It may be a sporting event, but there is far more to the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) than simply celebrating athletic prowess.
With more than 5,000 athletes and coaches from more than 750 Indigenous Nations set to come together, the Games’ raison d’etre is in equal measure about celebrating Indigenous culture and heritage, improving awareness and education, and building communion among the many First Nations that call North America home.
“It’s really hard to encompass the meaning of the Games into words, because there really are no words to explain it at all,” said head coach Savanna Smith, whose U19 Indigenous Female BC Box Lacrosse team will compete across five days starting July 17.
The event, taking place in Nova Scotia, will run July 15-23.
Smith said the Games can have a “really positive impact” on Indigenous youth, especially those who have not yet travelled outside of their own province or interacted with other First Nations.
“For some young athletes, this might be the first time that they are being exposed to different aspects of Indigenous culture. They get to meet others from across Turtle Island, and be proud of who they are and where they come from,” she said.
BC Box Lacrosse player Eden Joseph is one of ten North Shore athletes – 8 from West Vancouver, two from North Van – who will be flying the home flag in Halifax when the event kick off this week.
Joseph, a 16-year-old Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) student who will be joining Sentinel Secondary in the fall, said participating in the Games is a “once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Joseph said she is no stranger to overcoming challenges and hurdles – having once joined the North Shore boys field lacrosse when opportunities for young girls locally were absent – and is excited to take see where her determination and passion takes her in the large scale competition.
It is a similar story for Katie Manning, a North Vancouver-based Métis athlete competing with the Team BC 16U Softball Team, who said sport has long been a driving factor in her life. Softball, she said, “is everything.”
“I just love it. It makes me feel like a completely different person, and I feel like I can just leave all my worries behind,” she said.
Both Joseph and Manning have been playing their respective sports since childhood, both picking up a stick and a bat aged five. Participating was always a natural inclination, they add – after all, it's in their blood.
“Lacrosse has been in my family for centuries and my whole family plays, my mum, my dad, my uncle, my grandpa," said Joseph. "They all play and teach me."
For Indigenous communities lacrosse is a "medicine game," she said – a panacea vital to familial bonding and the collective healing of mind, body and spirit.
Lacrosse, the oldest organized sport in North America, softball, and other traditional Indigenous sports like 3D archery, canoeing and kayaking will be among the 16 sports at the centre of the competition.
“I’ve heard a lot of Elders say that movement is medicine, and physical activity is medicine, and sport is medicine," said Michelle Webster, Team BC Chef de Mission.
"It’s that opportunity to bring people together in a healthy positive space, and give them an opportunity to thrive in a different way,” she said, adding how sport draws out confidence and teamwork skills in young athletes, and gives them an opportunity to learn more about themselves.
“Sport provides an opportunity to represent more than yourself, be part of something bigger than yourself, and bring people together.”
Webster, while of no doubt that the young BC athletes will thrive in the competition, said praise and pride isn't reserved for those who bring home trophies but for all who are competing, growing, and representing “their families, their Nations and B.C."
“I would love it if they could come home with medals, but I hope that they’re proud of themselves just for the achievement of making it in and being able to have this experience and have this opportunity," she said.
Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
