National Day for Truth & Reconciliation
I’ve been snowboarding for 23 years and have always been known as “the snowboarder” in my community. At first, I thought it was a great name to have. I felt like I was doing something special, something not many other Indigenous youth were doing. I also felt like an outsider, like I was doing something that Indigenous people shouldn’t be doing, it wasn’t a space for us. I received criticism from within my community and from outside my community, “more sama7 (white person) than native,” “you’ll never become a splitboard guide, that isn’t a space for you,” were just some of the comments that would come my way. Things needed to change.
