Imagining a Canadian Identity Through Sport PDF

Imagining a Canadian Identity through Sport: A Historical Interpretation of Lacrosse and Hockey Summer Week 3 Overview § Sport in Canada during the late 19th century was intended to promote physical excellence, emotional restraint, fair play, and discipline; yet these ideological principles were con...

Imagining a Canadian Identity through Sport: A Historical Interpretation of Lacrosse and Hockey Summer Week 3 Overview § Sport in Canada during the late 19th century was intended to promote physical excellence, emotional restraint, fair play, and discipline; yet these ideological principles were consistently undermined by the manner in which Canadians played the game of hockey. This article explores the genesis of violence in hockey by focusing on its vernacular origins and discusses the relevance of violence as an expression of Canadian national identity in terms of First Nations and French Canadian expressions of sport. Imagined Communities "because members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion" Benedict Anderson Said its the notion of communion that motivates nations to define and articulate their existence Violent Canadians Since WW2 Canadians have been viewed as peacekeepers and often considered too polite. This makes it hard to understand how a violent, fast, and ferocious sport like hockey is considered Canada’s national symbol. Born in a period of social reform. A time when violent games, rowdiness and gambling were being replaced by more “civilized” leisure pursuits imported from Europeans. Ex. Cricket Traditional Sport In theory, loosely organized, periodic, and selfgoverned sporting contest are considered traditional sport. Often these types of sporting events have other motives. Ex. Religious ceremonies, healing, or simply ritual. Exist presently in street hockey or unregulated pick up games in a multitude of sports, where there is something to be earned. Modern Sport Modern sport is not a random pursuit but rather a highly organized event played within specific boundaries and performed with uniform rules maintained by leagues and organizations. In time, equipment becomes standardized and play becomes recorded and measured. The result is greater uniformity over time and space, reducing the "localized” forms of individual and community-based expressions of pleasure, entertainment, physical prowess, and ritual display. Not only relates to both, the way people engage in play, as well as the political motivations that dictated this change. Modern Sport cont. It is through the standardization of sport that undesirable qualities of vernacular play could be eliminated-behaviors such as violence, public disorder, and mass rowdiness-thus controlling behavior to ensure a compliant and nonvolatile populace. However, it must be stressed that while levels of control were successfully manufactured through sport, and play was indeed standardized, "undesirable" vernacular elements were not entirely reduced but actually remain critical features of specific sports such as lacrosse and hockey. Control and Correction The successes that church and school officials had enjoyed, in Britain, by providing the ever-increasing urban working class with productive nonthreatening activities, such as cricket and a modified version football, were soon being implemented in the colonies as a means of "correcting" the rougher, more vulgar vernacular pastimes. Perhaps even more importantly, there was symbolic value in having newly colonized peoples engaging in these uniquely British activities; thus, regulated sport quickly became a vehicle for cultural imperialism. Metcalfe speaks to the imperialistic role of cricket by stating that it “illustrated the powerful forces of tradition and the way in which dominant social groups perpetuated their way of life in the face of massive social change" Making Sports Socially Democratic The intent of making sport and physical activity more socially democratic was threefold. To acquire levels of control over increased amounts of leisure time made possible by industrialization and a shorter workweek. To reduce class conflict by enabling male participants of various backgrounds to compete on an equal playing field. Lastly, to build a physically fit yet subordinate workforce, ensuring maximum levels of industrial production. Creating an Identity Montreal born dentist, George Beers was a romantic nationalist. Beers understood that to construct a national identity two things needed to occur. First foreign influence needed to be eliminated, that of English imperialism. Second, a national history/mythology needed to be consciously constructed. Instead of turning to indigenous poetry and language, Beers turned to indigenous sport as a means of portraying the soul of a nation. Baggatway A game founded by Canada’s First Peoples, filled with speed, violence, and skill. Appeared to embody the harsh existence of Canadian natives as well as the trials of early settlers in new land. Played across North America before European contact. Renamed Lacrosse by French settlers and was known to fascinate and repulse early settlers. Early Accounts Nicolas Perrot describes the sport between 1665 and 1684 as follows, [One can hear the noise they make when they hit one another, while they attempt to avoid receiving blows in order to throw the ball to a favorable location. If one secures the ball in his feet without letting it go, he must fend off blows from his opponents who continually strike his feet; and if in this situation he is injured, it is his own concern. Some are seen with broken legs or arms, or are even killed as a