Original subtitles

Defense! Defense!

Everybody across the land

that tuned in to the coverage here for the week

at the All-Native Basketball Tournament.

...at the gym, I see people

peeking through windows all over the place,

they're out in the lobby...

600 athletes, 3,000 fans.

People often purchase tickets to next year's games this year,

so as not to miss out.

Front-row seats are so precious,

they're passed on in wills

from one generation to the next.

And it's good!

I go every year.

I'm one of the loudest.

The All-Native is our Super Bowl.

The sense of pride at the All-Native Basketball Tournament

is what it's all about,

representing your nation.

...go almost the whole way,

but the championship pedigree of Skidegate Saints...

It's gonna be a Skidegate championship!

And that seals the deal for the Skidegate Saints!

They came marching in, and they won the title!

There are teams

that have played in the All-Native for 63 years

that have never beat the Saints,

and never will.

It's been a decade of dominance for Skidegate.

I think this'll be their eighth championship in 11 years.

I think when people think of Haida basketball,

they're just, like, "Oh, my god.

When are these guys gonna stop winning?"

Skidegate Saints!

Champions once again! 76-64.

Saints are still on top.

Saints are still the team to beat.

I think there's something in the water.

The Saints of Skidegate

punch their ticket to the semifinal!

And he nails it! 86-85!

- Ohh... - My god!

Haida Gwaii

is one of the most amazing places on Earth.

It's isolated from the mainland,

broken up into different islands

from north to south, east to west,

allowing Haida clans to thrive.

To me, it's one of the most grounding

and humbling places on Earth.

At times, it feels like my spirit

can float within the clouds or move with the wind.

Afternoon.

Can you introduce yourself for me, please?

Ahem. Uh, yeah. I'm Xyallaga Daaguuyah,

Desi Collinson.

I belong to the T'aanuu Wolf Clan,

and I've, I was born and raised here in Skidegate,

and, uh, I've been living here, uh, my whole life.

We're at the George Brown Recreation Centre.

You know, this is where I work, I'm the recreation coordinator.

A lot of different programs

and a lot of different things happen here.

Woo!

I have to manage and do all the tournaments.

Being a Skidegate Saint and a role model,

it's important to guide in that right direction.

It encourages individuals

to want to be here

and want to live here in Haida Gwaii.

You guys like my calendar?

You walk into this gym and you see all those banners,

it says something, right?

And for me,

I've been involved in every single one of those banners

that's on that wall.

I was either there to witness them,

or I've played in them, besides that middle banner.

I don't know which year it is,

but it was prior to the year I was even born, right?

So...

I put those banners up there, so...

You don't even have room for all your banners.

Yeah. No. Like, I literally nailed those in,

or taped those up.

Like, I put them up there.

Like, that's my... that's the decor. I did that.

Well, I was born and raised playing basketball.

Like, I can't remember a moment

that I, you know, I wasn't playing basketball.

My brother played basketball.

My older cousins played basketball.

My uncles play basketball. Do you know what I mean?

My chinaay played basketball.

Every, all of us play basketball,

and Skidegate has developed this huge love for basketball

in a sense that is, you know, it's, it's...

you're having this emotional, do you know what I mean?

You have this emotional... uh, connection with it.

That's why I do what I do.

You pick out 10 people from Skidegate,

they're probably gonna be better at basketball than you.

That's just all there is to it.

Woo!

The Skidegate Saints

are one of the most dominant forces

when it comes to Rez ball.

They just know how to get it done.

They're basketball players,

but they do so much else.

The uncles of Skidegate,

that's what the Saints are to me.

Everybody here loves basketball.

I don't think I've seen anything like it.

On Haida Gwaii...

it's the main sport.

The only sport, really.

Basketball is not just basketball here.

Basketball is responsibility and mentorship and leadership.

It's village ball, eh? And that's... different.

The team-building, the family,

the excitement, the pride...

it's just part of Haida culture.

At one time,

it was illegal for Indigenous people

to gather in groups of a certain size,

so the sport became this other way to do that.

We get to come and watch people battle it out.

We have a lot of pride in how well we do.

Get a taste of winning,

it's pretty hard to let it go, I guess, eh.

Yep.

Wanna win every year.

They've just been playing so long together,

they have each others' backs.

They bring everything Haida into the game,

and the dedication that they have...

"Saints" on three!

One, two, three, Saints!

...moves back out into everything they do.

That was fun, I guess, eh?

Gaagwiis, uh, is my Haida name.

My English name is Jason Alsop.

I'm a member of the Kayahl 'Laanas,

or Ts'aahl Eagle Clan,

from the West Coast of Haida Gwaii,

Captain of the Skidegate Senior Saints,

and, um, Elected President of the Haida Nation.

You know, my job is to

uphold our Haida Nation constitution,

build good relationships with our neighbours,

and managing the lands and waters,

but also our health and education

and our just general well-being here,

living on Haida Gwaii.

I'm one of the people who was affected

by the Indian Act legislation,

in terms of not growing up with Indian Status.

Indian Status is an element of the Indian Act

that attempted to define

who is an Indigenous person in Canada.

It was designed to eventually

just assimilate Indigenous people in Canada

into mainstream Canadian society.

My grandmother, my nanaay,

married another Haida person who didn't have status,

so she lost her status,

and so my mom and my aunties didn't have their status,

so they weren't allowed to live in Skidegate.

You know, they were trying to strip them of their rights

and separate them from their community and culture.

I grew up watching my dad play basketball.

He's not Haida,

but I think it helped him become part of the community

and be accepted,

but I understood

that basketball was important to the community,

and I think, subconsciously, at some point in my life,

made a decision that, you know,

if I'm really good at basketball,

I'm going to be accepted.

So that, I think, drove me to pursue it in a serious way,

to become really good at it...

...and wanting to make sure

that I was gonna be for sure

part of this community and part of this culture,

because I was gonna to be so good that they...

I could never be denied.

My brother Duane,

I guess it's a trust and a bond

that we have naturally as brothers,

and it carries on the court,

but I think we carry it off the court too.

My name is, uh, Duane Alsop.

I'm born and raised in Skidegate here.

Been playing

and a member of the Skidegate Saints

Junior all the way through present day.

Over the years,

I've been basically the team treasurer,

also involved with the Juniors,

15 years as Assistant Coach and Manager.

In regards to playing,

do a lot of the dirty work,

whatever's required for us to succeed,

whether that's starting,

coming off the bench, defense,

taking charges...

I put my body on the line a lot.

The next generation,

that's who they're looking up to,

that's what they're looking at next, so...

when I play, I play hard,

and I do whatever it takes to try and win.

The All-Native Tournament is modern-day warfare.

We're a bunch of different nations going in...

going to battle

for the ultimate goal of being the champion, and...

Yeah. It's modern-day warfare.

The Haidas are a bad-ass group of people.

We were renowned traders and master artists,

but also feared warriors

that would battle with our neighbours

up and down the coast.

There was tales of the women fighting alongside the men,

just as fierce.

That's our reputation

in the historical sense.

I think in the modern context,

we have more of the reputation of winning championships.

At the All-Native, you know, we grew up

watching Hydaburg and their dynasty.

They've had successive generations of talent

come together to maintain a championship culture,

and for this generation of the Saints,

we were shaped and inspired by the Old Massett teams.

