Filmmaker hopes to debut documentary at 2024 Toronto International Film Festival
During the dark, rain-filled months of winter, the Skidegate Community Centre on Haida Gwaii becomes a hub for not only basketball, but also a gathering place for the entire village.
“We’ve got harvesting in the spring and into the summer. We get potlatching into the fall. Then we get basketball season and we start that cycle all over again,” said Shannon. For Shannon, basketball is a show of resiliency for a nation that was almost wiped out. Diseases such as smallpox and measles, introduced after colonial contact, reduced the Haida population from tens of thousands to 600, according to the Council of the Haida Nation.
“So basketball became one of the only ways for Indigenous people to gather back in that dark period of potlatch ban that lasted up until the 1950s.”According to Shannon, basketball has brought back community connections on Haida Gwaii that had been lost for decades. The Skidegate Saints senior men’s team came into the 2024 ANBT edition as reigning champions, having won eight of the last 11 senior men’s championships. The Saints’ under-21 ANBT team are no pushovers either, having placed second in 2023.
“Growing up between Prince Rupert and Skidegate, if you want to be successful, you want to make something to yourself, you have to leave, go down South,” he said.The lack of opportunities back home inspired Shannon to create the Haida Gwaii Media Collective, which makes professional-grade film equipment available for rent. Shannon said having resources like this helps keep talented and ambitious youth on the island.
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