October is Mi’kmaq History Month across Mi’kma’ki—the land of the Mi’kmaq—which includes all of present-day Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, central and eastern New Brunswick, the Gaspé Peninsula and Newfoundland. This is an opportunity to celebrate the living history, culture and traditions of the Mi’kmaq, who have lived here for over 11,000 years, and to deepen the work of truth and reconciliation through ongoing education. One way to do that? Get to know the history and ongoing legacy of the Mi’kmaq in sports.
This year’s Mi’kmaq History Month poster honours “food and its significance in Mi’kmaw culture,” available here. The Mi’kmaq History Month Committee will be releasing videos here exploring the Mi’kmaw phrase “Mijipjewey Na Mawa’luksi’k, (Food Gathers Us Together)” during October.
Last year, the 2023 Mi’kmaw History Month poster and videos celebrated sports and games that their website writes “are crucial for teaching young ones how to hear, how to see and how to move.” Last October, Mi’kmaq History Month honoured the significance of sports and games through a poster available here. The Mi’kmaq History Month Committee’s video page says, “sports and games have grown Mi’kmaw ways of knowing and being [and] are crucial for teaching young ones how to hear, how to see and how to move.”
The poster’s theme also coincided with the 2023 North American Indigenous Games being held in Halifax earlier that year in July.
A new video released Monday Sep. 30 on this year’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation continues this work—highlighting the significance of sports and games within Mi’kmaq history and culture—and places sports within the larger work of truth and reconciliation. Sportsnet journalist Donnovan Bennett asks seven Indigenous athletes, educators and community leaders the question: “In what ways can sport be part of reconciliation?”
There are four Mi’kmaw athletes, educators and role models featured in the video: Natteal Battiste, Sara-Lynn Knockwood, Ryan Francis and Jarvis Googoo. (Find longer videos on each at the bottom of this article.)
On Oct. 1, Googoo spoke with The Coast on his answer to the question of sports and reconciliation. First, he shares some context. In Monday’s video, Googoo is shown participating in the Ulnooweg Summer Solstice Run in June 2023—a run that happens every year around National Indigenous Peoples Day in Millbrook.
Googoo says, "one of the things we do with sports is bring together other communities with the Mi’kmaw Summer Games and other nations with the North American Indigenous Games—and when I think of the summer solstice run in Millbrook, that was open to everyone.”
He says there were some Mi’kmaw runners there, “but there were a lot of non-Mi’kmaw runners as well,” says Googoo, “and I love that because it gave an opportunity for folks to come to one of our Mi’kmaw communities.” This event, therefore, gave those who attended “a different perspective on a race, because you had an opening prayer, you had some drumming, you had some dancing—you don't see that too often in other races,” Googoo says. “It gave an opportunity through sport to demonstrate and share some of our culture and some of our language.” Both this year's and last year’s summer solstice runs, says Googoo, were led by Millbrook First Nation cultural worker and educator Sunshine Paul-Martin.
On the annual Mi’kmaw Summer Games, held this year in Membertou and next year in Wagmatcook in Unama’ki Cape Breton, Googoo says, “yes, this is a sports event—but it’s also an opportunity to share our culture and history, which is one of the primary messages that comes out of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report.”
Five of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action (calls 87-91) are under the subhead “Sport and Reconciliation.” Call 88 reads, in part, “We call upon all levels of government to take action to ensure long-term [Indigenous] athlete development and growth and continued support for the North American Indigenous Games.”
“The way I read that,” says Googoo, “is about empowering our youth because, with residential schools, it was about disempowering youth. It was attacking youth, hurting youth and hurting children.” Googoo says he would like to expand this call to include more support for the North American Indigenous Games and for “whatever respective Indigenous nation is hosting any kind of game, be it summer Games, winter games or otherwise.
“I absolutely would love to see other Indigenous nations elsewhere in the Americas hosting their respective Indigenous games in their territories have an opportunity to bring youth together, keep them physically active and to have that opportunity to keep sharing their culture and history and language across nations.”
Videos as promised: