This PDF contains a study guide for the film Niigaanibatowaad: FrontRunners.

Niigaanibatowaad: FrontRunners is a memory play, narrated by the main character Thomas (Ron Desmoulins), an aboriginal residential school survivor now in his fifties. He bas been invited by the organizers of the 1999 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg to finish a run that abruptly ended 400 too early in 1967 in that same city. The invitation revives memories and finally, a painful confrontation, he realizes that finishing the run is the first stop down the path of healing. The hourlong drama is based on the true stories told to Laura Robinson by the 1967 Pan Am Games torch runners.

Laura Robinson, an award-winning writer and journalist, and a former member of the national cycling team, has written three books addressing issues of abuse within the sports world. She wrote the play FrontRunners while a writer-in-residence at the University of Calgary. In 2007, the play was filmed for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network as Niigaanibatowaad: Frontrunners. Laura Volunteers at Chippewas of Nawash First Nation as a cross-country ski coach and mountain bike coach.

The Church is promoting Niigaanibatowad: FrontRunners as a resource to accompany the Healing and Reconciliation program. This fil was shown at the 2008 General Assembly in Ottawa. Dixie Shilling, an Aboriginal woman from Curve Lake, Ontario, and Adele Finney, a non-Aboriginal woman from Peterborough, Ontario, wrote the ecumenical study guide to go with this film. They met with a number of people (Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal) in their preparation of this resource.

Each presbytery clerk has a copy of the DVD and the study guide for congregations and individuals to borrow. The DVD is an educational version that can be shown widely. If, however, you with a personal copy you may purchase one directly from the National Film Board of Canada (www.nfb.ca). The study guide is available at www.presbyterian.ca/frontrunners and through the Book Room (1-800-619-7301; bookroom@presbyterian.ca).