North Vancouver’s Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre was a place of healing for the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) this week, with two memorial lacrosse tournaments played to honour late members of the community.
A day long event on Saturday had the Nation pay tribute to 21-year-old Chris Baker, a promising lacrosse player who was fatally struck by a car near Eslhá7an (Mission 1 Reserve) in March, and longtime player Vern Baker, a legend in the lacrosse community and a former North Vancouver School District worker who died in 2018 at age 66.
The event, which saw the North Shore Indians take on the Nanaimo Timbermen and Delta Islanders, drew the biggest crowd the Harry Jerome rec centre has seen for a lacrosse game in years, said elected council member Sxwíxwtn (Wilson Williams).
“We had a lot of the community come out in support, I’d say we had over 400 fans. I could almost guarantee it’s probably the most fans the Lower Mainland and BC lacrosse probably had this year, in any arena.”
Williams said the game incited a roller-coaster of emotions from the audience, while some moments were sorrowful, others were celebratory and “very energetic.”
Special shirts fitted with honour patches for Vern Baker were created for the team and for his family members, and a banner, emblazoned with Baker’s name and his number 15, was gifted to his family to be installed within the centre.
Squamish Nation Elder Dennis Joseph, a former lacrosse player who played alongside Vern Baker for the North Shore Indians, said the event celebrated a man who was an incredible lacrosse player, and an even better friend.
“He was such a leader in the dressing room, in life, and especially on the floor. He was one of the top one or two scorers in the league every year, he was such an inspirational man,” he said.
Joseph said Baker was renowned for his humour – he would often break tense moments during playoff games with his jokes – and he always lifted the team’s spirits in the dressing room before and after matches.
With Baker’s wife, children and grandchildren in attendance, Joseph said he hoped the matches played on Saturday lifted the spirits of his family and the other families of the lost members honoured.
“I just want them to know that we never forgot him. We’ll never forget him. That’s our cultural teaching, to keep the memory alive.”
The late lacrosse legend’s wife Alice Baker said “Vern was the ultimate sportsman,” adding how there wasn’t a lacrosse arena far or wide that her husband couldn’t walk into and be recognized, hugged and chatted with.
Although he has been gone more than six years, Baker was “loved by all” and is still “very much missed,” which was evident with the mutual flow of tears and joy from the stands on Saturday, said Baker.
Baker said her late husband’s greatest pride was his daughter and granddaughters, and it was especially important for them to witness the event and continue to learn more about the legacy that their dad and papa has left behind through lacrosse.
Baker said the event was “true healing medicine” for the family and wider community, and an example of the power lacrosse holds within the Squamish Nation as a form of therapy.
“If we didn’t have lacrosse season, everyone would be highly grieving or sad,” added Williams.
“We’re just honoured to be able to inherit and use the game of lacrosse for medicine, and lean on it. It really brings out our history of who we are, where we come from. It gives us strength, and it brings up our pride.”
Just days before the tribute game on Saturday, a game scheduled for Wednesday, July 10 between the North Shore Indians and Coquitlam Adanacs inadvertently became a tribute to Jordan Ann Joseph, the director of member services at Squamish Nation, who passed away the night before.
The news of Joseph’s death has “trickled through and devastated” the Squamish community, said Williams.
“It only felt right for us to do a tribute.”
Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
