The Game: The story of a bear, an orca and the origin of hockey

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A children’s book by Musqueam elder and storyteller Henry “Ten Bears” Charles was almost lost to history.

Charles was inspired to write the story, an Indigenous take on the origin of hockey, in 2011, after watching the Vancouver Canucks beat the Boston Bruins in the first game of the Stanley Cup Final.

“He thought, ‘I want to write a story where a bear plays an orca,’” Charles’ longtime friend John Rose said. “A little while later I ran into him, and he said, ‘John, I’ve got the story in my trunk, do you have time?’ It was in this three-ring binder. I read the story and loved it.”

That story became The Game, an illustrated children’s book published posthumously in March by Greystone Books. In it, Mene overhears Black Bear and Killer Whale arguing and devises a game to help them settle their argument once and for all. Mene turns water to ice, branches to sticks and fishing nets to goal nets. Then, he plucks a star from the sky above to be the puck.

Charles was the last surviving member of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) to have lived in what is today the University Endowment Lands. After his parents and siblings moved to the Musqueam Reserve, Charles remained in the wooded area with his grandparents for five years.

He and Rose met more than 50 years ago, as students at Point Grey Secondary and as players with the Meraloma Rugby Club. They became reacquainted in 2011 when their old team came together to cheer on the juniors. By then, Charles was an accomplished writer, storyteller, Indigenous historian, greeter and Musqueam speaker. Rose was chair of Canuck Place Children’s Hospice.

From the start, Charles had intended to read his hockey story to kids at the hospice. After he died of a heart attack in 2017, Rose contacted his widow, Holly.

“He wrote a lot of stories, but at least I knew what the binder looked like. Eventually she found it. I thought, it’s such a wonderful story that I want to make it into a book.”

Rose set out to find an illustrator. Through contacts, he met Shoshannah Greene. An Indigenous artist from Haida Gwaii and Emily Carr grad, Greene is a two-time Emerging Artist Scholarship Award recipient.

“This was all taking place during COVID, so we were collaborated over Zoom meetings,” Rose said.

Armed with Charles’ story and some of Greene’s illustrations, he met with Greystone Books publisher Rob Sanders.

“He said, ‘I just want you to know, John, I get so many stories that we need to look at, so don’t get your hopes up.’ And then about two hours later he called me and he said, ‘I love this story. We’re going to publish it.’”

Rose is more than pleased with the result.

“The thing that took time was getting the pictures to match Henry’s vision, like when Mene invites Owl and Eagle to play goal, or when he takes a branch from a maple tree and turns it into a stick. It gave me goosebumps that Shoshannah was able to turn Henry’s story into something that can be loved by kids.”

In keeping with the author’s legacy, the book incorporates Musqueam names and cultural practices.

“We wanted to make sure that it was OK to use the Musqueam terms that Henry used,” Rose said. “Some families hold onto certain names, and they have the right to those names. I met with the elders to make sure everything was covered in a way that was to Henry’s wishes and respectful for the community at large.”

Former hockey player and member of the T’it’q’et Community Village of the St’át’imc Tribal Nation Peter Leech provides a foreword.

A portion of proceeds from the book will go to support Canuck Place.