Of pottery, drums, and a bike – Bobiwash creates a sporty-artistic balance
By Laura E. Young
SUDBURY – Helen Bobiwash rides a bike but, as she laughs, she’s often flying by the seat of her pants.
And that’s just fine with the mother, chartered professional accountant, triathlete, and mother of Mzhiikenh, 10.
In the fall her off-season starts, and “my son gets more time than he even wants with me, which works with him because that’s when school starts,” she says.
She is also a member of the Waabishki Mkwaa Singers and performs hand drumming. She has been with the Sudbury Basin Potters for 11 years.
Bobiwash’s company, Ursine Management, is also one of two consultants hired to conduct the Aboriginal Financial Literacy study. This national project through the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association of Canada will review what Indigenous people need to know to make wise financial decisions. The survey is expected to be launched later in November.
For Bobiwash, managing all these commitments is about setting priorities at different times of the year. In high training and racing seasons, she spends more time preparing to race. Housework goes by the wayside, she laughs. Nor will she be creating pottery.
This lifestyle blossomed from a car accident and the death of her mother. In December 2006, Helen Bobiwash was driving on Highway 17 when an impaired motorist bumped her car off the road. She “only” suffered whiplash; her knees slammed into the dash. Her left knee would require surgery, but all she could think of was leaving behind her then 2-year-old son.
And shortly after the accident, her mother Alice, died.
In 2008, Bobiwash had knee surgery. She began looking to make changes in her health, so she picked triathlon.
She could already swim, ride a bike and walk. “There are probably easier things in physical activity to try but I do tend to like a challenge. I wasn’t thinking of it at the time (as three separate challenges). It was literally why not?”
She discussed it with her physiotherapist, Kali Baas, and they decided to see how her knees would handle the training.
“I have to have a goal to work towards to get any kind of physical activity or nutrition. “
And it’s been a great seven years: in 2010 she carried the Olympic Torch as part of the lead-up to the Vancouver Winter Olympics. http://www.thesudburystar.com/2009/12/21/how-helen-bobiwash-rewrote-her-story-with-fitness
She’s healthier, faster, more competitive in her age category.
As her body adjusted, it could take on more training. She competes at various distances now: in 2014, she completed two Ironman 70.3 races, an event featuring a 1.9-kilometre swim, 90-kilometre cycle, 21.1-kilometre run. Triathlon is about having fun with her friends, not just racing, she adds.
And in the meantime, there’s always pottery and the work she creates, including soup bowls for Sudbury’s upcoming Soup’s On Pottery Exhibition, November 14 and 15.
Sport has taught her patience. The pottery lets her rest.
“That’s where I find pottery is the most helpful. It gives me the ability to forget about everything, whether it’s triathlon or other stuff in my life. Even if it (the pottery) doesn’t work out the way I want it to.”