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Six Nations to host anti-Indigenous racism discussions NEIL BECKER
neil@tworowtimes.com
TWO ROW TIMES
There is a long history of anti-Indigenous racism in the world of lacrosse. NLL rookie Marshall Powless touched upon how through the years he unfortunately had to endure racism in both minor and junior lacrosse. “I experienced racism in both minor and junior level,” Powless said. “In minor, I forgot who we were playing, and this kid came up to me and called me a wagon burner. At the time, I didn’t know what that meant until I asked my mom. In junior, I was playing against Hamilton, and this guy came up to me in between the whistles and said, you’re nothing but a dirty native. I replied with ‘what was that?’ and he said 'you heard me’. I said ‘no I didn’t’ and he said, ‘are you going to steal my truck after the game?’ He began to go on about how we don’t pay taxes and other stuff.” Powless, who had a stellar Junior ‘B’ career with Wallaceburg and the hometown Six Nations
Ontario’s Human Rights Commission says it is planning to come to Six Nations of the Grand River in early 2021 to examine anti-Indigenous racism levelled at Indigenous players. PHOTO BY NLL
Rebels also went on to state, “I never really told anyone except my family. I never decided to go above and talk to the head of the organization because I knew they were just going to shrug it off anyways so I just kept it to myself. It made me realize that racism is still here and it’s sad even at the age of junior players. It’s still
happening. Because no doubt in my mind when that guy has a kid, he will teach his kid that it’s okay to be racist, and the cycle doesn’t stop.” Grand River Attack veteran player Linz Smith, racism is also evident through Indigenous women’s lacrosse. “I talked to a couple of ladies from my team and I think we’ve all expedit-
ed racism in lacrosse on some level whether it be on the floor in the stands or even on the field,” Smith said. “Refs treated us poorly when the women’s league first started as well. But we try not to let it get to us because we respect the game too much and we’re there to win and not to stoop to that level. As a captain, I try to get my teammates to walk away
because I know we’re better than that. I won’t give specific examples but yes, we’ve all experienced it at some point in our years of playing and watching.” Power forward Layne Smith, an extremely talented Six Nations player also unfortunately experienced his share of racism in both minor and junior lacrosse. Reflecting on his minor career Smith stated, “In minor playing Owen Sound, an opposing player took a cheap shot behind the play at me then proceeded to call me Pocahontas. As a young kid I didn’t know how to react. All I knew is it made me angry. I went after the player and took a penalty for hitting him behind the play.” When it came to junior lacrosse Smith who also had a standout junior ‘B’ career with the Six Nations Rebels added, “Often times in junior we would see refs giving us 3-4 penalties a period with our opposing team getting one or so throughout the game. We’d get retaliation penalties, all while teams we play have a big smirk on their
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