New hockey magazine has a new focus

First Nations Hockey Magazine launches in Winnipeg

Mohammad Twaha the Quill (Brandon University)

BRANDON (CUP) — A hockey magazine focused on aboriginal hockey was launched from Winnipeg in mid-December, thanks to the publisher’s desire to bring diversity to his hockey coverage.

Garry McLean will include coverage of the bigger leagues like the NHL and the WHL in his First Nations Hockey Magazine, but will not leave out any college leagues or any “just good old hockey” behind.

“Hockey is so big in First Nations communities every winter,” he said. “Most First Nations have some kind of rec hockey, from little ones to seniors and old-timers, but we don’t know who’s out there. We know the Ted Nolans, we know the Tootoos [brothers Terence and Jordin], but there are so many other people out there who are role models for First Nations youngsters,” he says.

The editor, Winnipeg journalist Philip Paul- Martin, does not want the magazine to be stuck only on current events. He has plans to do stories on the hockey players who are not skating in the rinks any more, but were heroes in the past, like Freddie Sasakamoose, who played in the NHL in 1953.

“We also want to do stories about what it’s like for players to be billeted away from home, where the boys on the bus become your family,” he said.

The idea of NHL being “major” hockey and the games played in the local rink being “minor” hockey does not work on reserves — a local hockey hero draws equal attention to an NHL hero, if not more, according to Michael Robidoux.

Robidoux, who is conducting ethnographic research on First Nations hockey in Canada, says that hockey is a way for First Nations people to communicate their cultural identity and cultural pride, and a sense of who they are as a people.

“Modern hockey is all about systems and efficiency, but in the aboriginal context, they have been able to still play in a creative way, which resembles true play, instead of the structured game we see now in professional hockey and also even in high-performance youth hockey,” he says. “I think that’s why they are so passionate about hockey.”