When Kanien’kehá:ka writer and director Courtney Montour first heard in 2017 that someone from her Kahnawake community was joining an all-Indigenous team to compete overseas in the Roller Derby World Cup, she knew it was a story that more people should know about.
Nish Media’s newly released documentary Rising Through the Fray is the compassionate and candid result, an intimate collaborative process built from establishing trusting relationships with team members. After making contact through Kahnawake’s Michelle “Squarrior” Cross, Montour met with Indigenous Rising at the 2018 RollerCon convention in Las Vegas.
“We believed in the need to spend time together without cameras to decide if they wanted to be on film, out there in public in a very different way,” Montour told the Nation. “That’s especially important in filmmaking Indigenous communities that have only had a helicopter approach of someone who comes in and takes that story with them.”
For a feminist-driven sport emphasizing empowerment, inclusivity and community control, roller derby has long drawn primarily white middle-class athletes. After receiving numerous messages suggesting an Indigenous team, former Team USA member Melissa “Mick Swagger” Waggoner was persuaded by April “Jumpy McGee” Fournier, who also shared Diné heritage.
Holding tryouts by video, the 20 initial team members shared monthly Zoom chats in advance of the 2018 World Cup in Manchester, England. Although only meeting in-person two days before its start, a sisterhood was immediately apparent as they entered the skate track to the rallying cry, “Strong! Resilient! Indigenous!”
Finishing 27th out of 38 teams, Team Indigenous made history as the first borderless team, replacing the traditional national anthem with a mission statement about the impact of colonialism on Indigenous people.
“We’re educating the greater world that these artificial boundaries were violently and exploitatively placed upon us,” said Wiikwemkoong community member Jen “Windigo” Bennett, who previously skated with Team Canada as its only Indigenous woman.
The documentary picks up the action at a Louisiana derby in 2023, as the trailblazing team emerged following the pandemic with several new players, who collectively come from over 30 Indigenous Nations. Montour said the opening scene shows their first meeting with many not knowing each other. Soon they’re sharing dinner like best friends.
Weaving together energetic competition footage with tender moments of daily lives, Rising Through the Fray focuses on three team members, referred to by their colourful skater names: Sour Cherry, Krispy and Hawaiian Blaze.
Raised as a Sixties Scoop adoptee, Edmonton-based Sherry Bontkes (Sour Cherry) learned that her initial fears of not being “Indigenous enough” for an Indigenous team were shared by many teammates. Announcing she was Cree on the team’s Facebook page moved her sister to tell her they’re in fact Ojibwa, something she’d discovered years earlier but forgotten to mention, as ancestry rarely came up in conversation.
Besides connecting with her roots, the full-contact sport has provided Bontkes a safe space to express herself and unleash her frustrations. The documentary captures the team veteran’s transition to a supportive role when accumulated injuries as an enforcer take their toll.
As wearing many hats is common in the grassroots sport, Kristina “Krispy” Glass is the team manager, bench coach, skater and chair of Indigenous Rising. The film follows her journey from California to Oklahoma in search of her displaced Cherokee roots.
Kapulani “Hawaiian Blaze” Patterson’s healing path is traced from military duty to roller derby and practice as a stained-glass artist. Rising Through the Fray shows her new life in Brooklyn playing with one of the top teams in the US and her father’s immense pride seeing her MMIWG-themed artwork at a gallery.
“The film is all about finding connection and belonging for people in our communities who have been displaced,” explained Montour. “That’s common as a whole. When they’re together, there’s an understanding and this ease to enter those stories, spaces and experiences they’ve gone through to share with one another.”
The documentary demonstrates how Indigenous Rising’s borderless approach has inspired new teams like Black Diaspora, Jewish Roller Derby and Fuego Latino. The solidarity shared between competitors is evident in hushed shots of women on opposing teams holding hands.
“They changed the sport,” Montour asserted. “It’s so important to have that sense of recognition, belonging, representation, and it goes beyond sport. It’s so important to see ourselves reflected in society.”
As a volunteer-driven “DIY sport”, roller derby’s low-budget entertainment and eccentrically colourful community is evident throughout, as when a scoreboard snafu spurs a spontaneous dance-off. Montour worked extensively to understand the layout of widely diverse venues with her all-female crew, including cinematographer Kristen Brown.
“Everyone who put the tournament together are doing this on their own dime,” Montour said. “Lots of preparation went into understanding their spaces so we could be a fly on the wall. We knew where we could go for the safety of the skaters and to not interrupt anyone’s experience of the game.”
Packed houses greeted Montreal premieres at the RIDM documentary festival and Image+Nation in November. A selected cross-country run will follow its theatrical debut at Montreal’s Cinema Beaubien on January 29, with Bontkes joining some of Montour’s post-screening Q&As. Its US festival premiere will come in February.
Meanwhile, the Indigenous Rising team continues to evolve, ranging in age from 20s to 50s with only one player returning from the 2018 World Cup to last year’s follow-up. While placing 30th out of 48 teams, Glass told Windspeaker that just being there to represent was a success.
“The themes are resonating,” said Montour. “That’s the beauty of a living organism that invites people from all different Indigenous Nations. It’s amazing to see how they’re opening the eyes of young Indigenous people to say ‘Hey, this is something that I can do.’”