When Natan Obed first spoke about the name of the Edmonton Eskimos, he had no idea the vitriol he’d receive. He also had no idea he’d actually be able to effect change.
Obed, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national representative organization for Inuit in Canada, was elected to that role in September of 2015. A couple of months later, before the 2015 Grey Cup, he spoke out against Edmonton’s team name.
Edmonton went on to win the game, but began to lose the PR battle over their name.
In February of 2020, the team put out a statement saying they were not going to change their name, but that changed a few months later when team sponsors such as Belairdirect threatened to cut ties if no action was taken.
On July 21, the name was changed temporarily to “the Edmonton Football Club,” and the team opened the process for public submissions. Just a couple of weeks ago, the team officially re-branded as the Elks, having consulted with Obed throughout the process.
New Name. Same Game.
Let’s play some football. #ElksCharge pic.twitter.com/RhtwzcAmhv
— Edmonton Elks (@elks) June 1, 2021
I recently caught up with Obed on an episode of the Waggle podcast and discussed the importance of the change as well as other changes he’d like to see — in and out of sports.
You first brought the topic up when Edmonton was in the Grey Cup. What were you thinking in terms of raising awareness that a name change was in order?
Natan Obed: It was 2015. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission had just completed its work.
And part of the task and calls to action included sports and also included media. And it seemed to me very clearly that a derogatory term, a term that had been used as a racial slur against Inuit, especially against Inuit who had gone to residential school, it was not acceptable as a moniker for a professional sports team in Canada. It was quite clear that Inuit aren’t mascots, and also that there was a direct link between the hurtful way in which Indigenous people have been characterized in this country, and then the ongoing portrayal of that through the moniker of the Edmonton football team.
It was just a pure response of logic and also of respect for those who have been hurt by this racial slur and also the time that we’re now in of reconciliation, where Canada is thinking more about its relationship with Indigenous peoples and wanting to have these very tough conversations about how to better respect Indigenous peoples (and) how to come to terms with the status quo and the way people might have thought or spoke or acted and changed those for the better.
The language matters and people have heard the term. Many people, their first and main experience with the term is through the team.
Language matters. What does the term actually mean?
It isn’t a term that we would have ever described ourselves by. It’s kind of cloudy as to how the term became to be so synonymous with Inuit. Could have been the church. But the term is something that is outdated in Canadian lexicon. Inuit formed … the organization that I am president of — Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami — — in 1971. And it was very clear at that time that we wanted to start having Canada use our name and that at the time it was very common for Inuit to be referred to as Eskimos.
And there are still some Inuit to this day that are okay with that term being applied to them and using that term in our communities. But that is on an individual level — a very different thing than from an institutional level and from a respect level. There are many people that have used that term as a derogatory offensive term, and then governments have used that term to describe Inuit and not given (us) a choice to determine and describe ourselves to the world from the very beginning.
Equally as muddy is the way in which this term was used in Edmonton to describe its sports teams, because it wasn’t just the football team that was called this over the last 110 years. And it really isn’t 100 percent clear about why that term came into common practice for sports teams.
We didn’t name that team and we’d have never owned the teams that have used that terminology and mascots. So Indigenous people just aren’t mascots. We aren’t things that can be dehumanized and then used for professional sports teams, entertainment purposes. It’s a very one-sided relationship in that regard.
What is the importance of names and what we call things and how we address things?
It’s so important. Usually, names very clearly link an individual with the community. And the names of professional sports teams do that very well. If we think about the team monikers or nicknames of all of our favourite sports teams — I’m a Habs fan, but that term (is representative of) a part of a group, a community. So, in Inuit society, just like any human society, there is a connection between how you describe yourself and then the respect of the terminology.
In this regard, it just seems so weird. Like, when I went to Edmonton and talked with the team in 2016 and 2017 and learned more about the way in which Edmonton branded itself: You had groups called the Eskimo Women who were a booster club for the team; or there was a promotion called Eskimo Kids. From a purely descriptive standpoint, there weren’t Inuit that were a part of this.
There was a huge disassociation. That shouldn’t be right to just rebrand people into an institution, especially a marginalized Indigenous people that have had such a huge problematic relationship with Canada and have had our human rights disrespected for over 150 years. The power imbalance is something that we can’t look away from. There’s been a lot of hate that has been put my way and put towards anyone’s way who talked against this particular concern.
And that’s one of the reasons why we need to do away with Indigenous mascots — to take the temperature down (of) the relationship between Indigenous peoples in Canada, and also to do anti-racist acts to find ways in which the path to racism is not clear and easy. And I know that was not the intention of hundreds of thousands of Edmonton fans who grew up cheering for that particular team, but we are now in a different time and place.
And nobody has to look back and say, “Oh, wow, I participated in something that made me racist.” I think people can look back and say, “We participated in something in a time where we didn’t know as much. And now knowing what we know, we change accordingly and can still be proud of our institution, of our history, of our team, but even more proud about our future.”
Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, Chicago Blackhawks, Kansas City Chiefs, Florida State Seminoles. There are still so many similar names. Should they all be changed or is it more of a case-by-case approach?
