Attend the Canoe Relay throughout Mi'kmaq communities to celebrate Indigenous athletes

The North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) are just two months away and as organizers say: "We are saving you a seat." From July 15-23, Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Dartmouth and Millbrook First Nation will welcome 5,250 athletes from nearly 756 Indigenous communities, as they compete in 16 sports.

"The Mi'kmaq people are water people. Historically, they traveled on the waterways, they did trade this way," Fiona Kirkpatrick Parsons, chair of the NAIG told Portia Clark on Information Morning (Mainland Nova Scotia). "So this is a way for the games to really engage with the Mi'kmaq communities and to generate the excitement of the communities and celebrate the athletes that are coming from those communities as well."

At the centre of the NAIG 2023 Canoe Relay is a traditional birch bark canoe, made by Todd Labrador, of the Mi'kmaq Acadia First Nation, Kesputkwitk District.

Parsons, who is Woodland Cree from Lac La Ronge First Nation in northern Saskatchewan and based in Kjipuktuk, said the Canoe Relay is also a way to showcase Todd's "beautiful work of art."

"Todd's work is gorgeous and it is a way to share with not only the communities themselves, but also the general population. It's a way to unite everyone," she said. 

"That's what these games are all about. It's bringing cultures together - Indigenous cultures and non-Indigenous cultures."

Parsons says at each stop we celebrate and collect water from communities across Nova Scotia, culminating in a collective water ceremony on the Halifax waterfront on July 7. 

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