We've inherited a standard, a responsibility,

of making sure the Haida Nation was at the top

in bringing home championships.

50-some championships

over 50-some years...

...but last year,

the All-Native Basketball Tournament,

everybody watched this Burnaby team come in,

and Burnaby was running through everybody.

They were just slaughtering everybody.

Making it look easy out there right now.

I mean, the drama going into this,

this was this juggernaut Burnaby squad,

this club team, right?

So the politics of the tournament,

club teams are from the cities

that are comprised of players

from all the nations that can't be at home,

but the contention is,

is it could be construed as an all-star team.

Burnaby is running away with it

here in the first half.

Skidegate's known

as kinda like that authentic village team,

like, they don't bring in anybody.

They're literally all from Skidegate.

2023 Championship banner

is gonna either go back to Haida Gwaii

or down south.

We'll see what happens here.

And everybody just thought,

"Maybe this is it. Maybe this is the end."

Everybody back in Haida Gwaii, get ready.

Your, uh, Saints have hit the floor.

Nice to see Desi,

because he had been suffering injuries.

And if you look at them now,

I mean, the dynamic of the Skidegate Saints...

now is that they're all coaches.

Right? So Desi, Duane, Gaagwiis,

they literally coach the Junior programs.

Right now, the momentum in Burnaby's favour, Pete.

Everybody who chalked it up,

they said Burnaby's gonna just walk away with the tournament.

Burnaby's huge. They're young.

The crowd is getting amped up here.

There's a battle on our hands.

There's something in my gut telling me

that if anyone is gonna beat them,

it's gonna be the Saints,

who seem to step up in these big moments,

especially 'cause it's the finals.

Over Battle, oh!

They clicked a tough shot over Ronnie Battle.

They physically should've lost that game,

but, of course, that didn't happen.

It's a three-pointer. Long pass.

Desi, nice pass to Jason Alsop!

They're just smart.

They're smart basketball players.

Skidegate, your 2023 All-Native Champions!

That's one of the most impressive finals

I've seen in long time, Pete.

Burnaby, the heavy favourite,

and Skidegate pulling it off.

They're, by far, I think,

one of the oldest Senior teams in Indigenous basketball.

You know, we can play really smart basketball,

but it's just when you look at athleticism,

being young makes a big difference.

Hello!

Like, we're getting quite up there, right?

And I just don't know, do you know what I mean?

Um, how much long we can sustain,

do you know what I mean, something like that.

And don't get me wrong, do you know what I mean?

We, I, you know, I feel like we can do it

for, you know, quite some time...

'cause my spirit's always the same.

Like, the spirit inside of me is always the same.

But my body...

just like the rest of our bodies,

they don't enact that same way, right?

Once you win

and that becomes the expectation,

it shifts from exciting

to... a responsibility.

It becomes,

"Okay, now everybody's after you,"

and then you have to be even better,

and you have to be even more prepared.

Sometimes you're, like, "Well, why do we do all this?"

You know, practicing at night, at 9:00 till 11:00.

You have to look after yourself, look after your body,

to try to be in shape.

We can't play forever.

We're sort of holding space

and waiting to hand off

to this next generation that is coming up,

so they can continue to build onto that legacy.

Their peak has been hit.

Even if they win,

you know, one, two, three more championships,

which they could totally do,

for a lot of those guys, you know,

they're gonna be seeing younger guys come up

and kind of take their spot,

and we're not even talking about...

I haven't even brought up Jesse Barnes yet.

Oh, God! Okay, now we're talking.

Yeah. Jesse Barnes. Oh, my god...

He's untouchable!

Jesse Barnes is arguably the most dominant force

to come out of Skidegate ever.

Jesse being so athletic,

and, you know, he has so much skill.

Heart is something you can't teach, right?

He's gone and played D1.

He's played Canadian basketball.

He is a source of pride.

The kid's 6'10".

He can shoot, he can dribble, he can pass...

and he was born and raised on the Rez.

He's one of us.

Uh, so my name's Jesse Barnes.

I am 26 years old.

I am from here in Skidegate.

I got into basketball when I was about 12...

12 years old.

I was always taller than everybody,

but I was kinda the guy who would just stay home

and play video games,

but once my friends kinda just realized

that, I mean, I'm the tallest person in the school,

maybe I should go try this thing out,

and, uh...

I've kinda been hooked ever since.

Growing up at the George Brown there,

watching Desi, Duane, Jason,

I was, like, "Okay, I wanna hoop like these guys."

Desi was my coach all throughout high school, so...

and then I ended up down in the States,

played there for a couple years,

and then I finished my career at Brock University,

and now I'm currently living in Vancouver

with Tyler and Kole,

and we're all from Skidegate here.

I mean, Skidegate, and Haida basketball in general,

kinda just has this culture of winning

that has been going on for countless years now,

and I just kind of want to be able to kind of help

contribute to keeping that going, so...

And, uh, I guess one last thing here,

so tell us about

what you're looking forward to at the All-Native.

All-Native? Um...

I actually don't know who I'm playing with yet, but...

Oh. Still on the fence?

On the fence right now.

Oh...

the Jesse Barnes rumour, huh?

Yeah, I heard that last week.

Jesse Barnes? Yeah. You know, he's...

our best player.

There's, yeah, rumours

that he might not play with us.

Talk more about that.

I don't know if I want to.

Me and Kole and Tyler

have been playing in a league down in Vancouver.

We, uh, might play for Burnaby for the All-Native.

People have been saying, like,

we shouldn't be playing for a club team,

because we have a village team to play for.

I mean, it's his choice. It's his choice.

If he chooses to play for somebody else...

he might get a little bit of flak,

but I'm hoping no hatred.

But, uh, he hasn't given us a straight answer

one way or the other.

{Desi) Ah, it's a little bit frustrating for me.

I feel like swearing,

and I feel like saying a few other things.

Yeah, I have a real tough time with that.

They grew up here as village boys.

Like, I've seen them, do you know what I mean?

...catch octopus, you know, bigger than them, right?

I've seen them catch naw bigger than them, right?

I know that they spend a lot of time on the beach.

They spend a lot of time at the gym.

They love to rip and dip, as they call it,

where we'd play basketball,

and we'd run down the beach and go for a swim

on hot summer days, right?

Like, we enjoyed doing those things.

Bringing back players

that you've mentored, you've coached,

it's super important to me, right?

There is a decision, do you know what I mean,

that needs to be made, I guess,

by Jesse Barnes, and Tyler and Kole,

and for myself, I understand...

I've moved away and went to the city

and did all these different things,

and you kind of lose sight of who you are,

and you kind of forget about the important things in life,

especially when you're young.

I spent my time in the city going to...

you know, finished high school, going to college and whatnot.

We still came up for Junior All-Native,

uh, as the Saints,

but at a certain point, it is just like,

"What am I doing here? This isn't where I belong."

Decided I had enough, and I came home.

We are blessed.

We're lucky to be part of this community,

this nation, this island,

where I think we all really are connected,

we do care about each other.

In the context of Haida culture...

you know, basketball is more than just a sport.

Basketball's a bit of a bridge...

...from the present...

...into the past.

Before the Europeans came,

there was a SGaaga.

In Western world,

it might be referred to as "shaman," hey?

