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By Lloyd Mackey
FOR Rick Brant, the timing of the 2008 North American
Indigenous Games (NAIG), coming so soon after the national apology to
aboriginal people, was more than coincidental.
“It was by design,” he suggested gently,
when interviewed recently by BCCN. Brant is on leave from his Ottawa work with the Aboriginal
Sport Circle, of which he is a founding director. He is chief executive
officer of the 2008 NAIG, which will run in the Cowichan Valley August 3
– 10.
And in early July, he was baptized in the Cowichan
River, near the Silver Bridge so familiar to Island travellers. Mark
Buchanan, senior pastor at New Life Church, was the baptizer.
For Brant, his Scots-background wife Tara and their two
young sons, Ben and Ty, the event was, he said, “very special.”
It was symbolic of the way in which New Life and other
significant segments of the Cowichan Christian community have surrounded,
encouraged and supported both the spirit and the staging of the games.
For Brant, it was not the first time
‘delivering’ the Games on Vancouver Island. That happened when
he was general manager in 1997, in Victoria.
“When we came back to the Island, we did not know
much about the Cowichan Valley,” he said. “We were searching
for a church family and found it at New Life, in a way that we had not
before, in other places where we lived. There was an emphasis on
reconciliation and creating understanding, and the building of friendships
to overcome the [aboriginal/non-aboriginal] divide.”
And rather than conflicting with the aboriginal ethos,
the fellowship has encouraged it.
The Christian perspective, Brant said, enhanced
“understanding of the holistic approach driven by aboriginal
teaching.”
He adds, “Churches and Christian leaders in
the community, in many ways, have been leading the way, to create better
relationships – and to support successful delivery (of the
Games).”
Brant is a Mohawk, coming originally from Tyendinaga on
the Bay of Quinte in eastern Ontario.
He was a member of Canada’s National Track and
Field Team, and in 1987 was awarded the Tom Longboat Award as the
outstanding Aboriginal athlete in Canada.
But along with achievement came disappointment. A back
injury plagued him, and he eventually had to accept that he would not
be able to compete in the Olympics.
Brant reflected, prayed and sought direction. Then one
day “a chief came knocking on my door.”
The chief told him about the embryonic Indigenous
Games, which were then being planned for Edmonton in 1990. (They have
subsequently been staged in several cities, including Prince Albert,
Victoria, Winnipeg and Denver.)
“Edmonton amazed me and changed my life. The
power of the event, the potential for social change – I embraced it
and became involved with the movement.”
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The Cowichan Valley was chosen, Brant says, because of
“large and progressive thinking . . . and a demonstrated potential
for partnership.”
The 2008 games will involve around 9,000 participants,
half of them in athletics and the rest, just as significantly, on the
cultural side.
And it is this two-pronged aspect that gives the event
its strength. “Those cultural programs bring artisans, a
marketplace and contemporary song and dance,” notes Brant.
“There is the sharing of songs, dances and
traditional practices of aboriginal people across North America. These
things offer the experience of lifetime – and a better sense of
direction.”
The whole idea is to provide a balance for physical,
intellectual, social and spiritual development, Brant suggests.
An important preface to the Games is the arrival,
July 27 in Cowichan Bay, of around 100 ocean-going canoes, from
various parts of the Pacific coast, from Alaska to Oregon.
The full orb of sports and cultural activities are
described on the Games website: www.cowichan2008.com.
The total number of people involved, both participants
and spectators, is expected to run to at least 20,000.
In some respects, says Brant, it is larger than the
Winter Olympics, which will engage British Columbians in 2010.
“True, the (indigenous games) don’t build
highways and facilities. They draw on what is already here. And they build
social legacies and reconciliation.
“Our view – and Mark Buchanan’s and
other Christian leaders’ – is that a 20-year relationship is
growing out of it. Elected officials and church leaders, among others, have
said, ‘We are in.’”
Brant was asked if being baptized as a Christian, by a
non-aboriginal pastor, would create some misunderstanding among people
whose forebears might have suffered in the church-run residential schools.
His response is that rather than misunderstanding,
there is a resonance in the First Nations communities.
“Our elders have directed us to honour the
Creator. Every social event begins with prayer, to the Creator and
God.”
In the wider world, Brant says, prayer is seldom if
ever brought into work environment.
“Here, it is a part of our daily walk.”
August 2008
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