Building Indigenous Resilience Through Sports
Waneek Horn-Miller’s powerful presentations and keynotes are aimed at reconciling relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to create culturally safe spaces. Waneek is an advocate for building Indigenous sport and has worked with the Assembly of First Nations to develop their sport, fitness, and health strategy. Drawing on her athletic experiences as the former co-captain of Canada’s Olympic women’s water polo team, Waneek shares her warrior story and teaches how to build sports motivation, and self-esteem through a balance of education and sport. During this lecture, Waneek will speak to Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences on opportunities for reconciliation in sport, and why it is important that we all must strive for our dreams. She believes that “If we want reconciliation, for ourselves and our children, we need to have hard conversations, build common ground, and really listen to each other.”
Biography:
Similar to the arduous process of making wampum beads, the journey of that Waneek Horn-Miller doesn’t begin and end with being a Olympic Water Polo athlete. A Mohawk from the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory near Montreal, Waneek was behind the lines during the Oka crisis in 1990 when she was stabbed by a Canadian soldier’s bayonet. It was a near-death experience that marked a turning point in her life. Waneek has overcome discrimination and violence to emerge as one of North America’s most inspiring female First Nations speakers with a compelling perspective and dynamic stories to share.
As a member of the Canadian women’s national water polo team, Waneek won a gold medal at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg. She then served as co-captain of the first Canadian women’s Olympic water polo team that finished fifth at Sydney 2000 Olympic. During the lead-up to those Games, Horn-Miller appeared on the cover of TIME magazine. She went on to help Canada win a bronze medal at the 2001 FINA World Championships. Waneek has also competed in five North American Indigenous Games in swimming and rifle shooting.
As one of Canada’s few Indigenous Olympians, Waneek has used her unique experiences in life and sport combined with a passion for her culture to influence Indigenous and non-Indigenous leadership in sport and wellness, Indigenous business, women in business and community building. The Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Recently named her one of Canada’s most influential women in sport.
Waneek works and travels extensively throughout the world as a motivational speaker and now as a graduate student at UBC, where she studies aspects of Indigenous motivation within the Indigenous Studies in Kinesiology program (School of Kinesiology). She is a passionate activist for sport, fitness, and wellness, and shares her journey from being stabbed during the Oka Crisis to the Olympic Games as an example of the power of sport to help Indigenous youth focus their emotions and experiences into achievement.
Her presentations and keynotes are aimed at bridging the gap and repairing relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. While she recently stepped down from her role as for the MMIWG Inquiry to focus on her family, she continues support the goal of the Inquiry and advocates on Indigenous issues in other ways to help build healthy and prosperous communities. Waneek is an advocate for building Indigenous sport and has worked with the Assembly of First Nations to develop their sport, fitness, and health strategy. Drawing on her experiences as the former co-captain of Canada’s Olympic women’s water polo team, Waneek shares her story and teaches how to build self-esteem through a balance of education and sport. During this lecture, Waneek will speak to Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences on issues of reconciliation, sport, and why it is important we must all strive for our dreams. She believes that “If we want reconciliation, for ourselves and our children, we need to have hard conversations, build common ground, and really listen to each other.”
Date: Thursday, October 12, 2023
Time: 12:30-1:30 pm
Location: UBC Life Science Centre, Room 1003
See other speakers in the UBC Exercise, Kinesiology and Health Seminar Series.