A spiritual and medicinal practitioner

who had a supernatural being speak through them.

And they said that these new people would come,

and there'd be some good,

but there'd be an awful lot of bad,

and this pestilence would come.

Then it is said

there was a smallpox epidemic...

...hitting villages all over Haida Gwaii.

We're dying so rapidly,

we don't have time to mourn the ones that are dying.

Some clans were down to two people.

Some clans completely disappeared.

The stories say that the smallpox was so thick

that you could see it in the air,

and that's what this painting's trying to tell us.

And there's old stories of Haidas paddling,

do you know what I mean, trying to go ashore a village.

They're visibly sick,

and their canoe is pushed out to shore.

And there's stories of them listening to us

singing into the night as we died.

If you look at photos of Skidegate in 1884,

it looks like a forest of totem poles,

and ten years later,

it looks like the forest is mowed down.

By 1915, there was less than 600 Haidas on Haida Gwaii.

That's a pretty drastic drop

from upwards of 50,000 before contact.

The survivors, all these tiny populations,

moved into Skidegate

and Old Massett.

All our people could go and find solace

and a place to come together and survive.

Under the Indian Act of 1876,

the Canadian government assumed total control

over Canada's Native People and their lands.

The Indian Act, you know,

trying to determine who is Haida,

who belongs in the community,

caused a lot of pain and trauma

for many people who were not recognized

as Status Indians,

so they weren't allowed to live in Skidegate

or Old Massett, on the Reserve.

They had to live outside of the community.

And then, in July of 1884,

this nation-state of Canada

amends their Indian Act

to include what we refer to as the Potlatch Ban.

Potlatch functions

included political councils,

spiritual occasions,

medicine-making,

and the sharing of tribal wealth.

It's a critical part of our social, economic,

spiritual health and ways of being.

That's our system.

Attendance at potlatch ceremonies

became a criminal offense.

As recently as 1951, violators were jailed.

So, between 1885, when they enacted it,

and 1951,

it was illegal for us to, essentially, be Haida.

The abolishment of potlatch

was separating us from our culture,

separating us from each other.

"Just keep them apart.

If they gather,

they're gonna be able to do something."

It was in the early 1880s

that Canada and the Church officially joined together

to form the Residential School system...

...taking children away from their communities

and bringing them to foreign boarding schools,

Residential Schools.

You have culture being abolished,

and language being abolished,

and just your character being abolished.

How we dressed, how we walked, how we talked,

everything around that, do you know what I mean,

was taken away.

We couldn't wear our long hairstyle.

We couldn't. Right?

Like, they're cutting your ponytail off

because it wasn't, do you know what I mean,

fit to how a men's cut should look.

Right? It wasn't fit.

But I think it's majestic as fuck.

To the absolute core of who you are,

they tried to destroy and remove...

...but they didn't succeed.

I went to Residential School in 1959,

and that's actually where I started playing basketball.

Well, I went to Residential School

in Edmonton,

but prior to that, I had never heard of the game of basketball.

In summertime,

we'd come home and get together.

We'd practice wherever we could.

We didn't have any basketball court

here in Skidegate.

We used to hone our skills there, out on the...

out on the road.

That's it.

That gravel road. Yeah.

That's how basketball was introduced here,

on Haida Gwaii.

From guys who had gone away to Residential School.

Learned how to play a little bit of basketball,

which is quite a bit different than the way they play now.

Not like when we were kids,

we could only dribble forward.

We couldn't get fancy or anything.

Behind the back... crossover dribbles.

Like, "why didn't I do that?"

Nobody dunked the ball back then.

Your jacket.

Warm up.

This was the first, uh, uniforms we got.

The ladies in Skidegate embroidered them.

Bit of work to do that, I guess. Holy!

We went to the All-Native,

so we got the fans here all excited too.

Made it to the final, lost by three points.

When we got home,

we got off the plane and on the water taxi.

They put us on the garbage truck,

and Percy Williams and a couple of other bands

were playing "When the Saints," so it was...

quite, quite cool.

Knowing that we were the first official basketball team...

yeah, makes you feel good sometimes.

Yeah.

The original Saints,

but we didn't do anything special.

We just played basketball.

It's something that I think has been used

as a healing mechanism over time,

something that was good

that was brought away from something bad.

You know, as Indigenous people,

we still hold a lot of hurt from the past.

We still... think about it often.

We still have those intergenerational traumas.

And a lot of the healing comes from gathering.

People were gathering

and finding ways around these gathering rules

through disguising it under Christianity.

You know, you were allowed to gather

for religious purposes.

Sport was another avenue where you could gather

that wasn't church-centric.

I think with the games,

they also were, um,

allowed to have people watch,

so now, they had circumvented

this rule that was in the Indian Act,

and they had ten-plus people playing a game,

and people watching, so...

they found a loophole, but they got really good at it.

Basketball provides

such an entry point into our history,

who you are, that resilience,

and all these layers of identity,

clan, village, you know, nation.

We don't grow up thinking about it,

or maybe appreciating it,

but, you know, as you get older,

you kind of see the powerful tool that it is

to be part of that resilience in our time.

We want to honour

all our loved ones that have gone

in the last year.

As we sing the Spirit Song,

again, for all our loved ones

that we've lost in the last year,

but all of our ancestors that we have lost.

We're battling against

a lot of different outside pressures

to, you know, get away from the Indian Act,

and get away from all these colonial pressures,

and just really let our communities do

what they do best...

and that's just play basketball.

I host about four or five tournaments a year.

I think this year, I hosted five.

For me, and I've been doing this for a long time,

over 10 years, 15 years here at the recreation centre,

this specific tournament,

the Clan Tournament,

captures the essence of, uh...

of self-expression around culture and pride.

It's a month before the All-Native.

Um, everybody looks forward to it to kick off the year,

and some people will argue that this tournament

is better than the All Native, right?

One, two, three, go!

You know, when smallpox hit,

we all came to Skidegate,

and we all came to Massett, and we all came to Hydaburg

out of a survival mechanism, right?

So it's all different clans coming to represent,

like, a unity thing, right?

Where out of survival mechanism, we came to Skidegate.

Right? And that was just out of pure survival.

And then, when you go back to your clan,

when you go and play for your village,

that's where you came from.

Wow!

Oh, that's, they're calling that an intentional foul.

Wiija, what do you think about that?

I mean, all fouls are kind of intentional, but...

I got it. I got it.

Game on. Go ahead, came on.

The Clan Tournament

expresses the most of who an individual is, right?

They'll come in, they'll wear their colour,

they'll say who they are.

They'll let you know their Haida name,

let you know their clan, they'll let you know

if they're a Raven or an Eagle.

But always going back to who your grandmother is,

or who your chinaay is, or your nanaay,

or whatever it is.

Swing it down to Maya under the hoop,

two points.

During our clan tournament,

the George Brown Recreation Centre comes alive.

You represent yourself.

You represent your family.

You represent your chief

and your matriarchs and your clan.

You're a representative of an entire group

of who you are.

Just wanting our girls to have a place

in the basketball community

was really important to me,

for them to see that they could be held up,

you know, like our boys are held up.

It's beautiful, and it's healing,

and it's... it's empowering.

We talk our language,

we have our culture through song and dance,

and it just reinvigorates

our Haida-ness, as we call it.

