The mother and daughter building Winnipeg's Indigenous basketball community
There are few families that have done more to build the Indigenous basketball community in Winnipeg than the Boulanger clan, according to their colleagues.
Robyn Boulanger, 20, a guard for the Wesmen team at the University of Winnipeg, says her parents have had “a huge impact not only in the Indigenous community, but in the inner city.”
Boulanger was born into a family of competitive basketball players. Her older sisters, Raven and Skylar, fell in love with the sport as youth, and both eventually went on to play basketball at the post-secondary level in Winnipeg. Boulanger remembers picking up basketball at age six and trying to emulate her older sisters at their practices and games.
At five feet five inches, the baby of the family is in now her third year at the University of Winnipeg, averaging 11.9 points per game, good for second place among the players on her team. Her coaches say she is likely one of the best female basketball players in the province, Indigenous or non-Indigenous.
“I want to be a role model and it’s always awesome to hear from girls coming and seeing me as a role model, especially being Indigenous,” she said.
On Friday, the University of Winnipeg will host its fourth annual Wesmen basketball Indigenous night at the Duckworth Centre and it will feature Boulanger and the Wesmen taking on the Mount Royal Cougars.
“It’s a great opportunity to showcase our athletes who are part of the Indigenous community,” said the Wesmen womens head coach Tania McKay.
“It gives young kids that opportunity to aspire, and look up and say ‘Wow, I want to go there. I want to play for the Wesmen.'”
Anishinaabe Pride basketball
Boulanger’s parents Marty Boulanger and Jackie Anderson have been working for years to inspire Indigenous youth to pursue their dreams.
About 15 years ago, they created a basketball program called Anishinaabe Pride. It features a combination of Anishinaabeg cultural teachings, volunteerism and high-calibre athletics.
Together, they have helped grow the game of basketball in Winnipeg’s Indigenous community.
“Pride basketball is not just about teaching our young people how to be basketball players — how to shoot, how to dribble — but it’s also about learning and teaching about how to be in relationship with oneself, others and community,” said Anderson.
Anderson is from a small Métis community called Binscarth, Man.
She estimates that over 1,400 youth have gone through Anishinaabe Pride basketball camps over the years, most of them inner-city youth in Winnipeg’s North End.
Keith Mason is one of the people who have gone through the program as a coach and mentor. He said Anderson has had an impact on raising the talent level in Winnipeg’s Indigenous basketball community.
“A lot of the kids that started off in the kids camps, they are not just playing, they are excelling,” he said.
“They’ve done a very good job of developing the skills.”
Mason said Anderson has sat on the Basketball Manitoba board of directors for 10 years and has been essential to running the North American Indigenous Games Team Manitoba program.
Wesmen coach McKay echoed Mason’s praise of Anderson.
“Its amazing, her involvement — there’s just so many parts that she’s associated with and she just makes it all come together.”