May 24, 2023
We are all very excited about being the host province for the North American Indigenous Games this summer. Although many people on our staff at MK are involved in helping out at the games, nobody on our staff is more excited than George (Tex) Marshall to see this event come to life. He has been working in sport for many years and had a dream to host this event. A lot of work went into the planning process for the bid to host and everyone was overjoyed when Nova Scotia was chosen as the successful location for the 2020 games. Since that time, there have been many delays and adjustments made but now we are in the home stretch and less than 2 months out from having over 5000 athletes, coaches and team staff from 756+ Indigenous Nations coming to Halifax!
The final Mission Staff meeting (M4) was held this month and members of the Mission Staff from each delegation had an opportunity to tour the venues they haven't seen and ask questions about everything from opening ceremonies to transportation, the cultural village, and catering to name a few. The host society has been working hard to finalize the details and logistics and are currently working on scheduling the sporting events now that teams have been finalized and numbers are being uploaded by each delegation.
One of the highlights of the M4 meeting was being able to visit Sipekne'katik which will be a venue for a few ball games. The community pride and excitement over their community being able to host a few games was so great to see.
Celebration events have been held in many communities across the province this month and will be held in each one as part of the canoe relay. Nova Scotia is surrounded by water and most of our communities are located on or near water. At each stop, water is collected and there will be a ceremony once the canoe relay finishes the journey in Halifax.
All of our teams have been practicing over the past few months and are looking forward to the competition. To find a list of rosters for Team Mi'kmaw Nova Scotia, please visit the website https://teammikmawns.ca/