You know, especially with the trauma that people carry,

and intergenerational trauma,

you need these outlets where you can let that out,

to be vulnerable,

to be physical,

to be emotional,

and in basketball, you get to do all that.

One of the beauties of the Clan Tournament

is food, hey?

Yeah.

Oh, there's always so much food.

If you don't wanna cook at home,

we got lots of food that helps go to the basketball community.

Yeah, look at that.

- That's right. - Yeah, that's the shot!

That's fry bread. That's fry bread on that.

Ooh! Look at that oil sizzle!

- Fry bread? - Fry bread!

- I want some fry bread! - Fry bread.

Fry bread!

I got fry bread in my mouth. We all got fry bread!

Hold it up. Hold up.

Somebody's missing their cell phone?

Not mine.

Everybody knows what happens

when that comes up!

Is there a picture on it?

Oh...

this young man has a debt to pay!

And you guys know how this works.

He has to dance for it.

You guys decide when he gets it back.

You know, the wintertime, traditionally,

would be potlatch season,

and, um...

clans would host feasts and potlatch,

and so, um, the basketball season,

you know, kind of naturally follows that cycle.

You know, it's really easy to stay isolated, and...

and, um, kinda hibernate through the winter,

but by coming together in potlatch and ceremony,

it brings everybody together into one house,

and basketball plays a similar role.

Fry bread action!

But, as I've grown older,

you come to appreciate the, um, the event that it is.

You're part of an event, and you wanna win,

but really, you know, our main objective

over the last number of years

has been recognizing

that we need to make sure our nephew, Levi,

was gonna play an important role and help lead us.

We need to get the next generation ready,

'cause we can't maybe carry the load

that we do right now.

I'm trying to follow, follow their lead.

Like, I'm following Duane and Jason's role,

and it definitely makes me feel really good,

like, knowing that I have support

from this big family,

and they all want me to do my best.

Our nanaay, our grandmother,

her kidney had been failing.

She had to get medevaced out in September.

Her kidney function started to decline to the point

where, um, she needed to go off to Prince George

for dialysis treatment.

We knew this day was coming,

but it was still, you know, became a bit of an emergency,

where we had to fly her out of here,

and we're in the hospital,

and they're putting her in an ambulance,

and we're all saying goodbye,

you know, maybe we won't see her again,

we're not, you never know.

And then, uh, Levi comes in late,

and she's in the... they're putting her in the back,

getting her ready, and she's, like, "Levi.

Come over here."

She pulled me into her, and she goes,

"Don't let Skedans win the Clan Tournament,"

and then she's like,

"Don't let anyone else win. You guys have to win."

"You guys make sure you win the Clan Tournament!"

I wanted to win it for,

for specifically my nanaay and, of course, for the clan.

I'm sure Duane and Jason were carrying that with them as well,

and I especially was,

and we were in a pretty bad spot,

we were down five with, like, a couple minutes to go.

Like, the momentum was against us,

and we were gassed, and I was personally gassed.

All right, everybody,

welcome back to our final game of the 2024 Clan Tournament.

Levi puts the ball down.

Nice drive by Levi, but he can't finish.

The ball bounces around.

Barnes picks it up.

In that final game there, we're, uh...

struggling a bit in the fourth quarter, and...

Denver dribbles the ball off his foot.

Levi picks it up.

I picked it up, and as soon as I let it go,

I was like, "Holy." It was like a rainbow.

And a long three, and he nails it!

A huge three by Levi!

71-69!

Just watching everyone's reaction,

everyone kind of dreams of moments like those.

But also, it gave us a pick-up

and a boost of energy,

which was, uh... really needed.

He makes it! It's a two-point game!

...to Collison. Collison loses the ball.

Inside, Isaiah goes up. Oh!

Ts'aahl Eagles!

2024 Clan Tournament Champions!

I only have a certain amount.

We're giving it to the team members.

Large?

Large.

Large? Mediums. Is that it?

The Clan Tournament's always fun.

Everyone always wants to see their clan winning.

We're all Haidas, so we all have hot blood,

and everyone just is really competitive,

and we knew we had to win, so...

otherwise, you would have been mad.

So it was nice to come up with that win.

I was so happy when I came home

and, uh, this shirt as waiting for me.

The Clan Tournament one?

Yeah.

Yeah, it was... yeah.

I'm just so proud of you, my boy.

Made me feel stronger.

My body's waking up.

Screaming around.

Yeah, I don't know,

I'm just hoping the next generation,

or this group of guys

can keep inspiring the generation

like Duane and Desi and Nate and Jesse,

and all those guys have inspired us,

just to keep going.

I think that's how Haida basketball stays alive,

is we just have,

we just keep having great groups of players and people.

Yeah.

I love you, Nanaay.

Oh, you are my boy.

That's good.

I'm a... I'm a hugger, anyway.

It's a legacy, it's a dynasty

that you're a part of.

Why do you wanna take,

Why do you wanna try and take us down?

Why don't you want to keep adding to it?

I don't know, it's just

a young squad of fucking young Natives

living in Van.

Oh, look at this, you're here representing your clan.

It must mean something to you.

How does it not mean something to you

to play for your hometown for the tournament?

I don't know.

So, you're serious.

You're really not gonna play with us.

Just for one year, yeah.

Well, who else you got? Like...

Like me, Marlon, Kobe...

uh, Kole, Tyler. Fucking... TK.

We're also fucking worried about getting hurt.

Like, fuck, we're at the end of our career.

We gotta play 40 minutes now and bang against you? Fuck.

So what was happening there? Jesse was what?

Oh, I was just grilling him about his decision, and...

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

His mind's fuckin'...

I was just asking him on it, 'cause I thought...

I still thought he's just messing with us,

at the end, he was gonna come through.

Yeah, and he's still trying to...

I guess the Jones boys are in too, then, for sure.

Personally, I think that is

a very bad choice on his behalf.

To not play for your hometown

and the community that has been there

and supported you throughout your entire life?

Doesn't matter where I live,

I'll always come home to play for my hometown.

I'm not gonna play for anybody else.

Like, this is me, this is who I am.

Maybe we didn't do a good enough job communicating

and have them understand what it means to us

to have that support.

Maybe there's a personal challenge

to wanna beat us,

or whatever he needed for his growth,

whatever that is, you know, that's his journey.

No matter where you go in life,

whether you move to the city or anywhere in the world,

I guess, like, you still have those...

those village-boy tendencies.

Like, they say you, uh...

uh, what's that saying, where they say you can...?

You can take you a kid out of the Rez,

but you can't take the Rez out of the kid.

Exactly. Exactly. So...

I think we're all,

even though we're living in the city right now,

we're all still village boys at heart.

Growing up in Haida Gwaii, like, there's not...

at one point, you wanna leave, you know what I mean?

At some point, it becomes a little bit dull.

You wanna go see the world, see what the world has to offer,

so, it's good to, you know, have a little...

little group of you that can even get together

once or twice a week, three times a week,

play basketball, and get to know other people.

So even if you guys are in the paint,

trying to post up,

you're trying to get middle.

Once you're through here, you're cut off...

I wanna help these guys win a championship,

these guys that I've developed a relationship with

over the past year,

and prove to ourselves, like, how good we've got.

You see them winning, so you wanna follow in their footsteps,

you want to push yourself to become what they are

or do better.

