Indigenous Games about history and the future
It’s not just about healthy youth, but about history,
Fourteen medal categories, 5,000 athletes.
No, it’s not the Commonwealth Games, or the Pan-Am Games. Rather, this week, Toronto, Hamilton and Six Nations of the Grand River are hosting the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG).
This international competition features Indigenous athletes from across North America, many of whom will go on to compete at the Olympic and professional level.
The story of the 2017 NAIG games is incredible. With only a year of planning and a limited budget, a small team of staff ensured this large athletic and cultural event was a success. Over the past year, the team developed a theme for the games: Team 88.
Team 88 stands as a tribute to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 88th call to action, which stresses the importance of continued support for NAIG. Of the commission’s 94 recommendations, five call for more support for Indigenous athletics. These recommendations were laid out with the intention of reversing the cultural and social upheaval that Indigenous people have faced.
So, how will encouraging Indigenous athletics address past mistreatment?
One way is through the re-establishment of cultural connections with one’s community. “When you pick up your stick, you’re picking up history,” said Kwantlen First Nation elder, Lekeyten, addressing the British Columbia NAIG Women’s lacrosse team.
For Indigenous boys and girls, athletics not only encourage positive development and a healthy lifestyle. Offering young people the chance to get involved in sports, some of which go back generations, allows them to connect with their culture and family history in a way like no other. Add to this an opportunity to represent one’s province, territory, state or band, and cultural identification transforms into something to be celebrated.
Encouraging Indigenous athletics also helps address an urgent crisis. High rates of suicide are a reality for many Indigenous communities. According to Statistics Canada, death rates by suicide among Indigenous people are at least two times higher than the national average and considered to be a leading cause of death. Four young people have committed suicide in Pikangikum First Nation in recent weeks, and hundreds of people are seeking support from mental-health workers.
Athletics can play a role in addressing this. While testifying before House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs, Christopher Sheppard, with the National Association of Friendship Centres, had this to say about suicide: “When you have young people who have nowhere to go, nothing to do, nowhere safe to be, and all these other barriers piling up, it is not difficult to see how you go down this road. Recreation, the safe space and the ability for these young people to have somewhere to go are life changing.”
There are many factors that contribute to suicidal thoughts and actions, and there are many good ways to address these problems. Encouraging athletic participation can be one of the solutions. By offering Indigenous youth a place to go, an activity to get involved in, they will not only benefit from healthy activity, they can also find a place that offers them a reprieve from psychological anguish.
That is truly what makes the NAIG games so amazing. In addition to facilitating the re-emergence of cultural connections, they will also inspire many Indigenous youths to get involved in something that can help to address serious mental health concerns.
As NAIG athletes walk out of the stadium on Saturday, some will be returning to communities with high rates of suicide and in some cases, cultural disconnect. The struggle for these Indigenous communities is still very real. However, these athletes and their successors will play a vital role in reversing this trend.
Hopefully, Canada’s government and people will commit to even more support for this and other Indigenous recreational programming in the years to come.