coach Shaniece Angus, who was born and raised in East Van, says she knows the poverty and struggles that the players endure. She knows the temptations, too.

"I was on the cusp of doing drugs and alcohol in Grade 8," she said. "'You're going to get pregnant and drop out,'that's what I was told when I was in Grade 9."

She says she started playing basketball with an Indigenous team and developed her drive and work ethic. It saved her life, she says.

Angus sees a similar drive in Grizzlies players and she sees something else that she didn't as a teen.

"I really want to share my lived experience, teachings and life skills with them," she said. "I just hope that I can be the person that I needed when I was their age."