result. It is common to see players maimed permanently, yet this does not change the way they play the game on account of their obstinacy.] Early Interaction Early settlers, although relying heavily on European Technology, also needed the First Nations assistance to survive. French men known as les Canadians, emulated the natives in many ways including recreational hobbies. Ex. hunting, snowshoeing, canoeing They were drawn to the celebration of bravado, stoicism, physicality, and the overall view of masculinity which was not the typical Christian model they were used to. Pontiac Rebellion Famous ambush disguised as a sporting contest, Francis Parkman supports the story with this account, “Suddenly, from the midst of the multitude, the ball soared into the air and fell near the pickets of the fort. This was no chance stroke. It was part of a preconcerted stratagem to insure the surprise and destruction of the garrison.... The shrill cries of the ballplayers were changed to the ferocious war whoop. The warriors snatched from the squaws the hatchets, which the latter... had concealed beneath their blankets. Some of the Indians assailed the spectators without, while others rushed into the fort, and all was carnage and confusion.” [1962:254] National Sport Beers called on Canadian’s to not play the imperial game of cricket but rather Lacrosse as the national sport. In order to do so many changes had to be made from the traditional sport of baggatway which was comprised of many spiritual, ritual, and tribal idiosyncrasies. Beers, published the first rules of lacrosse under the name "Goalkeeper“ in a series of advertisements in the Montreal Gazette in 1860. These rules were later adopted by the Montreal Lacrosse Club and became the "official“ rules of lacrosse later republished in the Montreal Gazette in July of 1867. Efforts to standardize the game not only eliminated regional variation, but also seemed to dictate how the game of lacrosse was to be played. All that was left, then, was to attract people to the game, and, again, in this Beers was instrumental. Response Beers makes no apologies for appropriating an aboriginal game and promoting it as the national pastime. Instead, he sees appropriation as an accurate depiction of European presence in Canada and argues, "just as we claim as Canadian the rivers and lakes and land once owned exclusively by Indians, so we now claim their field game as the national field game of our dominion" (1867). Beer's proselytizing was enormously effective, to the extent that a National Lacrosse Association was formed-the first national sporting body in Canada-and lacrosse was being touted by many as Canada's official national game. Modernizing Lacrosse In the attempt to modernize lacrosse and market it to a broader audience, the game needed to become less violent and needed to be played in a manner more suitable for "gentlemen“; otherwise the game would not enter dominant sport culture. Efforts were in place to sanitize the game, but they were not entirely successful. In fact, those who were most successful at the sport were First Nations and working-class players who played the game as it was originally designed-aggressively and intensely. Attempts to turn the game into something else merely put those who engaged in it as "gentlemen“ at a clear disadvantage to those who maintained its aggressive style of play. One team renowned for its aggressive play was the Montreal Shamrocks, they were Irish, Roman Catholic, and working-class. Amateurs Official recourse was to prohibit the playing of lacrosse in attempts to make it a game of an exclusive minority rather than the nation. Amateur athletics in Canada did not merely function as a means of ensuring that athletes engage in sport in a gentlemanly manner, but served as a discriminatory system that prevented "undesirable" players from playing. Prior to 1909, the year when a national amateur athletic union was formed in Canada, national sporting bodies used the concept of amateurism to best suit their sport's needs. In the case of the National Lacrosse Association, league officials decided to make it an "amateur" association restricted to those players who fit under the definition of amateur. An amateur was conveniently defined by the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada as someone who had "never competed for a money prize, or staked bet with or against any professional for any prize," or one who "never taught, pursued, or assisted in the practice of athletic exercises as a means of obtaining a livelihood" (Metcalfe 1987:105-106). The stipulations were highly restrictive and deliberate in design. Amateurs cont. First, the new requirements made working-class participation virtually impossible, in that wage earners were no longer able to receive financial compensation for taking time off from work to play. Keeping in mind that it was illegal to play sports on Sunday, and that the workweek ran from Monday to Saturday, working-class participation in sport was restricted generally to Saturday afternoons. As a result, players were not only prevented from receiving payment for time lost at work, but those players who at one time received compensation for their services were no longer eligible to play. The second aspect of the restrictions was equally effective because it denied access to individuals who at one time gambled on sport. During this period in Canadian history, gambling and sport were virtually inextricable: gambling made up part of the fabric of vernacular sporting pastimes. For First Nations cultures in particular, gambling in sport (by spectators and participants) was deeply ingrained in