Well, the first line is self-determination. If Inuit, First Nations or Métis decide that in their particular communities — or if any of those particular Indigenous people own a professional sports team — and they would like to call their team a particular name that is linked to Indigenous peoples, then that is all right. That is self-determination, just like any community across this continent has done in their high school teams, in their junior hockey teams, in their college and university and professional teams. It is usually a part of the community.
But for Indigenous mascots, it’s been one of the ways in which dispossession has been institutionalized. I went to a high school in Maine, in the United States, and in order to play sports for that team, they were called the Indians. And the community was adjacent to a Native American reservation. Almost no Native Americans went to that particular school. It was a small town, mostly white.
But for me to participate in that environment, I had to wear the Indian-head logo, the chants in the stands, the non-Indigenous person dressing up like a chief and dancing. It was just so stark that one culture had basically taken another culture, marginalized them, taken away their rights, and then used their sacred ceremony and their culture as entertainment. It’s incredibly hurtful, and it also gets to the very core of what it means to be dispossessed.
So even if there are some particular scenarios in which Indigenous peoples are supportive of Indigenous mascots, I would say that at the professional level, at the North American level, it’s really difficult to imagine a scenario where you can respect Indigenous peoples’ rights and our culture and our relationship with non-Indigenous people while still having these names. Winnipeg has banned the use of headdresses in the stands when Chicago plays in Winnipeg.
Why is that? Because it’s racist. Because it’s used in a racist way…. That’s the type of thing that I just don’t think has any place in 2021. So, I see this massive movement across North America to end that. The state of Maine has passed a piece of legislation banning the use of Indigenous mascots by all schools.
We are seeing a sea change in this. And I think it is because just at its core, I think fundamentally we all understand that using another people’s culture, ethnicity and identity as your own entertainment is not okay in so many parts of the society, and it’s finally being applied to Indigenous peoples.
You were able to have some conversations with Edmonton and their marketing department about the name retroactively and then proactively. What were the nature of those conversations and how did you find that experience?
I have a lot of respect for some of the senior team within the Edmonton CFL franchise for inviting me to speak to the team and then also listening and learning. I want to really single out Len Rhodes, former president, and also Allan Watt. And even me saying that might get them into trouble. That’s how difficult that conversation was in Edmonton — just by listening and learning, there was a really big push back from the community.
I tried to just lay out very clearly what the challenges were with the moniker that was being used. I did say from the very beginning that, “Our society is changing, and it is changing towards respect. And so, at some point, this name will change. I have no idea when that will be. I might not be around to see it, but just know that if you make the right steps today, it could show your leadership over time in a time of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, but also in a time where we are confronting systemic racism.”
These conversations were always respectful with the team, but at no time did I feel confident that the name was going to change or that that name would be imminently changed.
I did expect the huge pushback from Edmonton fans — which remains to this day — who didn’t want to see the name change. But I am so thankful that there are so many people who are willing to listen and willing to learn. And it comes down to this principle. There will never be unanimity in our society about any issue. As in, if you put 1,000 people in a room, you’re never going to get them all to agree on anything.
It’s the same thing for any society, any culture. If some people within a society are being targeted by the use of a particular term as an ethnic slur and have been deeply hurt and are still hurting from weaponizing this particular word, then why can’t we support those people? … The best way to move forward is to recognize that people have been hurt by this and (for all of us to) galvanize around trying to do better so that racism is lessened and also that people’s human dignity is upheld and respected.
So that was always my intention — to try to make sure that sports are safe places for all in this country.
We are proud. We’re resilient. We have government. We have so much to give to this country. But the way in which the moniker was being utilized allows for a certain segment of the population to look past us as a people and only see us in relation to an Edmonton sports team.
I always felt a little uncomfortable by the fact that the slogan for the league was “diversity is strength,” yet one of the names of the teams was “Eskimos,” and even more so that there wasn’t a lot of Indigenous inclusion in the league for there to be true diversity. What can be done to make sure that in terms of fan engagement, player participation and eventually coaching, scouting, ownership, that there is true inclusion to everyone who is in our country, including the first people who were in our country, the Indigenous?
Edmonton has done some outreach within our homeland. There’s so many passionate football fans in the region in the northern part of the Northwest Territories. There is a platform there to build upon. Just because the name is the Elks now doesn’t mean that there can’t be a really positive relationship between the Edmonton CFL team and Inuit communities. If anything, this perhaps is a galvanizing experience. There now can be a mutual respect and a real partnership there. Barriers to access are really the biggest challenges in all sports for Inuit.
Our particular population is largely remote in that we live in 51 communities with virtually no ability for North-South competition when it comes to any of the sports that we play. But there are many Indigenous peoples that now live in southern Canada. It would be great if there was more of a focus on encouraging Indigenous talent development. But then also in the diversity aspect, Indigenous people are such huge sports fans.
It would be amazing to see even more harnessing of that. The NHL has come leaps and bounds when it comes to recognizing Indigenous peoples. Especially the Canadian teams where there’s reconciliation nights in certain communities. There’s celebration of particular players that have played for those franchises.
There’s so many opportunities to better involve Indigenous peoples immediately within professional sporting environments. And it just starts with these conversations, starts with recognizing that we’re huge fans, too, and we want to be a part of these institutions. We want to be part of the conversation. And it adds so much diversity and knowledge to these spaces that just makes for a better product and, also, a more respectful relationship.
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