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\nWith the start of the First Nations Snowboard Team (FNST), things did start to change. All of a sudden there were 15 of us ripping around Whistler Blackcomb. We felt like we were a part of something big and we were. A partnership between CASI, Whistler Blackcomb and the FNST sparked this change, we started to see Indigenous instructors and athletes popping up. These were great times, but they didn\u2019t last. As I progressed in my riding, my support shrank\u2026 drastically. It came to the point that I could no longer afford my BC Freestyle team fees, I had to leave. I felt alone again.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to the pandemic 12 years later, a shift was happening once again. Indigenous stories were on the rise, support was coming back, but this time it feels stronger. We have support for multiple sports now, it\u2019s not just snowboarding. Today, Indigenous Life Sport Academy (ILSA) runs programs for snow, mountain bike, skateboarding and climbing. We have youth excelling in so many different sports now. We have programs for women through Indigenous Women Outdoors, where we create a safe, trauma informed space for Indigenous women to excel in the outdoor industry. With this we are starting to see women getting certified to become guides in a multitude of sports.<\/p>\n\n
These are the opportunities that I never had growing up and I hope that another youth doesn\u2019t have to go through the hardships that I did. Until we can run an entire program with full Indigenous staff, the work is not done.<\/p>\n
By Sandy Ward, CASI Instructor & Evaluator<\/p>\n
To support ILSA or IWO, please visit:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.lifesportcanada.org<\/a> Photo Credits:<\/em><\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been snowboarding for 23 years and have always been known as \u201cthe snowboarder\u201d in my community. At first, I thought it was a great name to have. I felt like I was doing something special, something not many other Indigenous youth were doing. I also felt like an outsider, like I was doing something that Indigenous people shouldn\u2019t be doing, it wasn\u2019t a space for us. I received criticism from within my community and from outside my community, \u201cmore sama7 (white person) than native,\u201d \u201cyou\u2019ll never become a splitboard guide, that isn\u2019t a space for you,\u201d were just some of the comments that would come my way. Things needed to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":17899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casi-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cover_EN.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18005,"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18002\/revisions\/18005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casi-acms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
https:\/\/www.indigenouswomenoutdoors.ca<\/a><\/p>\n
IWO group shot: n\/a<\/em><\/span>
Green jacket in front of Parliament: Zoya Lynch @zoyalynch<\/em><\/span>
2 riding shots: Kieran Brownie @brownie.likethefood<\/em><\/span>
Portrait: Ben Girardi @bengirardi<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n