Indigenous Initiatives of George Brown college (GBC) hosted Waneek Horn-Miller, Canadian water-polo Olympian from the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, for their Indigenous Knowledge Keeper series this month.
While protesting the Oka Crisis as a teenager, Horn-Miller was stabbed by a Canadian soldier, and almost died.
She rose from that trauma and went on to lead the Canadian Women’s Water-polo team at the Olympics and win gold at the 1999 PanAm Games.
She now invests time in traveling to communities as a motivational speaker.
Horn-Miller shared this story of resilience and dreams with the crowd gathered at the Waterfront campus on Oct. 4.
While speaking to the audience at GBC, she spoke of the influence her mother had on her.
“My mother never told me and my sister that you must be this, do this. All she said was, I don’t care what you do, you do it with excellence.”
Horn-Miller shared that native children are too often told they’re incapable of great things.
“My mother said ‘your ancestors are one of the strongest people. They learn to live a life of excellence because they have no choice, and you are descended from the very best. You honor all of their sacrifice by doing whatever you do to the very best of your capability’ and to hear that as a little girl,” she reminisced fondly.
The Mohawk Olympian also served as the director of community engagement at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) for a few months in 2017. She stepped down after realizing that the inquiry needed re-direction and that her children, the youngest of whom was six months old, needed her.
“The MMIWG report went through an extensive process and I as the director here at GBC Indigenous Initiative feel like it’s my responsibility to keep that report on people’s radar, to have them understand the depth of the report. To have them understand and hear from a commissioner of the report that that was set up to fail. And to know that we have a lot more work to do when it comes to realizing some of these truths,” said Audrey Rochette, director of Indigenous Initiatives.
Members of the Indigenous Initiatives group and other GBC members, with Horn-Miller (third from right). Photo by: Sean Heeger
Rochette emphasized that along with the concerns in indigenous communities, there is beauty, resistance, intelligence, and leadership.
“I want our students to understand that we have an incredible amount of talented people across Canada that are doing exceptional work, and the indigenous knowledge keeper series was set up to share a collective learning experience, and to remove some of the stereotypes that people think about indigenous people.”
Horn-Miller, now 46 and a mother of three, wants students to become part of the solution and learn now so they can make the world better.
“For post-secondary students, this is the most open-minded time in your life. I encourage you to go into as many learning spaces as possible, so that when you go on to the world you have the tools to help create a country that is safe, and respectful…We need you to be that person,” said Horn-Miller. “I challenge post-secondary education to become part of the solution. We need to create true learning and communication. In Canada, we’re talking about being a great diverse society, and yet we’re not teaching you how to communicate. Communication is that you say something and you’re going to take responsibility for this.”
The GBC Indigenous Initiatives has similar monthly events planned for the series.
More details about upcoming speakers and events can be found on their website www.georgebrown.ca/indigenous
