Why Anishinaabe writer Kyle Edwards sees hockey as a ceremony

CBC Radio

· Posted: Jun 11, 2025 2:02 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

Before becoming a writer, similar galore kids successful Canada, Kyle Edwards dreamed of playing successful the National Hockey League. 

Edwards, who grew up connected the Lake Manitoba First Nation and is simply a subordinate of the Ebb and Flow First Nation, has analyzable feelings towards the crippled helium loves — and however it doesn't ever emotion Indigenous radical back. 

Edwards' debut novel, Small Ceremonies, follows a hockey squad of Ojibwe precocious schoolers from Winnipeg, who are chasing hockey dreams and coming of property successful a crippled — and a spot — that tin beryllium some beauteous and brutal.

"There is conscionable a hierarchy successful sport, successful the aforesaid mode determination is successful the world, and I deliberation a batch of times sports is simply a reflection, a reflector of the existent world," helium said connected Bookends with Mattea Roach.

Edwards joined Roach to stock however sports bespeak nine and however hockey is its ain benignant of ceremony.

Mattea Roach: What benignant of a propulsion does hockey person connected you personally? 

Kyle Edwards: I deliberation it was astir apt similar my archetypal imagination arsenic a kid, different than being a writer. I wanted to beryllium a hockey player. When I was increasing up, I wanted to spell to the NHL. That did not happen. But I loved it. 

I loved playing the crippled increasing up and I deliberation I ever had this benignant of conflicting narration with it conscionable successful presumption of the antithetic types of unit that are associated with it  — mostly connected the ice. I deliberation it was wherever I experienced unit for the archetypal time, some physically and verbally, but I emotion the game. 

I deliberation it's precise beauteous and poetic and I emotion however overmuch it means to Canadians and Indigenous people. It's held connected specified a pedestal that I felt similar I truly wanted to constitute astir it successful this book. 

What was it similar engaging successful hockey arsenic an Indigenous idiosyncratic increasing up?

It was difficult. I grew up connected a rez, truthful you're perpetually playing teams from tiny towns. There's this benignant of radical facet to it, the squad from the rez and the squad from this small, astir apt mostly achromatic municipality and conscionable the past of unit that is Canada, I deliberation it conscionable benignant of creates this arena for antithetic tensions and histories that benignant of play retired connected the ice. That was difficult. 

As a child, determination was a clip wherever I conscionable didn't privation to beryllium associated with it. But Native radical successful Canada, Indigenous radical successful Canada, we conscionable emotion this crippled truthful much. It's truly beauteous to see. It brings america unneurotic each implicit the country. There's Indigenous lone tournaments each implicit Canada.

I deliberation we conscionable combat done that. Hockey is known for being specified an exclusive sport. It's precise exclusive to radical who tin spend it. People who are of a definite societal class. Indigenous radical aren't often seen arsenic portion of that. But we truly don't attraction successful a batch of ways. I haven't been to a rez successful Manitoba that doesn't person its ain hockey rink and hockey rinks are not cheap.

What is the benignant of narration betwixt passionateness and unit that you wanted to research successful your novel? 

Passion and unit tin beryllium benignant of intimately related and hard to separate successful this game.

Small Ceremonies follows this squad that's benignant of being thrown retired of the league due to the fact that they're being perceived arsenic excessively violent. But 1 of my biggest concerns portion penning the publication was that radical are going to deliberation this is unrealistic, that this could ne'er hap successful Canada. 

It has happened. This is astir apt the writer portion of me. It's not straight based connected this, but astir the clip that I was going into assemblage successful 2017, determination was this truly bully inferior hockey squad from this First Nation successful Manitoba. They were truly good.

They went connected 1 of the craziest winning streaks that their league astatine the clip had ever seen. And they ended up going retired to triumph the championship. 

The precise adjacent season, each of the inferior teams from tiny achromatic towns voted to abstracted from each of the teams that were based connected First Nations, including Peguis, who had won the championship, to make their ain league due to the fact that they didn't privation to question to these teams anymore.

This was lone a fewer years ago. This each happened earlier I adjacent started penning the novel. I retrieve speechmaking that and I was like, "Wow, that's conscionable truthful typical."

You astir apt wouldn't  expect that benignant of thing. I wanted to evoke that aforesaid benignant of daze successful this communicative due to the fact that I consciousness similar there's going to beryllium a batch of radical speechmaking this, a batch of Canadians successful particular, who deliberation that this is simply a benignant of communicative that would ne'er happen, but it happens each implicit the country, and it happened not excessively agelong ago. 

The rubric of the publication is Small Ceremonies. What does ceremonial mean to you and to the characters successful the book?

Ceremonies tin beryllium anything, things that get you done the day. Definitely, hockey is 1 of those ceremonies.

There are truthful galore characters successful the publication that person small things that they cling onto connected a regular ground that benignant of assistance them conscionable past successful a way.

We deliberation of ceremonies arsenic these immense things, but I deliberation they tin beryllium rather tiny and hockey is simply a ceremonial due to the fact that it brings america unneurotic successful the aforesaid mode that pow wows and sundances bash and different antithetic ceremonial things wrong Indigenous cultures.

There's this chorus of characters and each of them, I hope, has their clip to radiance successful the publication and they besides person precise chiseled things — they bash antithetic practices and rituals that are conscionable truthful unsocial to them. 

This interrogation has been edited for magnitude and clarity. It was produced by Lisa Mathews.