Both on and off the ice, there are serious conversations going on about the future of curling and how the game needs to be more inclusive.
Erin Flowers, president of Goldline Curling in Ontario, which was established by her family in 1967 to serve the curling community, spoke at a forum about Diversity, Equity & Inclusivity in Curling.
Flowers talked about her personal experience of working at a U.S. inner-city homeless shelter where she gained a whole lot of insight into the inequity of race from her view as a privileged white woman from Canada.
Eventually, from that experience she made the ultimate decision to adopt a boy from that environment after making the transition back into her family’s business and taking on the role of president.
She quickly fell in love with the sport of curling as she embraced her new career path.
After she adopted her son, it became quite obvious that her son’s experience at the curling rink was completely different from her own, she recounted.
“One day I was dropping him off at the curling rink and he was walking away from the car only to turn back and indicate to me to roll down my window,” Flowers recalled. “He said ‘you know that I am the only Black person in the entire building?’”
It took her a while to process that information and what it meant in the curling world, she said.
“And it needs to change,” Flowers said. “The curling rink – right at the club level – needs to be a safe place for everyone.”
The death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, had a profound effect on Flowers' household. Her partner is a police inspector and her son is now a young Black man.
“During the conversation we had on the anniversary of George Floyd’s death we listened to each other in a way I will never forget,” Flowers said. “It was heavy and it was loving and it’s been a year of healing.”
Flowers said the world of curling at the club level needs to be more inclusive.
“We must live up to curling’s reputation and make it a truly inclusive and safe place,” she added. “We have such a great reputation. We feel safe when people who already belong go out of their way to make us feel like we belong. We need to have conversations, we can’t stay quiet.”
Her shared experiences with her family have offered insight into the issues, Flowers said.
“Everyone deserves to belong,” Flowers said.
In Curling Canada’s Diversity and Inclusivity, Creating Meaningful Change Resource Guide it states that on a national level:
• 64 per cent of curlers are male and 36 per cent are female
• 77 per cent of curlers indicated their ethnicity as white
The guide is offered up in sections to include topics like barriers to diversity, equity and inclusion and suggestions in the face of that are included.
The guide can be found here Full-Resource-Kit-Eng.pdf
Karen Watson, one of the organizers of the Women in Leadership event presented by Curling Canada, said in her opening statement that given the state of the issues in the world today the ones being addressed this week in Prince George seem especially relevant.
“Give the women in this room full of leaders a chance and we will change the world,” Watson said.
