Invictus and Community Development

The movie Invictus begins with the release and election of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) who takes charge in hope of reconciliation between the whites and blacks of South Africa.  To do this, Mandela’s main strategy was to use the National Rugby team known as the Springboks which was hated by black South Africans.  He realizes that South African is to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup that is less than a year away he begins his mission.  Doing this is not so easy.  It begins with him having to convince the South African Sports committee to not change the name and colours of the Springboks.  Mandela would next invite the team captain of the Springboks Francios Pienaar (Matt Damon) for tea and discuss rugby and philosophies where Mandela gets a message through to Pienaar that he wants him to lead the team to victory at the World Cup and unite their country.

This is the beginning of how Mandela was able to use the sport of Rugby to develop community relationships that are not based on race.  Examples of using the team for community development would be how the team interacted with all of the locals by going to communities and teaching them about the sport.  I believe that Chester (the only black member of the Springboks) shows a different type of leadership by leading his team into these communities and showing his teammates that there really is no difference between the different races.  Mandela also had built a security team composed of both black and white members.  In the beginning they did not like having to be around each other which was shown having them drive in separate cars with only blacks in one and whites in another.  As time goes on they start to get more comfortable with each other and through recreation begin to like one another.  This can be seen during one of the World Cup games while Mandela is watching it on television many of the security guards, both white and black start passing a rugby ball around.      

The Springboks were not expected to do well in the tournament but once they began to win games they started getting more and more support from not only the white community but the black as well.  The crowds began to fill during their games that including both blacks and whites all cheering for their nation.  The Springboks would eventually go on to win the cup against the powerhouse All Blacks from New Zealand where South Africans everywhere united to celebrate with one another.  During the celebration Pienaar was asked if the crowd of 63,000 helped in winning the game.  Pienaar would answer saying that it was 43million South Africans united that helped the team win. 

This movie shows the importance of recreation in society and how it can be used in order to bring people together.  Mandela’s use of rugby to unite his nation proves that sport and recreation has a major impact on some of the most critical issues in society.  This movie shows how significant leaders are in communities.  Both Mandela and Pienaar used the philosophy of leading by example to show the people around them that things can be better.  Leaders in communities whether it being in sports or politics must be able to inspire others to “be better then they think they can” according to Mandela, in order to change for the better.  To lead by example Mandela shows up to the rugby matches wearing the jersey of the Springboks to try and convince his people that everyone should be united cheering for the team that represents their nation.

Aboriginal Recreation Summit

I chose to read an article from the Alberta Sweetgrass newspaper entitled “Summit provides insight for Aboriginal recreation leaders.”  This article summarizes the summit that was held for Aboriginal recreation leaders of Alberta to discuss the positives, negatives and objectives for the Aboriginal communities.  One of the major components discussed in this article is that they identified what strengths they were bringing to the Aboriginal community through recreation.  Examples of this are that they are providing the community with ways to increase health benefits and are reducing alcohol, drug and violence related problems.  Another major component from this summit was that they were able to bring up specific concerns that each was coming across in their respective communities.  Examples of these include declining volunteers, reduced resources and the lack of coaches and officials to help run activities.  This could prove to be very beneficial for all of the communities involved in this summit because they would have the opportunity to discuss different ways of resolving problems in each individual community.  This summit for the Aboriginal communities followed many steps of the community development framework discussed in class.  They were able to bring together a small group of leaders where they were able to share the strengths and successes in each of their communities, discuss priorities and develop strategies on how to take action against some of the problems.  I believe that by following the basic framework for community development, the Aboriginal communities in Alberta will be able to continue finding ways to improve their recreational programs by getting more people involved in coaching and volunteering. 

Community development can be defined as bringing a group of people together who share common cultural needs and desires working together as a whole to better their community and achieve their goals.  This Aboriginal summit shows many similarities, for example they brought many community leaders together in order discuss potential ways to improve their own respective communities and resolve problems that have turned up.  Secondly this summit shows that by following a community development framework, communities will be able to identify all of their strengths, weaknesses and ways to improve.   

The leaders of this summit had stated that they wished to have another meeting set up in the near future and I believe that this would be very benificial for recreation in their communities.  It will take time to improve on all of the weaknesses brought up in this summit but if the leaders are committed in helping their communities progress will happen. 

Brent Washenfelder



Sources: https://docs.google.com/a/aceleaders.ca/fileview?id=0B3pKQajHE5jJMjViMmRjOGUtNjliOS00ZmVjLWEzYjUtOTMzNTY2YmEyNzY1&hl=en&ndplr=1