From March 5-6, a group of over 100 individuals gathered in Saskatoon, at the Indigenous Sport Development Summit to listen and learn about reconciliation through relationships within sport.

Over the two days, volunteers, coaches, District and Tribal Council members, organizers and other community groups across the province joined in, adding to the conversation surrounding the importance of including culture within the sport system and much more.

Here is some insight to what was shared at the summit.

Keynote: J.R. LaRose, 2011 Grey Cup Champion

“I had coaches that were there, building up my self-esteem, telling me great job, all these things that I longed for in a father, I’m now receiving from my coach. So, I want to take this time to acknowledge every single one of the people in this room. If you are a coach, mentor, or running an organization that provides safe places for youth, thank you for the work that you do. Often times it may seem like a thankless job, but never underestimate the ability to make an impact on a youth’s life.”

Games Panel – Differences & Unities with Nicole Clow (Saskatchewan Games Council), Terrance Sylvestre (Meadow Lake Tribal Council), Dwight King (2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup Champion)

“How do we get back to where our [Tony Cote] Games were? What do we have to do? Because we are losing the aspect of the after-sport piece of our Games. The connection after, that is not always sport focused, but more the culture, the unity, the interaction. That is what these Games do, they take people from other walks of life and connect with other people, other First Nations and other cultures. Same with the Saskatchewan Games Council, other parts of the province coming together to celebrate.”  – Terrance Sylvestre.

Nikaniwin – Incorporating Culture in the Everyday with Dr. Chris Scribe, Executive Director and Founder of Think Indigenous Inc.

“What we need to do, when we’re working with Indigenous children, not only in sport, but in all systems, is we need to look at filling the void with things that last. And what lasts for our kids? The stories my grandmother told me, I remember every single one of them…So, we need to fill our children with all these things in order to capture them. They’re starving and searching for who they are. Sport is only one part that we can build. You want to know if that’s the truth? Look at how many athletes make it beyond high school, how many athletes that should be playing Division 1, how many athletes that should be going and being scouted to play for the universities in this [Saskatchewan] province that don’t. How many athletes that can go beyond what we have here. Instead, if we only feed that [just participating in sport], we’ll always get the same results.”

Keynote: Tyler Latu’ila national volleyball coach and 2023 North American Indigenous Games coach

“For me to get to where I am today, it took a village. When you are an athlete, you think it’s all about you. You hear these billionaires say how they are self made. No one is self made. It took a community of people to get there. It took people working for sport organizations, the administrators behind the scenes.”

“I think if we are going to push elite sport with our Indigenous youth. Culture, spirituality has to be a part of it. You don’t fit Indigenous athletes into a system that is not built for them. You need to change the system a little bit.”

Stride Athletics Program with Derek Rope, Founder of Running Wild Athletics Club and the Aboriginal Track & Field Meet

“There was a difference and a gap in terms of participation levels. Obviously within the First Nation communities and Metis community, there was a desire to be in track and field, but why were they not accessing the track and field community or other means. So, we started to work within the communities, we tried a bunch of different things. We tried clinics all over the province, we tried coaching clinics in Saskatoon, one of the things that we eventually kind of found and it helped us define what was going to work in our program, was the ability to start focusing a little bit more and changing our efforts on coach development.”