My body's definitely feeling it.

My spirit's feeling it a little bit too.

On Haida Gwaii in the wintertime,

I take winter plunges.

Haidas been doing that since time immemorial...

...for that shock aspect and reset aspect

to my mental game and my spirit.

It's probably one of the toughest moments...

...'cause it's so cold,

but what's gonna hurt more than this?

I already know

that I've been through something tougher...

'cause I already know the pain.

If you're afraid, then you're gonna be afraid.

That was tough.

Like, it is what it is,

and I am not really afraid of much.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, in my life, I'm not very afraid of anything,

to tell you the truth, right? So...

- What about snakes? - Pardon me?

- What about snakes? - Fuck them.

But you get what I'm saying, right?

Like, us as Haida people

were almost wiped out from smallpox...

...and then you move into Residential Schools,

a lot of our youth being plucked out

from here in Skidegate.

Sometimes I just pull in here and I'll just sit here,

you know what I mean, and I'll just reflect...

on all of the good times

and everything that we've been through,

to where we are now.

And not only as an individual, but as a village.

You know what I mean? And as the nation.

Haida Nation, the Haida people,

were never defeated in war,

never signed a treaty,

never ceded or surrendered our land.

Our position's remained the same

since, you know,

BC created a colony here,

and then created BC, and then joined Canada.

We had never given up our inheritance,

which is Haida Gwaii and the surrounding waters.

This was the reason

our people started our own government

and created the Council of the Haida Nation,

was to deal with the land question,

which, you know, is called Haida Title

or Haida Aboriginal Title.

Athlii Gwaii is one of our pivotal moments.

It is a contemporary Haida story

of standing up for our title.

Our people thought we had deferred the logging

in this really heavy-hit area,

but then the province changed their mind.

Meantime, our Council of the Haida Nations forming,

because it's just terrifying

to see what's going on with our islands.

They tried every avenue

to reason with Canada and the province

to not log like that,

but it didn't work.

It did bring the Haida Nation together.

Our people knew we had to stop it ourselves.

We had to believe in ourselves,

in our culture, in our Haida ways.

We decided that we were gonna protect Athlii Gwaii

and stop this crazy logging.

The Haidas call it their homeland,

but Western Forest Products

has been given a license to log on the island.

It was an opportunity to really examine

this dynamic of corporate greed and government policy.

The logging contractor

tried to get the Haidas to move off a road today

so his trucks could get through,

but the Haidas wouldn't budge.

We're not gonna change our mind.

Our responsibility is Haida Gwaii.

The Haidas have chosen a site

for a permanent camp on the island.

They're planning to stay as long as the loggers are there.

And we're taught, through Haida ways of being,

how you have to be respectful, hey?

The world was watching.

Early this morning,

their backs to the loggers,

the Haida block the logging road,

certain they have a moral right to stop the loggers.

The conflict

is not between

the Haida Nation and the logger.

This is really

a government-to-government conflict

that their laws, their policies,

are what has caused this situation.

Everybody's caught up in the middle of it.

The Haidas say

they have Aboriginal title to the land

and want to keep it.

There were 72 arrests.

In the words of one woman,

she said she did it

because the need in her soul to protect her land

happened to be stronger than his law...

and that's where BC's Chief Justice disagreed.

He said he could decide

only whether the Haida had broken the law,

not whether they had a valid land claim.

The people here, as you see,

are very well disciplined in what they're going to do.

They had to be disciplined

to put up all this in such a short time.

When we went to Lyell Island for the blockade,

we didn't have a chance to train.

Nobody was ready to go the All-Native,

so we put together the Nation team.

Well, we're about set to go.

A minute and a half away from the beginning of the game,

the 28th Annual All-Native Basketball Tournament.

Once upon a time,

we had the Haida Nation team,

which brought players together

from Skidegate, Massett, and Hydaburg.

...the Haida Nation, coached by Arnold Bellis.

At the same time, we were trying to formulate

a constitution for the Haida Nation,

and what basketball did

is put villages in the stands together,

cheering for the same team,

and that made a big difference in the politics.

The Haida Gwaii have won their first championship!

When you get into basketball,

you learn how to organize, you learn how to communicate,

you learn how to function, eh, as a bigger unit.

At one point,

all the leadership on the BC Coast

come from basketball,

the background of basketball.

Basketball and sport,

it brings people together.

No matter what happens, it just brings us together.

We did find a way to eventually work with Canada

in creating Gwaii Haanas as a protected area.

Ottawa and British Columbia signed the deal

that formally declares the South Moresby region

a National Park Reserve.

For the first time in about the last hundred years,

the Haida Nation and the Government of Canada

and the Government of British Columbia

have agreed

that a very significant area in our homelands

is to be left intact.

There's 51% of the island

that's been protected without recognition of title

by the governments,

that our people didn't just sit back and wait,

they made those things happen.

The story doesn't end

with Athlii Gwaii and Gwaii Haanas,

but it sure showed Canada and the province

that we're not gonna change our mind.

Working with the governments requires

you know, them recognizing this is our land.

The Council of Haida Nation has had to take to the courts.

We have an active Haida Title case,

um, litigation going on,

so as the president, my job is to move that forward.

This has been an ongoing issue for us

for the past 50 years,

and within the last few years, it's regained huge momentum.

You know, this year is the 50th year

since the Council of the Haida Nation

was formed.

Since I became President, we set our sights

on looking to take the title case

and sit at the table

to try to settle what we can with BC and Canada...

and in the last number of months,

just with BC, move forward

and take this big step together as the Haida Nation.

Desi is on the Council of Haida Nation

as a Skidegate rep.

You know, Gaagwiis is our president.

That's not a fun job.

You have this very important responsibility,

at times, a heavy responsibility.

We're moving the nation forward, running the nation, um...

you know, making sure the Saints are strong,

and the basketball side of things and...

...in terms of basketball,

can sometimes seem like a silly game

of putting the ball in the hoop...

...but, you know, here,

we're representing your community

and your nation.

Every day, you go to the grocery store,

or you go to the gas station,

or you're around town, you know,

people ask you, "Are you guys ready for the All-Native?

You gonna win? How are you gonna do?"

And so, you know, you might not be thinking about it yourself,

but there's almost daily reminders

of this thing that we're part of that's bigger than us.

Like, I'm representing the Haida Nation

in whatever it is that I do,

but we don't know what's gonna happen at the All-Native.

I feel like, um...

you know, we obviously wanna win,

and we obviously want to be successful

in the way that we win.

But it's coming up quick.

Guys are actually set to head off

on the ferry tonight,

um... the goal to, uh, get to that mountaintop.

Basketball is a passion,

it's a hobby.

It's almost like a job at times, but...

I got kids.

Not that high!

When I play, I play hard,

and I put everything on the line,

and do whatever it takes to try and win.

"Is it still worth it for me, at this point,

to continue to do that?"

is the biggest question, I guess.

You know, "Where am I at with everything?"

I'm heading up to the truck!

I need to be there for my kids at the end of the day,

and that's what's most important, family.

So...

Ladies and gentlemen...

boys and girls...

basketball fans from around the world,

welcome to the 64th Annual

All-Native Basketball Tournament!

Your Skidegate Intermediates.

The Skidegate Senior Men.

