Mascots are more than sports, says Brad Gallant.

A PhD student of sociology and social justice and a member of Qalipu Mi’kmaq band, he directed and produced a film documenting his experiences fighting Indigenous mascots and the culture of racism surrounding them.

“They are representative of cultural permission to treat Indigenous people as less in Canada,” Gallant says. “They hint at a darker culture of Indigenous racism than most might expect, and that Canada is not the country you think, or you hope, it is.”

He will host a screening of his film, Systemic Injustice: Mascots, Human Rights, and Indigenous Racism, at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, in room 203, Toldo Health Education Centre.

Systemic Injustice was named Best Native American Feature at the 2022 Latino and Native American Film Festival and received a special prize at the 2021 Paladino d’Oro Sport Film Festival in Palermo, Italy.

Thursday’s screening is the film’s first in Canada. Admission will be by donation to the Orange Shirt Day fundraisers. Find a list of related events on the University of Windsor’s main Orange Shirt Day webpage.