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Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
2018.2.4 |
Object Name |
Video Recording |
Title |
Chief Wilton Littlechild Interview |
Interview Summary / Résumé d'entrevue |
Chief Wilton Littlechild, Order of Sport recipient, inducted in 2018, born in Maskwacis, Alberta, is interviewed in front of a green screen. His interview covers a wide range of topics with a focus on sport, including his experience in Residential School as a child, his interest in education and teaching, his legal work with the United Nations, and his involvement with the creation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the creation of the World Indigenous Games, his family, his values, traditional Indigenous teachings, and leadership. He recalls the positive influence his grandparents had on him and, as a child looking up to his very athletic brother. He describes becoming involved in sports as an escape from Residential School, and how he believes sport can serve as a positive escape for youth still today. Wilton describes a traditional Indigenous teaching about the importance of the pipe and how it teaches the values of honesty, kindness, sharing, and strength. He elaborates on the importance of living a balanced life and how sport contributes to that. Wilton describes his pride and thanks for his family and his family's support. Chief Littlechild mentions his involvement with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and how sport plays a vital role in Reconciliation. Chief Littlechild believes that his induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame is an important acknowledgement of his work and provides a platform to further promote peace and Reconciliation. 2018.2.4 Entrevue avec Chef Wilton Littlechild, 12 octobre 2018. MP4 d'origine numérique. Trois vidéos d'une durée de visionnement totale de 00:39:29. Le Chef Wilton Littlechild, récipiendaire de l'Ordre du sport, a été intronisé en 2018 et est né à Maskwacis, en Alberta. Son entrevue se déroule devant un écran vert. L'entrevue comprend une vaste gamme de thèmes et une attention particulière sur le sport, y compris son expérience dans les pensionnats pour Autochtones pendant son enfance, l'intérêt qu'il porte à l'éducation et l'enseignement, son travail juridique avec les Nations Unies, sa participation à la création de la Déclaration des Nations Unies sur les droits des peuples autochtones, la création des Jeux mondiaux des peuples autochtones, sa famille, ses valeurs, les connaissances et les enseignements traditionnels autochtones et le leadership. Il se souvient de ses grands-parents et de l'influence positive qu'ils ont eue sur sa vie, ainsi que de l'admiration qu'il portait, quand il était enfant, à son grand frère qui était très athlétique. Il raconte comment il a commencé à faire du sport après s'être enfui du pensionnat pour Autochtones et comment, d'après lui, le sport peut encore offrir un excellent exutoire pour les jeunes aujourd'hui. Wilton décrit une connaissance autochtone traditionnelle selon laquelle la pipe, qui est très importante dans les savoirs autochtones, enseigne les valeurs de l'honnêteté, de la bonté, du partage et de la force. Il élabore davantage sur l'importance de mener une vie équilibrée et comment le sport peut contribuer à cet équilibre. Wilton parle de sa fierté et remercie sa famille pour son appui. Le Chef Wilton Littlechild parle de son implication dans la Commission de vérité et réconciliation et explique le rôle clé que le sport joue dans la réconciliation. Le Chef Wilton Littlechild croit que son intronisation au Panthéon des sports canadiens est une importante reconnaissance de son travail et que cela fournit une plateforme pour promouvoir davantage la paix et la réconciliation. |
Scope & Content |
2018.2.4 Chief Wilton Littlechild interview, 12 October 2018, born digital MP4. Four videos with a total viewing time of 00:40:34. Video 1 That's exactly where I was thinking and heading. It starts with when I was little, and all the good things that happen to me through life. So it was a real blessing. Culmination of all your experiences. Video 2 1.Taking it back to a time when you were young, when were you introduced to sports? 00.13.33-01:06.57 Well I was actually a very late comer to sports. I was introduced to the Indian residential schools at a very young age. And throughout that journey, early journey, through residential school, I witnessed a lot of abuse, including personal experience with abuse. And as a way to run away from the abuse, I ran to sports. So I came into it as a teenager at residential school as a result of unfortunately negative experiences of abuse, and this was a way out of the abuse. 2.As you were continuing in sports, were you ever inspired by anyone in particular? 01:17.02-03:29.29 Yes I was. Being in an institution, like a residentially school, you're in with a lot of students. The unfortunate experience though, a lot of us, we didn't really get to know each other as a brother and sister. But I knew my older brother was very involved in sports, physical activity, and he was a tremendous athlete. But I looked up to him and watched how he practiced and watched how he played, and tried to be similar in that from a physical aspect. But from a mental influence I would have to say my grandparents influenced me a very great amount. My grandfather couldn't speak or write English, and yet he was a leader, a chief for thirty three years. My grandmother on the other hand was one of the most highly educated Indian women that I was aware of, because she had gone up to grade nine and back then of course that was like university. So between my grandfather and my grandmother, one giving me traditional teachings, and the other one the formal education and its importance. That combination really influenced me right from childhood through school, through athletics, and through business; actually through life. 3.What were some of your biggest challenges during your career as an athlete, either in training, competition, daily life? 03:55.10-05:55.45 As an athlete growing up and as one competing in sports I had challenges I had to face and to deal with. And one of the early challenges, although I mentioned my brother being an influence to me, once we got separated I had no mentor. And I think the other very challenging aspect for a period of my life was alcohol. Because I got introduced to alcohol through sport actually, and I did not like it, it didn't agree with me. So that had an impact on my level of performance in terms of serious competition. And lastly not having any family support. I didn't have any. So I think that those really were big challenges for me. [-Discussion about traveling and bringing that cross-cultural experience back home-] 06:54.52-09:22.52 You know it's interesting that you mention it because I did a similar thing, I went to Jamaica for a year. But I was playing baseball at the same time. I really learned a lot about myself from a different, in that instance a racial perspective. Where in North America I was a minority as an Indian, and over there I was a minority as a non-black person. But still my colour wasn't their colour so I was seen as a non-black person right, so the experience in terms of a racial situation, or discrimination situation, was a different experience. But I learned from it and I grew as a result of it. Being away from my homeland, being away from Canada, in a totally foreign environment, was a very good experience. Video 3 4.What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment in sport? 00:32.05-02:20.27 I always had in my mind that I wanted to be a teacher at some point in my life, so in order for me to be a good teacher I felt I had to practice what I preach. If I'm going to be telling children, for example, to be active physically, be active mentally, I need to do that myself. So as a consequence I not only was competing in athletics, but I was organizing activities for communities, and eventually the world indeed. Because I not only started the Alberta Indigenous Summer and Winter Games, it grew into a Western Canada Games, which also grew into a North American Indigenous Games and recently the World Indigenous games. To learn how to compete, to learn how to behave on and off the ice, or on and off the field, and that's a big part influence when one is trying to set a direction for the future for younger people. 5.What stands out to you as your greatest professional accomplishment? 02:48.16-05:20.12 So as a lawyer I was blessed to be a Member of Parliament the first Treaty Indian to be elected to the Parliament of Canada. I was also the first ever Indigenous person to be appointed a chairperson, at the United Nations. The law degree also allowed me to contribute to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. So throughout all of that I think the common thread was the legal experience gave me the chance to contribute back to my community, to my province, my country, to the world. Because I think the biggest accomplishment, and I don't say this to boast, but professionally I worked for 41 years at the United Nations, I worked at the OAS, I worked in actually I think, next month it will be forty countries. And the successful outcome of all of that as a lawyer, as a member of parliament, as a commissioner, was to get the United Nations to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And also at the organization of American States level, which is an America's only region, to have them adopt the Organization of American States Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But having mentioned that I think the feather that sticks out in my reflection is the article on the right of indigenous peoples, and generally human beings with human rights, the cultural manifestations that includes traditional games in sports. So under international law we have now that recognition that traditional games in sports are part of cultural manifestation as a human right. And I think that would be my most brag-about accomplishment if I may say. 6.You have been a strong advocate for Indigenous sport. Why has this been such an important cause to you in your career? 05:38.30-07:27.03 So reflecting back, not only my own upbringing, but the situation that I was experiencing and seeing in my community was one of alcohol and drugs, gangs, suicides. So we were eventually leading in the negative side of statistics in terms of the highest dropout rates in schools, the highest rates of suicide, and I looked not only to see why that was going on, but is there a solution to that. And the only thing I could come up with was to offer children and youth a positive choice in life, in other words to choose to live rather than choose to commit suicide, or to choose to pick a team rather than join a gang, or be positive in terms of your lifestyle rather than going into alcohol or drugs. To me that was a big reason that motivated me as well, to look at not only my own community and what I could do to contribute back to it, and since sport gave me so much I thought that was a way to give it back, to deal with these negative outcomes that we were facing, and continue to face. 7.Leadership is really important in sports and in your life you've taken a role as a leader many times. How did sport impact your approach to leadership throughout your life? 07:42.53-09:00.49 There's a very similar, my belief anyway, a very similar thread of influence. So in sport, preparation is a very very important aspect of competition, in business it's the same thing, and in life it's the same thing. The better prepared you are the better outcomes you're going to achieve, the better successful outcomes you'll be able to achieve. So the thread of that was there was to practice, practice hard, worker harder than you can. It seemed like it translated into an element of leadership. If I can do this in sports I can do it in school, if I can do it in school I can do it in business, and if that works for me actually I can do it through leadership. 8.How did sport and education play complementary roles in your life and what was the value of these two experiences for you in education and sport? 09:20.36-10:24.29 I found education and sport to have very common values in terms of teachings, as to a good way to live. I found that the harder I practiced to become a better athlete, I noticed that actually it was helping me study harder and better as well. So they had a very good complimentary aspect to it that in a sense that one supported the other. One was not a different choice than the other, they were very complimentary, at least in my experience. So that's why I worked hard as a student and I worked hard as an athlete, because both of them ended up meaning, for me, better success. 9.Many people consider you to be a great leader in sports in governments and many people look up to you as well. How do you try to present yourself as a role model for future generations? 11:06.27-13:10.15 Well first of all I don't think one sets out to be a role model in terms of a goal in your mind. I think that kind of comes with what you've been doing, how people have observed your behavior and so on. I would have to reflect back on our traditional teachings, as a Cree person through the elders, would teach us certain principles and values of life that are good in a sense of direction. So my elders teaching me that it is important to focus physically, mentally, culturally, and spiritually and try to seek balance in that effort kind of lead me to try to leave that way, and hopefully it's seen through my behavior or conduct, as being a good thing for a role model, a role model to try and live that way. 10.What values were most important in your journey to where you are today and why? 13:42.03-16:54.25 What values were most important to me were very similar to the traditional teachings of the elders. And those have four teachings that are very important as human values in life. For example the rock that holds the tobacco in the pipe represents the mountains, but also it's a teaching of strength. It represents mountains because that is where the rock or the stone comes from. It teaches you about strength, because the bowl of the pipe is about that. But the pipe stem represents the forests, the timbers, and they're always straight. And so when you see an old man or an elder, or someone praying with the pipe the two teachings that come to mind immediately are the strength as a value and honesty because of the pipe stem being straight. When the eagle feather is raised it is the highest honour that we can give as a gift to people, but also it has a teaching for the four leggeds, our relatives the four leggeds, the animals, that die so that we can live. And the teaching in that, not only is it a high honour to be gifted with an eagle feather, but the teaching in there is about sharing. And then the sweet grass, it's always braided into three strands, and it doesn't matter how strong you are, if you try to break it you won't be able to break it. When you have the three braids of the sweet grass, it teaches you about the strength of unity. But also very importantly once it's lit in prayer or ceremony, if you put our hand over it, you won't feel the smoke as it rises. But your prayer, the moment you do that, it goes to Creator, the Great Spirit, or God, but at the same time because you don't feel anything that teaches us another value about kindness. So these are traditional values that I've learned in life through our elders; that one needs to respect those values of honesty, of kindness, of sharing, and of strength. And I think those are not only teachings as ceremony, but they're teachings in life, whether its sports, whether its education, whether its business, whether its leadership, they all apply a good way. 11.What lessons or message would you like to share that you think would help youth in their life today? 17:04.51-18:03.07 That's a very difficult one in a sense for me, because I think there's so many teachings that we have, if we were to pull one element and respect that that would be good. But the formula for success, as I said earlier, is something that children and youth can look to for guidance. And that's to try and balance your life, to make an effort to balance your life. Because, if you try to be physically healthy, and mentally healthy, culturally responsible, be very willing to offer spiritual thanksgiving or prayer. I think if you, as a youth, if you can try to balance those four elements, I think that would take you a very long way. 12.Reflecting on your career, is there something that you feel most proud of? 18:12.18-18:54.18 When I look back on my career, and I think it's because of how I started. I was taken away from family, I was taken away from my own brothers and sisters, I was taken from my community. I learned to appreciate the importance of family, and I think that family support is very very important. So when I look back from when I started to where I am today, I think the biggest thanksgiving I can offer is to my own family for family support. And I think that is one lifelong lesson for anyone I've ever known. 