Comprised of 20 strong, resilient, athletic, Indigenous women, Team Indigenous will make their debut at the Roller Derby World Cup in February 2018. “We didn’t wait to be asked, we threw our skates in and claimed our right to be there;” shares one of the team organizers Melissa “Mick Swagger” Waggoner. Waggoner shares; “The team was created to include Indigenous women roller derby players from around the world who feel that the colonized nation they reside in does not fully represent who they are as an Indigenous person.”
The current roster has women representing three continents and over 20 tribes. “This team affords us the opportunity to use roller derby, an already feminist strong athletic revolutionary space, as the platform to explore our identities as Indigenous women, share our traditional knowledge, and within our own tribal matriarchy realize our power as women warriors without borders.” says Waggoner “We are the first all Indigenous team to take our place amongst our peers and represent our Ancestral Nations at a World Cup event, this is ground-breaking and we are proud to be the first to claim this right.”
The Roller Derby World Cup, hosted by Rainy City Roller Derby, is held in Manchester, United Kingdom from February 1-4 in 2018. 40 nations will compete in the multi–day tournament, including Team Indigenous, one of the 10 “emerging nations” added this year. Waggoner shares, “Our hope is to grow this team regionally to allow women from each global region to have the resources and ability to form their own teams so in the future there would be multiple teams representing each ancestral homeland.”
The mission statement for Team Indigenous is; “We are Team Indigenous. We are the First Nations and Indigenous people of our Ancestral Lands, linked globally through the sport of roller derby. We are Indigenous athletes, coaching staff and volunteers. The mission and purpose of Team Indigenous Roller Derby is to unite the Indigenous roller derby community, representing the proud once– borderless communities of our Ancestral Lands on these continents. Our Ancestral Homes are known by many names; Turtle Island, Abya Yala, Pachamama, Aotearoa and thousands more. We are committed to strengthening the sport of flat track roller derby, the athletes who play it and the Indigenous peoples throughout the world by representing the First Nations and Indigenous peoples in the Roller Derby World Cup.”
For more information, press only:
April Fournier-Team Organizer
207–332–6764
Teamindigenousrollerderby@gmail.com
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/teamindigenousrollerderby/
