Lac La Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson. Photo courtesy Facebook.
Lac La Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson is back in northern Saskatchewan after travelling to Brazil for the inaugural World Indigenous Games.
Cook-Searson says it was an amazing experience as people from 30 countries came together to take part.
The games showcased different sports like soccer and canoe racing, as well as culture.
“It was a mix of native and Western sports. Like trunk racing – it’s kind of similar to our King and Queen Trapping events here in northern Saskatchewan, the portage event that we have,” Cook-Searson said.
In that events, a group of people carried a heavy log a certain distance.
Cook-Searson says the canoes used in competition were made the traditional Amazonian way.
“So they carved out the log and made it into a canoe and then every log they cut to make a canoe they planted 20 trees to replace the tree,” she said.
Although she wasn’t familiar with all the games’ results, Cook-Searson said people gave their all in events. This includes the tug of war.
There’s about six or seven people that were taken away by ambulance because they either went so hard that they passed out from exhaustion, or from going so hard or else getting hurt physically. So it was pretty intense,” she said.
The Saskatchewan contingent making the trek to the games was made up of 18 people, and about 50 people from across Canada joined. Cook-Searson was invited by Lorna and Eugene Arcand.
Cook-Searson says she made a lot of friends and connections from across the world. Whenever language posed a barrier – Brazil’s main language is Portuguese – her contingent got helped from volunteers, who helped people communicate.
There was great diversity even at the school Cook-Searson’s group stayed at. People from Ethiopia, Mexico, Finland, French New Guinea, and New Zealand were some of those sharing the space.