Oh, he was dancing around.

"I know you. I know your grandparents.

You guys are Haida Gwaii. Let's go!"

"Fine. Fuck. Okay, I'll dance."

I'll tell you, uh...

I should've, uh, I should've danced a little bit more,

'cause, uh, you know, as soon as I danced,

you know what I mean, and then the second dance,

the second time they told me to dance, I'm, like,

"Damn. Yeah, I'm feeling good," like, you know what I mean?

And it was just the beat, do you know what I mean,

capturing the essence, do you know what I mean,

of my spirit, I guess, at the end of the day, right?

And that's what you're feeling here, right?

It's the vibe and it's the spirit,

and things are being shaken to life.

So, we are currently on location

in, uh, our home away from home, in the Crest here,

so you see our manager and our head coach

are also physio guys,

and they do a really good job of it

and keep us in really good, uh, health,

and, uh, we're getting older, so...

Yeah, we're chilling, and everyone hangs out.

You know, we're very close.

I wouldn't say a team, I guess...

well, you could say we're a team,

but we're more of a close group of friends.

We're lifelong friendships,

and that, this is why we are successful

on the basketball court.

So, what's all this?

We were having

a little recruiting information session.

Had a bunch left over,

so... yeah, gotta help out the boys.

Forgot your donuts!

Good morning, basketball fans.

We are here at the 64th Annual

All-Native Basketball Tournament.

We got a good matchup here.

Duane left open for three. He takes it.

There you go! Jason Alsop wide open for three.

- Yeah! - No mistake on that.

Way to go, Des!

Running jumper, no good.

Big board. Desi comes up with it.

Jason Alsop looking for his

third three of the first half.

Jay, for his fourth, oh!

Oh, he's on fire.

The Saints move on to the quarterfinals.

- Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! - Come on!

He dove right on him!

Really good job.

Playing this morning, coaching,

and now I'm gonna play again this evening,

do you know what I mean?

It's a little bit tuckering.

...double screen there.

Oh, gets a bit of an opening.

Tries for the hole, goes up and under, nice!

And ahead one!

...back the other way on a one-on-three.

Nice feed to Gamble. Gamble up for two.

Kitkatla is starting to find their way offensively.

Bomb!

Fuckin' listen to me right now.

Bring it to the opposite side and drive to the hole!

Puts the ball on the four.

Nice passing. Collinson. At the hole.

Back outside to Jason.

Jason a wide-open three.

Tyler York to Edinger, the transition.

Desi playing with four fouls. Bringing his energy.

Over to Duane, Duane all by himself,

and he nails it!

Skidegate punching their ticket on to the semifinal.

Oh, fuck, yeah.

Get my hair out of the water.

A lot of the looky-loos in the Russell Gamble here

wanted to take a look at this Burnaby squad.

You got Jesse Barnes and the Jones Brothers.

I mean, come on! Yeah. - Barnes and the Jones.

Barnes, big, bad move,

wreaking havoc down in the paint.

- Jones, he puts it up, - Oh, ho!

I'd say I'm feeling pretty good.

Feeling pretty confident right now.

Kole Jones in a drive.

Strong take! Burnaby in control.

That'll do it. Final score 110-72.

What a game we have going on.

Saints are always gonna do their job.

They're always gonna be like a championship-level team.

I just think we have a team that could give them a good run.

They got the talent.

They got the heart.

They got the hoopers.

Big rebound there by Jones,

Another offensive ward by Ty Jones.

What a workhorse.

And that's gonna do it, I think, though,

as Burnaby punches their ticket to the finals.

The Kitkatla Warriors versus the Skidegate Saints here.

Here we go.

Winner of this going on to take on Burnaby.

Hands off to Desi. Oh, nice! Ooh.

And gets the hoop.

Yeah, Skidegate on a bit of a run to finish the first.

Things are starting to heat up here.

Oh! He gets the hoop!

Go, Saints, go! Go, Saints, go!

I don't think I've ever experienced

the atmosphere like the All-Native.

Driving, and Duane's in it!

Oh! Another charge.

It's just like a different type of energy.

Having those fans backing you up

and hearing those Native chants and stuff like that,

I don't think there's any feeling in the world

that's gonna compare to that.

Wide open, Desi under the hoop,

that'll do... it, folks!

Skidegate going to the final to play against Burnaby here.

Yeah. Rematch of that great final last year.

We've played with these guys,

like, all our lives,

so I feel like it's gonna be kind of awkward at first.

This is kind of like a must-win year.

I don't think we'll ever hear the end of it

if we don't win this year.

There any updates on Burnaby?

They're not gonna win.

Last year, Skidegate won the championship.

You fast-forward to this year, and here we are again,

but they now have

three very prominent Skidegate players

that are playing with Burnaby.

I played with Skidegate for...

every year I played in the All- Native Basketball Tournament.

This is kinda the first year I've been away from Haida Gwaii.

Hey! Hey! Hey!

I... I hope so.

That's the game plan.

It's definitely gonna be different,

playing on the opposite side this time,

not being the, uh... not being the good guys.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well, we're playing Burnaby.

I walk by and I, you know,

I did have an interaction with Jesse,

and that's my first interaction with him this week.

It seems like I run into everybody at the Crest, though.

Man, I wasn't trying to get involved.

I didn't even know you're here. I was just coming up...

I just walked in. That was my... - Yeah.

Coincidentally, you're here.

That wasn't on purpose.

If it is, Michael, you can blame Michael.

Yeah.

Hey, let's get a photo together, for fuck's sakes.

- All right. - Fuck. Where's my phone?

You take it, I don't have a phone,

and send it to me.

Fucking... fucker.

You ready?

Three, two...

Mm. Yeah. I don't know.

Like, uh...

they played really well last night,

um, the young fellas, do you know what I mean,

from Skidegate, they played really well, right?

Like...

You know, once I got onto the court,

and, you know, I seen them,

I was just, like, "Ah, geez. God, they're just kids."

How's the body feeling before the game?

It's feeling as good as it could be,

at this point in time.

Um, you feeling ready?

Oh, I'm always ready. Just old.

How are you feeling, Gaagwiis?

100%. Ready to go.

Been through this before,

so I think we know what to expect, you know.

40 minutes left to play...

then it's over.

But they're good.

I think we're gonna hit 'em quick.

And be consistent.

That's all I'm looking for tonight.

They did get better from last year.

You know what I mean?

Like, these are young fellas.

They're a good team.

We're the old fellas with a mix of a little bit of young fellas.

Yeah. I'm gonna adjust my penis here.

Ah, the Burnaby Chiefs

are better, in some ways...

and maybe they're hungry, too.

I think they thought they were gonna beat us last year,

so, you know, they're motivated.

That's a lot of what this is about, right?

There's not many places in life

where you are physically and spiritually tested

and, um, have to find that place in yourself.

Duane and J will step it up.

Yeah, we'll see what happens.

For myself, it has been a little bit tiring.

Coaching two a day, playing,

then coaching two a day and playing,

but it's gonna end.

There's gonna be 40 minutes,

and I'm gonna be back to regular life.

It's, like, why not just go hard for that 40 minutes?

I've already came this far, right?

Let's play how we play...

...and let's do what we do.

And let's enjoy it.

You know?

Like, not much more we can do than that...

