Indigenous Games give athletes opportunity

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Kelly Bull was one of the moving forces behind the development of the Indigenous Games. In the past five years since 1990, there's been huge growth. This year, more than 8,100 competitors met at Blaine, Minn., for a week of competition and camaraderie.

"We want to ensure that our Native athletes have the opportunity to be represented in and to Canada, or at whatever level they can aspire to," Bull said, during on of his hectic days as chef de mission for Ontario. "There are Native athletes in Canada good enough to compete for Canada, but they're almost always overlooked."

Bull, the executive director of the Ontario Aboriginal Recreation Council, singled out the contributions of Willie Littlechild, from Hobbema, Alta., to the development of the games concept, as well as others who were important in keeping Native athletics alive through the 1970s and '80s.

"There was a time when Indian sports seemed to be doing pretty well," Bull explained. "But then, for a number of years, there was nothing. Now the Indigenous Games, through the hard work of many people, have given Native athletes a focus."

The games success mirror what Bull sees as the development of access for Native athletics to the levers of power.

"We're establishing a body through which each province is privileged to voice their opinions to the Aboriginal Sports Circle," he said. "(The circle) will carry their concerns to the higher bodies in government." The Aboriginal Sports Circle will hold its first annual general meeting in September of this year.

"There are two other things that are very important," Bull said. "The development and growth of Native athletics relies on the youth, and so the youth component is really important to our growth.

"The second is that lacrosse is very important," he continued. "The process in getting a sport into the games is for the provinces and states to return and do inventories, and when enough competitors are interested, the sport is listed in the games. We had to make an exception for lacrosse because it is the Native sport. That's why it was kept on the table."