Indigenous Games offer message of reconciliation
‘Everyone’s got a different story to tell’
The 2017 North American Indigenous Games are bringing a message of healing to Toronto, not just through participation in sports, but a cultural exchange.
Marcia Trudeau- Bomberry, the CEO of the Games, emphasizes the cultural exchange that will happen not just between Indigenous people and non- Indigenous people, but First Nations from across the continent. That process starts with Sunday’s opening ceremony at the Aviva Centre on York University’s campus.
“Reconciliation is a twoway street,” Trudeau- Bomberry said Monday. “It’s about non- Indigenous people taking that step to learn about Indigenous people, about the culture, about learning about some of the athletes and where they’ve come from and what they’ve gone through to make it Toronto.
“Everyone’s got a different story to tell, different challenges and different barriers.”
Running from Sunday to July 23 in Toronto, Hamil- ton and nearby Six Nations, Ont., the North American Indigenous Games — NAIG for short — are for athletes 19 or younger competing in 14 sports including track and field, basketball, baseball, boxing, golf, lacrosse, swimming and soccer, among others. Canadian teams are broken up by province or territory, while the United States are broken up into 13 regions.
Although the inaugural NAIG was held in Edmonton in 1990, this summer’s edition has taken on new importance after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action No. 88 requested that all levels of government support the Games to help heal the legacy of residential schools and ongoing systemic racism in First Nations communities.
On the surface, NAIG encourages the physical health of its competitors, but Trudeau- Bomberry sees the event as a multi- layered ap- proach to healing Aboriginal communities.
Part of that is helping nonIndigenous people experience Aboriginal culture and sports. To that end, all competition and cultural events except the opening and closing ceremonies have free admission.
But NAIG is also an opportunity for Indigenous youth to meet each other, share common experiences and appreciate they’re not alone.
“You introduce a kid to a sport and they thrive and they have this community and this feeling of inclusion that will stay with them for a lifetime,” said former Olympic boxer Mary Spencer, who competed in basketball at NAIG in 2002. “These Games give these kids who are left out of so many different areas that opportunity to feel that sense of belonging in the realm of sport.”
“We want to give it due justice,” said Trudeau-Bomberry, pointing out that the province contains sizable Métis and Inuit populations in addition to First Nations. “As we deliver the Games we want to give a good representation of Indigenous cultures across Ontario.
“We also understand that in contemporary Canadian culture that urban centres have become home to a large number of Indigenous cultures that are from all over (North America).”
Saskatchewan has the most medals all time with a total of 1,894, well ahead of Alberta (1,056) and Manitoba (849).