...so for me, it's, uh... yeah, let the good times roll.

You know?

Good evening, everybody.

Welcome to the final game

of the 64th Annual All-Native Basketball Tournament.

The Skidegate Saints looking to defend their championship

as they go up against Burnaby again.

The implications of this game are absolutely insane.

If you don't know this storyline,

then where have you been?!

It's been the story of the tournament.

Everybody has been waiting for this to happen.

You know, we're part of

that Haida legacy of basketball.

You know, I think we're just trying to

push it where we can as long as we can,

and, um...

and so it forces you to...

raise your spirit in a certain way.

I think the nerves come with the territory.

You know, you have that feeling in your stomach, and...

if you don't feel that way,

then you either don't want it or...

or, uh, you're not ready.

And once the game starts and the ball is thrown up,

it all goes out the window.

Well, we got it going!

Saints of Skidegate here, looking to regain their title.

Duane Alsop swings it over.

York has to force up a tough one.

He gets it! Ty York opening up the scoring.

Jones... elevating.

High bounce, and it goes in.

Hey!

Wheeling and dealing...

Get there! Get there!

Going to work on the baseline,

spinning, and he gets that tough bucket to go!

Desi with the hesi. Back iron, no good.

Four-point lead here for the Saints.

Duane... for three...

It's Duane!

Let's go!

...thinks about it.

Stolen away there by York.

York running...

Moore, stopping, elevating.

Getting it to go! It's Tyler York!

Yeah, kind of just like last year,

Skidegate getting off to a great start.

- Defense on three! - One, two, three, defense!

Now an 11-point lead here for Skidegate.

1:32 to go, first quarter.

Oh, wow! He almost broke Marlon's ankle.

- Oh! - What?

Elevating, it's Kobe, gets that one to go.

Driving in, Joel Richardson,

J Rich putting it in! 40-26.

Going into the half.

The defending champions firing!

Whoo!

Really good job.

We just gotta swing it a little quicker.

We're a little late, like, fucking late rotating.

We're outrunning them and outpowering them,

you know what I mean?

So we gotta keep advancing, you know what I'm saying?

Advancing it. Advancing it.

Let's use the key, let's get the best shot, okay?

That's 20 minutes. We got 20 more. We got 20 more.

Just get out with the get-down!

Like wild salmon. Keep fucking swimming wild.

Right? We're out of the pen now.

Out of the pen! Whoo!

- Saints on three! - One, two, three, Saints!

Welcome back, sports fans.

Here we are, Russell Gamble Gymnasium.

Everybody take a deep breath with me.

Here we go. We're gonna inhale.

Three, two, one, inhale.

Hold it. Exhale!

I exhaled too quick. Darn it.

Here we go.

Kobe... swings it out.

TK wide open.

Ty... Jones, no good!

Rebound.

Barnes... tips it out.

Kobe stepping in... off the glass!

Another big offensive board by Ty Jones.

He goes to the hoop. Clutches and gets it to go!

Ty Jones!

Still a nine-point lead here for Skidegate.

Momentum seems to be

shifting a little bit here.

Jesse swings it out.

Ty Jones looking for back-to-back Jacks,

He's got 'em!

All right. here come the Chiefs.

Let's go, now.

Hey, hey, let's kick it back into action, okay?

What are we? - Wild!

Let's go. Let's go!

Here we go, let's pick it up again.

- Defense on three! - One, two, three, defense!

Glory awaits for the winner of this game.

Kobe McKnight crossing up.

Going to the lane... slipping in!

Now York, he's stepping in.

Up off the glass...

and he gets the tough roll to go!

Tyler York running the floor. Jones with speed.

Down to Barnes, he puts it in!

2:30 to go here in the third.

Edinger, trying to shake off his defender.

Stolen away there by Ty Jones.

Down to Barnes.

Great entry pass in for the big man from Burnaby,

Jesse Barnes,

and we got a tie game

here in the championship game!

Hey, we got 14 points that quarter!

We need the same shit right now!

McKnight down to Barnes.

Things picking up here.

The pace is frantic!

Championship on the line.

Speeding into the lane for a lead.

Oh! That's the lead. Burnaby.

Ten minutes!

Get up. Let's go.

Right now. Let's go.

Let's go. Saints on three!

One, two, three, Saints!

And here we go.

Drives in, foul.

J Alsop gonna head to the line for a couple free throws.

That's his first miss from the line here.

Whoa! 0 for two there.

Saints falling flat here.

Launching... three...

Hitting! Three!

Gets the good roll.

That's a three!

Jones. Kole.

Elevating on the left side, and he puts it in!

Kole Jones!

Keep playing defense, yo.

- Defense on three! - One, two, three, defense!

Dig in. Advance the ball. Okay?

- Let's go! - Let's go, let's go!

York over to Edinger.

Edinger, wide-open lane. Puts that up and in.

He answers back, but Saints down 11.

Desi... going to work.

He gets fouled there by Ty Jones.

You can feel the nervous energy

here in the Russell Gamble.

Well, you know, when you win all the time...

...it can happen.

You know what I mean? You expect to win.

Right? And you can become content.

It ain't easy being breezy, right?

It's tough being the best.

I just don't know how much longer

we can sustain something like that.

Like, it's just tough.

It really boils down

to these final minutes,

they gotta make all of these.

That was up, he's fouled hard there by Kobe.

Championship on the line.

Step back three.

Kobe bangs it down!

Burnaby just caught fire here in the fourth!

There's still lots of time! We can get some threes!

Fucking get some lay-ups, right? Let's go!

Here come the Saints.

Final minute of the game here.

They need some, stolen away by Barnes!

Barnes... two!

Time not on the side of the Saints of Skidegate.

Here comes Burnaby.

Now the Saints are on the ropes.

Precious seconds here.

Barnes, good on that one.

I think they're just gonna dribble out.

The Chiefs of Burnaby came marching in,

and they got the title!

Burnaby, your champions, 2024!

Great performance.

A very deadly roster there.

I mean, they're just loaded as leading all-scorers.

Descent from the field for Skidegate,

and, uh, they come in second place,

so what a tournament,

already, it's a wrap.

Aw, shit, eh, Duane? Sorry. Fuck.

Dammit!

I don't know if I can keep doing this.

Yeah.

Oh, fuck!

Well...

Well, well, well.

All right, let's go. Sorry.

Saints on three!

One, two, three, Saints!

Shit.

I guess I taught them well.

Let's go!

Let's go, y'all!

We appreciate you guys.

We love you guys.

Actually, we really appreciate

how hard you guys work.

We're gonna be back, obviously.

Huh, I don't know who's coming back,

but we'll see.

Yeah. Hey, always love competing with you.

I love competing against you guys. Always a good time.

- Love you guys. - Love you too.

Number two in the tournament, number one in the hearts!

Yeah!

Skidegate!

It feels amazing, man.

Any time, any time you can win the All-Native Tournament,

it's a great feeling,

especially because it's one of the hardest tournaments to win,

I feel like, and it just feels amazing.

Yeah, for me, it's, uh...

you know, when I look at basketball...

that's the goal,

to win games and to win championships.

Like, when you can win together as a team,

and you can move together as a team,

it's, you know, there's no feeling like that.

You feel like you're levitating.

That's the most freeing feeling for me.

Feel free as a bird.