their traditions and at times even played a role in their overall economies. (Oxendine 1988:31). Therefore, by these first two stipulations alone, most ethnic minorities and working class players were considered ineligible and could no longer play amateur athletics. The final stipulation reinforced economic divisiveness further by making it clear that sport was not the property of the people but, rather, of men who "had the leisure, economic resources and social approval to explore intensive athletic training in a financially disinterested manner.” Hockey By maintaining its exclusive membership, the National Lacrosse Association forced potential lacrosse players to pursue alternative sporting options. Other team-sport leagues( i.e., baseball, football, and hockey) were not as resistive to the influences of professionalism, and thus, they provided working-class and ethnic minority players alternatives to play in these sports, and be financially compensated at the same time. While baseball and football did attract many of the players, these sports did not possess the symbolic and literal value found in lacrosse. Instead, it was hockey that early Canadian sport enthusiasts embraced by the turn of century, for the same reasons they were attracted to lacrosse 20 years earlier. Unlike baseball or football, hockey was seen as uniquely Canadian in origin and character. An amalgam of modern and vernacular sporting pastimes, hockey resembled lacrosse in design and in the manner it was played. Play was aggressive and often violent, providing men the opportunity to display this emergent notion of masculinity. At a symbolic level, it was played on a frozen landscape, perfectly embodying what life as a Canadian colonialist was supposed to be like. Thus, hockey provided all that lacrosse entailed, but without the restrictions of amateurism. By the 1920s hockey had succeeded in becoming Canada’s national sport pastime. Why Speaks to issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and region. For this reason, hockey moves beyond symbol and becomes more of a metaphoric representation of Canadian identity. Hockey was born out of post confederation Canada, in a period of political uncertainty and unrest. Canada was a disparate nation, divided in terms of language, region, and ethnicity-lacking in identity and national unity. Thus, while hockey was used ideologically to express national sentiment, its value as a vernacular entity was equal to, if not greater than, its symbolic value. Hockey's violent and aggressive style separated itself from other European pastimes, including the increasingly popular game of baseball that was entering Canada from the United States. Why cont. It was largely because of this excessive violence that hockey became a sport Canadians could call their own, and they quickly began to showcase it in international contexts. By the mid-1890s, competitions were being staged between Canadian hockey teams and American ice-polo teams. The Canadian teams dominated these early competitions and reveled in the press they received. Newspapers did applaud their skill, but at the same time reports were critical of their rough play. The Daily Mining Gazette of Houghton, Michigan, described one game as "rush, slash and check continually....Calumet were knocked off the puck by Portage Lakes 'any old way.' Many a man had to be carried to the dressing room" (Fitsell 1987:120). In a game in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, an incident occurred where "Stuart [an American player] was laid out by a board check from Jack Laviolette. He recovered and tangled with the same player, fans rushed on the ice and as Stuart bled from the facial cuts, police were called in" (Fitsell 1987:120). These accounts illustrate that within 20 years of organized existence, hockey was internationally known as being first, Canadian, and second, notoriously violent. Conclusion Hockey enabled Canadians to display qualities that have been valued in patriarchal relations: stoicism, courage, perseverance, and proficiency. The singularity of the game and the manner in which it was played were critical for a young and disparate nation to have as its own as it faced encroaching social, political, and cultural interests from Europe and the United States. At a more pedestrian level, hockey was accessible to men of various ethnic and class backgrounds, and thus, to a greater degree than lacrosse, it became a game of the people. The fact that "people“ here is specific only to males established hockey as a male preserve, making it a popular site for men to define their worth as men, drawing on notions of masculinity that date back to 17th-century Canada. Conclusion cont. Despite the obvious fallibility of nationalistic representation, the legitimacy of nationalistic expression remains. Canada's history is located firmly in patriarchy, heterosexism, and capitalism; thus, the use of hockey to promote national pride and unity was not random then, nor is it today. Playing hockey is a means of constructing an image of a nation in the manner in which dominant forces within it wish to be seen. Hockey does not merely symbolize the need to define a national identity, it offers insight into the actual imaginings of what this identity entails. It provides Canada a means by which to be distinguished. As Benedict Anderson astutely observes, such distinction ought not to be characterized by the dichotomy of "falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which it is 'imagined' " Videos The History of Lacrosse – YouTube The Creator's Game - Oneida Warriors Exhibition – YouTube LACROSSE HARDEST HITS EVER - YouTube