News Releases

JOINT STATEMENT from the Four Host First Nations, Russian Olympic Committee, The Figure Skating Federation of Russia.

Today Russian ice dancers, Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, along with their coaches, Natalia Linichuck and Gennadi Karponosov, met with the CEO of the Four Host First Nations (FHFN), Tewanee Joseph. The Vancouver 2010 Winter Games are being held on the traditional and shared traditional territories of the FHFN ~ the Lil’wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

Tewanee welcomed the Russian Ice Dance Champions into Coast Salish territory and presented traditional Coast Salish blankets as a gesture of friendship, love and protection. He also explained the importance of meeting face-to-face and practiced the time-honoured traditional witness protocol.

The coaches explained the concept behind their ice dance program and noted that it was their intent to be respectful of nature and achieve unity amongst peoples of the world.  They also explained the folk theme requirement for the Original Dance program and that they had selected a theme to honour the South East Asia region.

Together, the groups came to an understanding that there was no disrespect intended towards Indigenous Peoples, in fact the intent was the opposite – to honour and respect Indigenous Peoples and unify all the peoples of the world.

By meeting in person and sharing cultures, it is encouraged that when Indigenous cultures are incorporated into figure skating routines, there will be face-to-face contact with representatives of that culture.

In the spirit of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, together we believe that we can break new ground to present Indigenous cultures in a respectful way to the world.

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Media Contact
Four Host First Nations Communications
E-mail: FHFNCommunications@gmail.com
Telephone: 604.403.1662