Episode 7 - Sharon Firth

Left photo: Sharon and Shirley Firth. Credit: unknown. Right photo: Sharon Anne (51) and Shirley in the Canadian Championships qualifier for the 1982 World Nordic Championships in Oslo, Norway. Credit: Unknown.

Sharon and Shirley Firth are household names in the North and beyond. The twin sisters are Gwich’in from Akłarvik (Aklavik), Northwest Territories. They were members of the Canadian national cross-country ski team for an unprecedented 17 consecutive years. 

They competed at four Olympic Winter Games. Between them, they won 79 medals at the Canadian championships, including 48 national titles. 

Early Life

Sharon and Shirley Firth were born and raised on a trapline near Akłarvik.

"We were actually raised in a traditional home, living on the land and learning that lifestyle. We did everything together...I remember with my mother, she taught us all the women's stuff, whether it was sewing, cooking, cleaning, gathering wood, gathering small animals, and then the boys went with my dad on the traplines."

Everything changed when Sharon and Shirley were five or six years old. Their mother, Fanny Rose Firth, was diagnosed with tuberculosis and sent to the Charles Camsell Hospital. 

Charles Camsell Hospital

The Charles Camsell Hospital was a so-called “Indian hospital” in Edmonton. Indian hospitals were supposed to provide medical care. They were under-resourced and kept Indigenous Peoples segregated from Canadian society. Indian hospitals had similar goals to residential schools. 

Left photo: Charles Camsell Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, 1944. Source: City of Edmonton Archives/EA-160-1522. Right photo: Charles Camsell Hospital, 2014. Credit: Sara Komarnisky. 

The Charles Camsell Hospital was one of many federal Indian sanatoria across Canada. Over the years, thousands of Indigenous Peoples with tuberculosis from the NWT and Nunavut were taken to the Camsell Hospital. Many never returned home.

While their mother was at the Camsell hospital, Sharon and Shirley had to stay at one of the local residential schools in Inuuvik: Stringer Hall. 

Stringer Hall

Stringer Hall was the residence for Anglican students at the Sir Alexander Mackenzie School and Samuel Hearne Secondary School. There was also a Catholic residence called Grollier Hall.

Left photo: Front entrance of Stringer Hall, Inuuvik, 1970. Credit: NWT Archives/Fred North collection/N-2011-005: 0037. Right photo: Stringer Hall, Inuuvik, 1961. Credit: NWT Archives/Janice March collection/N-2014-008: 0166.

Stringer and Grollier Halls were the largest residential institutions in the North, designed with the capacity to house 250 children each. Stringer Hall operated from 1959 to 1975. Grollier Hall operated from 1959 to 1997. 

Sharon and Shirley were able to return home when their mother was well enough to look after them, but the damage was done.

"We were in there just for short periods at a time. When she was gone, we had to be in the school, and the school really changed us. It really hardened us, and it really made us sad people, you know, because we couldn't talk to our parents...It really did bring a division, at least to our family."

Skiing

Sharon and Shirley began skiing while there were day-school students.

"There was a program that started for Indigenous kids, and that was the Territorial Experimental Ski Training Program. It was just by fluke that Shirley and I were introduced to the ski program. We were playing with friends and they invited us to try out skiing. And my mom stepped in and said, 'Okay, if one of you goes, you both have to go.'...The coach told us that if we, if we showed up every day and we did our training, we'd get to travel. And that was the bait right there."

Photo: Shirley and Sharon Firth, c. 1969. Credit: Guy Savard.

For Sharon, skiing was a way to stay connected to the land while she was at residential and day school.

"When we lived on our trapline, we did lots of walking and so the short or the narrow trails for skiing at that time...that brought back memories from home. And listening to the skis making noise on the snow. Because when we walked, like you'd break through ice or break through fresh snow or hard snow. And my mom would tell us stories as we were walking. You know we would see different animal tracks so she would explain those to us and the type of different animals. So when we skied there was lots of rabbits around and that was our food, that was our grocery store." 

The TEST Program

The Government of Canada launched the Territorial Experimental Ski Training program in Inuuvik in 1967. This was known as the TEST program. It was built on a cross-country ski program that Father Jean Mouchet developed for Vuntut Gwitchin in Old Crow, Yukon. 

Photo: The 1967 NWT ski team. Back row: Father Mouchet, John Turo, Antoine Mountain, coach Dave Sutherland, Gloria Allen, and Harold Cook. Front row: Fred Kelly, Margaret Steen, John Ross, Eva Tourangeau, and Janette Tourangeau. Credit: Antoine Mountain.

The goal of TEST was to see how cross-country skiing might affect the motivation and success of Indigenous youth. At times, there were more than 250 children in the program. 

Most of the TEST skiers were at Grollier Hall, the Catholic residential school. Some of the kids were day students. A few of the skiers lived in the Anglican residential school, Stringer Hall. 

The impact of the TEST program was visible at the 1972 Olympics in Japan, where six of the eight athletes on Canada's cross-country ski team were Indigenous skiers from the Northwest Territories. 

Left photo: Canadian cross-country ski team at 1972 Olympic Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan. Left to right: Helen Sander, Roseanne Allen, Sharon Firth, Shirley Firth, Bjorger Pettersen (coach), Roger Allen, Jarl Omholt-Jensen, Malcolm Hunter, and Fred Kelly. Credit: CSHFM Collection. Right photo: Sharon Firth at 1983 World Cup in Sarajevo. Credit: A.R.T. Photo.

Life After Competing

Sharon Firth retired from the Canadian cross-country ski team in 1985. But she didn’t stop skiing. For more than two decades, she travelled to communities around the Northwest Territories, teaching cross-country ski clinics and inspiring young people.

In 2021, Sharon retired for a second time and moved to the Bow Valley with her husband, Anders. She continues to ski. In fact, during the production of this episode, Sharon, aged 70, completed a 54-kilometre ski in memory of her twin, Shirley, who passed away in 2013 from cancer.

Skiing has given Sharon so much, but there was a cost. The TEST program was delivered through the residential and day schools in Inuvik. As Sharon’s story makes clear, these institutions negatively affected Indigenous children, their families, and their communities. 

If you are a Survivor or intergenerational Survivor of residential school or day school and need help, there's a free 24-hour support line. Call 1-800-695-4419.