New book about hockey team from Pelican Lake Indian Residential School set for Thunder Bay launch

Beyond The Rink: Behind The Images of Residential School Hockey is a new book that tells the story of the championship hockey team from Pelican Lake Indian Residential School near Sioux Lookout, Ont. It's set to launch in Thunder Bay on May 21.

The authors say the book reveals the complicated role of sports in residential school histories, commemorating the team's stellar hockey record and athletic prowess while exposing important truths about 'Canada's Game.'

 Janice Forsyth is co-author of the book and a member of the Fisher River Cree Nation. 

She spoke with Mary-Jean Cormier, the host of Superior Morning, about what she hopes readers take away from it.

Forsyth said the survivors of residential schools are finding the language to tell the stories so that other people can understand more about their experience.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Mary-Jean Cormier: What an amazing and oftentimes heartbreaking book. Can you tell us more about this story?

Janice Forsyth: The story started with a series of photographs from the National Film Board that I saw with one of our co-authors, Kelly Bull at his home in Timmins many years ago. It started to unfold from there because I wondered what was the National Film Board doing taking these really professional photographs of those residential school hockey teams on this tour of Southern Ontario, because you don't just send the National Film Board on a tour like that. 

So, over the years, I wondered what did the photographs mean? What did the boys think about that hockey experience, especially coming through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC], the whole era of litigation and thinking through their own histories? What did they think about the