Nickel Belt News
Volume 58 Number 11
Friday, March 16, 2018
Thompson, Manitoba
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The up-close Takedown! up close. The event is also an opportunity for those interThe excitement in ested in wrestling to get a Thompson is at it’s peak taste of what it’s all about. as Primos Wrestling is set Primos Wrestling is curto come to Winterfest. The rently looking to train new event, which is free for all wrestlers at their academy attendees, is the first time in Winnipeg, and they ofin a decade that the wrestfer a training seminar for ling promotion has come those interested in seeing to Thompson, and fans are if wrestling is for them. thrilled at the prospect of For those who want to take seeing the action up close. wrestling more seriously, Graeme, known as “PlayPrimos Wrestling offers a er One” in the wrestling full training school out of world, is also the lead proWinnipeg. moter behind Primos WrestThe excitement around ling. He has been wrestling Primos Wrestling coming professionally for 20 years, to Thompson is just one exand his love for the sport is ample of the passion people evident. have for the sport. WrestWhen asked what brought ling has been around for him into wrestling, Graeme decades, and its popularity said, “I never wanted a borshows no signs of waning. ing job. I was a kid like anyPeople of all ages love one else, listening to other the excitement and drama parents talking about how of the sport, and it’s clear much they hated their job! that there will always be a I just never wanted to hate place for it in the world of my job. I was never a guy entertainment. that was big enough to be in As the Primos Wrestling the WWE, but you can still event approaches, people in make a decent living outside Thompson are eagerly anthe WWE if you know what ticipating the chance to see you’re doing! Like any other some of the best wrestlers child, I wanted to be a proin the business. Graeme and fessional wrestler. It’s just his team are excited to bring a matter of getting it done! their unique approach to the My Dad worked in an office, sport to a new audience, and and he would leave at 6 in they’re hoping that the event the morning and sometimes will be a huge success. he would come home at 8 or For anyone interested in 9 at night, and it was just a wrestling, the event is an seven day a week grind, and excellent opportunity to see it was just something I never what the sport is all about. wanted to do!” And for those who are alGraeme’s passion for the ready fans, it’s a chance to sport is contagious, and it’s see some of their favorite clear that he wants to share wrestlers up close and perthat passion with as many sonal. With free admission people as possible. At the for everyone who attends, Wabowden wrestling show there’s no reason not to last June, the event was a come out and see what Nickel Belt News photo by Ian Graham complete success, bringing Primos Wrestling is all in the whole town. People Addictions Foundation of Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles has written a book about her experiences growing up, mostly in Churchill. Instead of people going to says Graeme. “Our show is ling is exciting enough for bring Primos Wrestling to about. were calling and asking bars and picking fights, they still good for families. Kids the adults but nothing that Thompson for Winterfest. ~Matthias J. Johnson is a BY For all the harshInitiative weather things you have justare as bad, notbother a veryyoung safe thing when people say Local whyIAN theyGRAHAM hadn’t yet come to Journalism canwrite direct theirthat energy and ‘Oh, 5 andI’m under free.right?’ We’re was would kids. swallow “If we get enough people EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET I have all these stories and to fi gure out. It’s pretty clear to do but I jumped at it. I that Churchill residents and the dangers of polar to Thompson. of excitement to a fight night. not just wrestling; we bring It’s more like watching a to attend, we’ll make sure to reporter who works out Though she’s now written I get through.” I need to capture them for thought that was exciting should just fi nd somewhere bears, deMeulles said if it Graeme’s approach to when the Thompson Citizen. The “It’s something fun to do canteen and merchandise, Marvel movie but so much come back in future years,” a book about her experienDeMeulles said she wrote my grandchildren really until plane landed and easier live.of the sport are had viable she would wrestling is unique. He talks that Localbeen Journalism Initiative isn’t your standard we have prizes, there’s morethe engaging than just he says.toFans ces growing up in Churchill, her book, titled Whispers in because they will be lost if they started throwing the “To say, ‘Those people have moved back to Churchabout how they direct nega- ‘what’s available, let’s go to something to do for every- watching it on television!” thrilled at the prospect of is funded by the GovernAddictions of the Wind: Stories from the I don’t.” off and Iis realized, ‘Holy to live there. They ill in aofheartbeat. tive energy Foundation to be positive. ment Canada. the bar’ on a Friday night,” body, and even the wrest- fuel Graeme excited to choose being able to see the action BY MATTHIAS J. JOHNSON LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER, THOMPSON CITIZEN
Book a way to preserve and pass on memories of growing up in Churchill
Manitoba northern director Gisele deMeulles said writing wasn’t something she always thought she would do. “In my youth I never felt good at writing,” she said. “But when I moved to Thompson to get into the school of social work, at that point I had to write for university and realized, ‘Holy, I’m not bad at this, right?’ I certainly developed a lot of skill in university and came out of there with a very strong skill in my writing and confidence in my writing. I write very clear and that’s it. It’s there. Some people say it’s kind of blunt or direct. I don’t tend
North - Life in Churchill for a couple of reasons. “I just sort of thought, you know what, this history, this stuff that’s in my head, it’s going to be gone if I don’t write it down,” she said. “My kids are not going to get it if I don’t do it and it’s something I’ve always wanted my mom to do. My mom’s an elder and she’s an artist, she’s got so many wonderful stories because she always tells her stories at Parks Canada in Churchill and I’ve always hounded her, ‘Please, just put it on tape, I will write it for you because your story is going to be lost,’ and she’s never done it and I thought,
She also has a reputation cats, I was probably sitting as a storyteller herself. on a bomb.’” “I had such a varied hisAnother thing that tory and I would tell people spurred her on was the stories and they would go, hard times facing Churchill ‘That’s not true, is it?’ I’d go, since the Hudson Bay Rail‘Yeah it’s true.’ They’d go, way suspended operations ‘You didn’t do all that, did north of Gillam last spring. you? You’ve got to be really “It used to be a really old.’ I was like, ‘No, actually thriving large community 240226m0 I did all that before I was and it’s just dwindled down 27,’ and they went ‘What?’” to such a small population Looking back, some of now,” deMeulles says. those experiences are things Though she’s not there she might not do again. any longer, her parents and “I did some pretty bizarre her sister and other family stuff like fuel hauls into the members still are. high Arctic at -35,” said “My cousin owns the deMeulles. “It didn’t dawn hardware store there,” she on me until after. That was a says. very dangerous thing to do. Because of that, Being on a plane full of fuel deMeulles finds it hard to
should just leave,’ is quite simplistic. It’s quite disrespectful. If we were in the same boat in another area I think we would scream about that so why don’t they have the option to do that? I think right now they’re feeling like they’re pawns in a political game and that’s really sad for them because I think the people of Churchill really want to thrive. They’ve built their worlds there. How would we feel if someone came to you and said, ‘I’m sorry, you have to leave your home community and we’re going to displace you somewhere else and all your loved ones and your history is gone?’”
“I miss the shoreline, I miss the rock, I miss the polar bears even though they’re very dangerous and I really miss the Hudson Bay,” she says. “When I go back home, standing on the Hudson Bay looking out on the bay, it just gives you an incredible sense. You feel so small and you feel great.” Now that she’s got one book under her belt, deMeulles says she may try to produce another. “I have another book in me,” she says. “It’s a darker story, more about personal growth and struggles. Maybe in the next five years it’s something I’ll focus on doing.”