Warrior Games hosted by Steve Sxwithul'txw on the APTN network. For more information visit aptn.ca/warriorgames/episode-guide.
Thwack! Thwack!
Thwack! The players are taking the field but it sounds like a riot squad whacking nightsticks against their shields as they get ready to rush the prisoners in Cell Block #4. The rhythm is steady but the sound gets louder and louder as the athletes - each cracking what looks like two miniature lacrosse sticks together - get into position.
Way down in Choctaw country in Mississippi, that place where Phil Ochs said the calendar was lying when it read the present time, First Nations play a sport older than Pong, basketball or Canada.
They play stickball.
Not the kind kids play in the Bronx with a broom handle and a rubber ball; the sport First Nation tribes used to play across days and plains, scooping up a leather ball with those two sticks, shrugging off tacklers and trying to hit a post deep in the opponents' territory.
For Steve Sxwithul'txw, host and producer of the new reality TV show Warrior Games, the sport is something he'll experience once - and only once.
"It's a brutal game," he says. "It's no-holds barred. You're knocked down, you're thrown down, you're tackled, you're headtackled. There's injuries.. . broken legs, broken arms."
Sxwithul'txw sighs before reasserting his first point: "It's brutal."
Asked why he'll never play it again, Sxwithul'txw assures me I'll understand when I watch the show.
Over 13 episodes, Sxwithul'txw, a member of the Penelakut Tribe of the Coast Salish Nation, risks bruises to his body and contusions to his pride in sports ranging from hoop dancing to snowboarding.
He clowns with kids and listens to elders on a journey that takes him across North America.
It was about three years ago a "light bulb went on" and he realized the need for a show focused on Aboriginal youth and elder's guidance in the world of sport.
"The idea grew and grew and grew," he said.
After one rejection and a little revamping, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network picked up the show.
From there, Sxwithul'txw spent three years getting financing and fanning out across the countries in search of vibrant characters and interesting sports.
In an upcoming episode, Sxwithul'txw tries his hand at longball, a game with elements of baseball and dodgeball once played by the Plains Cree.
The rules and onlysurviving bat were discovered at the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ont., giving new life to the ancient sport.
Some sports provide a window into a way of life, such as the kneel jump, which trained young hunters to move quickly when ice broke beneath their feet.
The show also includes contemporary sports like snowboarding.
"It's something our kids enjoy and for me it's something that I had to learn," Sxwithul'txw says. "I suffered some injuries doing that show."
As viewers, we experience each sport through Sxwithul'txw, who despite being in his late 40s and classifying himself as "past my prime, obviously," takes a crack at each sport.
"Through hell or high water, I get 'er done," he says.
Each show is a learning experience, and as an outsider in another band's territory, each show revolves around youth showing Sxwithul'txw the right way to do things, he notes.
Sxwithul'txw is the show's host but the emphasis is on First Nations youth and their excitement in carrying on culture and traditions with the guidance of their elders.
"(It) gives even nonindigenous people a view of what makes us tick and how close-knit we are in terms of our families and our communities."
Warrior Games is intended to cross all demographics, according to Sxwithul'txw.
"Aboriginal television isn't just for Aboriginal people." Warriorgames.ca
