The Protectors You Never Had, 2013

Private collection, Cologne

“I wanted to posit an Indian goalie spirit who would save us from the trauma of Residential School. In light of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings and the testimony of legendary Aboriginal NHL hockey players like Fred Saskamoose who discussed physical and sexual abuse at the schools, I imagined that these goalie spirits could ward off sadness and injustice. There were hockey teams at many Residential Schools and the popularity of hockey in First Nations communities and on reserves remains as a testament to spaces at Residential School where children could escape the onslaught of oppression and could celebrate and be strong. The Indian hockey story is one of survival.” 

Tania Willard

Tania Willard, artist, curator and member of the Secwepemc Nation, traces the combination of Canadian hockey culture with the experience of Indigenous children in Christian residential schools in her series The Protectors You Never Had(2013). Willard’s “goalie spirits” point to the way hockey had to serve in the stead of parental protection and role models at boarding schools. Team sports offered a feeling of belonging and an escape from a strictly regimented everyday life. In the artist’s mind, the masks are shields that protect the children’s integrity and help today’s adults ward off the ghosts of their traumatic past.

Between 1831 and 1996, over 130 residential schools operated in Canada – Christian institutions sponsored by the Canadian state and aimed at the “integration”, conversion and cultural assimilation of First Nations children. The children were usually forcibly separated from their families and frequently subjected to isolation, mistreatment and sexual abuse in the institutions. The traces of this traumatic past mark First Nations communities to this day.

Tania Willard (born in 1977 in Armstrong, British Columbia, Canada) is an Indigenous Canadian multidisciplinary artist, graphic designer and curator known for combining traditional Indigenous art practices with contemporary ideas. Willard’s ongoing collaborative project BUSH Gallery is a conceptual gallery based on Indigenous knowledge. Willard is an assistant professor at UBC Okanagan in the Syilx Territories, and her current research focuses on rural art practices, among other topics.

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Tania Willard
The Protectors You Never Had, 2013
Digital print, silkscreen | 20 x 24 cm
Private collection, Cologne