Catch the raven.

But, you know, that's gonna come and go.

That's the truth, right?

Like, you're gonna experience that in life,

because it is a give-take situation, right?

The tide's coming up, the tide's going down.

The experience along the way,

the road along the way is the real experience.

'Cause...

Ah, shit, like...

how can I explain this in the best possible way?

But...

I-I don't know. I'm just trying...

I'm...

I'm just trying to be able to, you know,

to learn, myself, best I can,

in order to... to give back best I can.

You know, it is always disappointing

to not rise to the occasion

and step up for what the team needs.

You know, I didn't play as well as I could.

I didn't get my shots off.

Maybe I didn't quite have enough emotional energy left

at that point,

all of the, you know, the political...

responsibilities.

I'm happy for Jesse and Kole and Tyler.

They showed their spirit.

They showed what they're made of.

Maybe it did take playing against us to do that,

to get that challenge, to have that bar,

and in the end, it's a beautiful thing to see,

you know, even if it's at our expense.

Despite what happens,

we still trust each other, we still love each other,

we still respect each other,

you know, how we handle victory and defeat,

and, um... the show goes on.

Good afternoon!

Thank you for tuning into tfsetv.ca,

here in the Single "A" Bracket

of the BC Boys' Provincial Basketball Championship.

I had the opportunity to go down

to the high school boys' provincials,

be part of the Gidgalang Kuuyas Naay Breakers,

be assistant coach there with my brother, Duane,

and with Desi, the head coach.

All right, everybody close their eyes

and take a deep breath.

That's one heart. One breath.

One heart, one breath.

The high-school basketball team

was 60% Haidas and was 40% mix.

So you've got Haidas

and you've got our Canadian neighbours together,

playing together.

It's just a tiny little school,

and whoever wants to show up to play ball

gets to play.

It's not like they cut anybody,

'cause there's no one to... there's not enough kids,

so it's pretty remarkable how well they do.

...in the right spot at the right time!

He goes to his left. No!

Rebounded by Laughlin.

That three is good!

To the floor without losing any kind of steam!

The three, it's good!

Hard! Hard!

Gaagwiis and Duane and Desi,

they take it seriously.

They've been role models to everyone.

They really show us what it is to be a Haida warrior.

Them having our backs, and always being there for us,

it's just so awesome.

Nobody expected us to go as far as we did.

We really shocked everyone.

Woo! Do you believe?

Gidgalang Kuuyas Naay is going to the finals!

♪ Oh... ♪

♪ Who wants to smoke with me? ♪

♪ Who wants to smoke with me? ♪

♪ Who wants to smoke with me? ♪

♪ Yo! ♪

- ♪ Who wants to smoke with me? ♪ - ♪ Yo! ♪

♪ Who wants to smoke with me? ♪

- ♪ Yo! ♪ - ♪ Who wants to smoke with me? ♪

This is the first time ever

a boys sports team

from as far away as Haida Gwaii

has made it to the Championship Finals.

They'd put Haida Gwaii on the provincial map,

on the national map.

It was a story that superseded the tournament.

To see the boys come together and represent

not just the Haida community, but the Haida Gwaii community...

One, two, three, Breakers!

You need each other.

You need everybody to chip in and do their part.

It was special to be a part of it.

Now, at this time,

we ask you all to please rise and remove your hats

for the national anthems.

They surprised us all by having Donnie Edenshaw,

this really good singer, recorded the national anthem,

so they're all there, arms around each other...

It was played in a context

that was cross-cultural,

to sing our anthem with pride and joy and happiness

and full understanding

of how cool and beautiful it is to be from here.

By the time, you know, the game started,

I was, like, "We won."

We were stars one day,

and we will keep playing,

and people still have a lot of respect for us,

but now we see, you know, Levi and Temo are the...

they're the stars now.

They're the next legacy that's coming up

to carry the torch,

and I think that's fabulous.

Inspiring a new generation...

what more could you ask for?

One, two, three, Breakers!

What they accomplished

is probably more rewarding and more of what it's about

for me, at this point.

They didn't win, but the pride and the respect,

and everything that came out of that,

it just shows what it means when you really play

for something that's bigger than yourself.

They were doing it together,

and that captures the essence of Haida Gwaii,

of how First Nations, Haidas, and non-Haidas

have to co-exist and work together

for a common goal.

An historic agreement

has been signed

in the community of Skidegate on Haida Gwaii.

The first-of-its-kind deal

shifts ownership jurisdiction of land

from the Crown to the Haida Nation.

Negotiations have been ongoing

for more than 20 years.

That work is being done

negotiating,

and sitting at the table and in court,

continuing that journey of looking after things here

for now and for future generations.

The Haida Nation and the province,

we have reached a Haida Title Lands Agreement.

On a table strewn with cedar boughs,

Haida leaders and government officials

sign a ground-breaking land agreement

called "Rising Tide."

Politically,

the Province of British Columbia

is prepared to recognize Haida Aboriginal Title

to all the land that BC has tried to claim...

Which means that,

you know, this concept of Crown Land

that the government has imposed,

it no longer would exist on Haida Gwaii.

Today, we are creating a new story

in our history here...

and it lays the foundation

for a future together

where we can acknowledge the truth,

acknowledge the history,

but also look forward

to build a brighter future for the Haida Nation

and the people of Haida Gwaii,

and provide hope and inspiration

for others across the province and the country,

and show how our title could be recognized

and we could carve a future together

that is good for everybody.

BC Premier David Eby

says this will be

one of the greatest highlights of his life.

When we introduce this new law

in the Legislative Assembly,

it will be the first time in Canada

the title is recognized in this way.

These are huge steps that we've taken,

and when I say huge steps, I mean huge steps.

David, are you 6'6", 6'7"ish?

Geesh. You know we play basketball around here,

there's two hoops right here, so...

There's something in humans

that you don't just survive as a person or a people,

they survive as a culture, as a nationhood, hey?

Identity.

To do it with Desi there,

there at my right hand...

...to have my brother and the support of the team,

always there to have my back,

we all go through

this experience and journey and life together,

not just as one team,

but as a nation, as a people who persevered through so much.

I'm here today as the President,

Elected President of the Haida Nation,

with our delegation

of hereditary chiefs, elected leaders,

past leaders, Haida citizens,

allies of the Haida Nation

who stood with us

to encourage you all to support this bill,

to support what is right.

The mandate of our nation's government,

when it was formed,

was title

and recognition of nation and government.

We all know Haida Gwaii is Haida land,

has always been, and will always be.

In this 50th year,

it'll be realized.

Move forward unanimously together

in passing this bill as good British Columbians,

for the good of the province,

as good Canadians,

and in the spirit of this truth

and reconciliation and hope,

be part of making things right

in this province and in this country.

Háw'aa. Thank you for listening.

How can you not dedicate your life...

...to your people and your home,

when you know that's what your ancestors did for you?

How can you not dedicate your life to Haida Gwaii?

When the tide's coming up,

you ask it for something.

When it's going down, do you know what I mean,

you wash your problems away.

It gives a strong essence of being the village boy.

For me, the island and the culture,

you know, shape exactly who I am.

The culture is what's making us as strong as we are.

And now, the funny thing is,

well, the basketball culture is the culture,

and it's allowed us to survive and be who we are today.

Yeah.