Mi’kmaq Celebration
Celebrating culture is a large part of The Games. NAIG 2023 will incorporate Mi’kmaq values, customs and traditions into all spaces of events taking place.
Since time immemorial, Nova Scotia has been home to the Mi’kmaq people. Mi’kmaq and First Nations people have enriched this province with their oral history, legends, art, music, spirituality, and language.
Learn More with our friends at Mi’kmawey Debert Cultural Centre.
Sport
The games played by the Maine-Maritimes people can be separated into two main classes; those of dexterity and those of chance.
Story
Many authorities agree that sometimes an affinity exists between Native American games and religious ceremonies, and that both go back into the mists of time to some widespread myth involving a culture-hero, the first man.
Myths and Symbols
These myths usually consist of a description of a series of contests in which the culture-hero overcomes a foe of the human race by skill, or magic. The ball, as well as the culture-hero, was a symbolic tie between games and religious myth. The ball was a sacred object symbolizing the sun or the moon and therefore not to be touched with the hands. The culture-hero of the First Nations of Maine and the Maritimes was Glooscap. Glooscap was called “the deceiver,” not because he injured man, but because he appeared in many disguises and cleverly led his enemies astray; and this quality supplies a strong emphasis in most Indigenous games.