13.Do you think you got a sense of family by taking part in sport? 19:13.33-21:03.37 If you start without a family, your own individual personal family, you notice quickly that you are introduced to a new family. I look back to my own children, and now my grandchildren, and how important the family unit is, whether it's a sports team, a study team in school, a study group. Family is really really a critically important influence in one's life. And thankfully my own family, and my extended family supported me through a lot of sacrifice and a lot of dedication in their own way. Family isn't restricted to the parental unit, or the child unit, it's like to the team that becomes your family, or colleagues in the classroom that become your family. Later on you have an extended family, you adopt other children like I did, they became my extended family, and others have adopted me I have become a part of their family. And that is the beauty of family, and you learn that again through sport. Video 4 00:00.00-05:12.52 One of the tragedies, not only in my own life but other, my colleagues and my families lives, is the trauma. The trauma that was caused from being removed from your parents at an early age, and being removed from the land, being removed from your language, because we were punished to speak our language. And it has become intergenerational. We pass it on to our children, and they pass it on to their children, and it's cyclical. Sometimes it's a cycle of violence, sometimes its can be a cycle of success. And one needs to pick or take a choice, much like suicide, to choose life. In this case, to choose pursuit of excellence or success. And that's where the power of sport comes in, that's where the power of sport really helped me. So, at an earlier age when I was looking around and seeing the negative environment I was in, I thought there was a better way out, there has to be a better way. That's why I ran to sport to help me do that. Because the power of sport to heal is really a very unknown, or undescribed, or untapped area to look at, as to the power of sport. When you participate, and if you've been traumatized as a young child, you heal through that activity. And later on, now when I look back, having been on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and I looking back, yes we now know the truth, yes we now know what happened to children, and that child apprehension happening back then is still going on today. So the challenges we have today are very directly related to the traumatic experience of residential school. But the good news is there is a positive way out, it's getting to know your language, it's getting to know your culture. And that's where I see myself today, in trying to promote what I've learned as a child, what I lived through as a child, how sport has helped me heal through that. And then to promote now better relationships for my people, and that means reconciliation. And reconciliation has the power to advance that. 14.How do you feel about being inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame? 05:44.55-07:17.55 Being inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, is certainly one, of course, you don't seek to do that. You don't seek to do this, and win this, because I want to be in Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. But it's such an important acknowledgement for ones initiatives I suppose, and work, to try and promote a better life choices, better lifestyles. So to be recognized by Canada's Sports Hall of Fame is really an even greater impetus for me to want to do more, because now I have a new purpose and a new platform to say what I was referencing earlier about the power of sport to heal and the power of sport to advance reconciliation. And now I think I have an opportunity to promote not only peace but peace and reconciliation. And the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame will allow me, in certain venues I'm sure, to be able to continue that. 07:57.55-09:07.07 I believe really sincerely, what was it that made me make a different choice, because of what I was seeing around me, what I had experienced, what I had said to myself as a teenager, "I don't want this I want a better life". And when I reflect back having made that choice to pursue excellence through sports and through education. And I look back, when was it, when was the one thing that made me succeed and I think it was prayer, I think it was focusing on the spiritual blessing one has, because without prayer and all of the other things, it's not the same thing. I really believe you're not able to accomplish as much as you can without prayer. And that was a teaching that my grandma gave me, she said to me "don't ever be afraid to pray", so it sticks in my mind to this very day. And that was what influenced, if it was success for me that was it. Video 5-7 - Sound bites |
Date |
2018/ / |
People |
Littlechild, Wilton |
Search Terms |
Indigenous Games Indigenous sport Wilton Littlechild Interview Reconciliation UNDRIP Cree Elder |