REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders are using the proceeds from their Indigenous logo merchandise to give back to Indigenous students.
At an announcement Wednesday, the Roughriders, the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation and the First Nations University of Canada announced a one-time $60,000 funding commitment to support incoming Indigenous students at the university.
Of that amount, $40,000 will go to the “Away from Home” bursary to help support Indigenous students who are relocating from their home communities, possibly for the first time, to attend classes at FNUniv campuses in Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert.
The other $20,000 will go to the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation scholarship, recognizing academic excellence among new Indigenous students prior to enrolling at FNUniv.
The funding comes from sales of the Roughriders’ Indigenous logo merchandise, which has proved a hit with fans throughout Rider Nation. The Indigenous logo, created by Chris Chipak of Red Pheasant Cree Nation, has been worn in action on the field by Riders players and embraced by fans.
Roughriders President Craig Reynolds said of the Indigenous logo design that “from the moment you saw that, you're like, this is absolutely stunning, it's beautiful. And our fans felt the same. And we literally couldn't keep merchandise on the shelf. We just would put it out and it'd be gone the next day.”
The intent behind the Indigenous logo and related merchandise, the club says, was always to use the proceeds to support the Roughriders’ commitments to Truth and Reconciliation.
Reynolds said when they started developing the logo, “we just immediately knew we had to give back, and give back to the Indigenous community.”
“So we started looking at, what form does that take and looked at our pillars, our community pillars, and right away education jumped out. And we thought if we can remove some barriers by providing some scholarships to Indigenous students entering First Nations University, that would be a very meaningful way to give back.”
Dr. Jacqueline Ottmann, president of the First Nations University of Canada, said this financial support will be a major help for Indigenous students who need it.
“There is this misconception that post-secondary education is free for Indigenous students, for First Nations students, and that's not the case,” Ottmann said.
“In many of our communities, there is a significant waiting list of students that are wanting to come to university, but those communities cannot support every single student. So I do know that there are students that want to pursue post-secondary education but cannot be supported because of the financial limitations within their communities. And even those that are supported financially, there is a limit to that, right? So we're always looking for partners that can contribute to scholarships and bursaries for our students.”
She acknowledged leaving home for the first time to come to university is a daunting challenge, one she experienced herself.
“I come from Fishing Lake First Nation, which is two and a half hours from Regina, two hours from Saskatoon. And I went to the University of Saskatchewan in the early 80s, and I could have been 1,000 miles away from my home. That's how it felt, right? And I didn't have — my parents couldn't afford to come into the city to support me in that way, nor could I leave the city to go and visit my community. And students today still experience those kinds of challenges.”
Breanna Desnomie, a fourth-year Indigenous social work student who herself moved from Fort Qu’Appelle to Regina to enrol in university, believes the bursary will provide relief to students facing a number of outside cost pressures when moving to a new community.
“So for first-year students coming into university, it releases those stressors of financial barriers that we do come across so we can focus on our studies, instead of having to focus on our life outside of studies.”
She added that it “really helps our northern communities and those that are really rural, on-reserve communities, be able to leave their communities and their supports and come into school and start breaking those cycles and getting the education that's needed to better our generations to come.”
Ottmann welcomed the partnership with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
“We have a lot of Saskatchewan Roughrider fans at First Nations University of Canada. And I have been to the games and have seen our students wearing the T-shirts and hoodies with the Indigenous logo. And so this is a partnership that makes sense. And by coming together this way, we're recognizing the importance of supporting society and supporting the province.”
Reynolds said they wanted to start with a one-time funding commitment for now, but he would not rule out future commitments based on other merchandise sales.
He said this commitment is “related to our 2024 green Indigenous logo proceeds. So 2025, we're still finalizing those, and obviously we launched another Indigenous logo or version of it being colourized. And the response to that was fabulous and fantastic and significant, so once we get that all finalized, I think you'll probably see some other announcements of a similar nature.”
