Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of MACA. I spoke earlier in my Member’s statement about the excitement of all the young children that are gathered at William McDonald School and the coaches and the officials and the wonderful opening ceremonies last night. Certainly, this indicates to me that these traditional games are getting support by this government and by this Minister.
I want to ask the Minister – it would be nice if we had some of these traditional games – is there a manual out there, a book on the different types of games that are going to be played over the weekend and the meaning of these games? As the Inuvialuit elder said, this was for our survival, and he said teaching behind these games. Is there something like that for people who want to know more about these games? Is there something out there for us to get?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re proud of our involvement in the Traditional Games. They had the first Traditional Games last year and there was an excellent turnout, from my understanding. I apologize for missing the opening ceremonies yesterday, but my understanding was that this year’s turnout was just as good as last year. The kids had a fantastic time, and this is a great opportunity for them to interact with kids from the other communities.
As far as the Member’s question about a handbook of some sort, I’m not aware of one. I will do some checking and see if one exists. As part of our culture, a lot of our games and that are just orally handed down from one generation to the next. I’m not sure if they’ve been put on paper and maybe it’s about time that was given some consideration. I will find out and communicate that to the Member.
It was duly noted last night at the opening ceremonies that the Minister was preoccupied, and so that was understandable by the participants.
I guess what I wanted to say was there were so many people out there – coaches and athletes and volunteers – that it would be nice to have some type of a book so that we could start reading about the traditional games, because that’s kind of where things are going nowadays even though they’re handed down orally. We kind of understand that in our smaller communities.
I want to ask the Minister, for the support of these traditional games, is there is long-term funding for supporting these 21 schools that are attending the second, I guess, Traditional Games Championships?
Starting from the 16th Assembly and then Assemblies before, the funding contribution that we make to the youth across the Northwest Territories, I think, is unmatched anywhere in the country. We go a long ways to try and develop our youth, and I think we’ve seen in this last budget that we just debated there was an additional $500,000 that’s earmarked for youth development.
Our youth in the Northwest Territories have a fantastic opportunity. We have some great sporting partners such as the Aboriginal Sport Circle, who I believe are the ones that are putting this event on, and they receive a lot of their funding through the Sport and Rec Council of the Northwest Territories. There is a fantastic partnership here in the Northwest Territories amongst our sporting community. Our regional folks do a lot of regional games with some of the schools within their regions.
Again, I will maybe have a discussion with the Aboriginal Sport Circle and see if there is any type of manual that exists, and if not, maybe we should start working on one and take advantage of the fact that we have a lot of pioneers, as far as the traditional games go, that are still with us. It’s a good opportunity to put their thoughts on paper and the history of the games.
The Aboriginal Sport Circle should be getting all our support we can give, even to increase their funding to support all these small communities, communities around the Northwest Territories that bring kids together to learn about the traditional games and, more importantly, to practice them and to get the best out of themselves and for their schools.
I want to ask the Minister, is there a review process, once these games are finished, to say what went well, what we need to do next time, and is there any way that Members on this side could be part of that review, because I have small communities from the Sahtu that are participating in these games this year.
As far as a review, I’m sure the Aboriginal Sport Circle, when they did the initial games last year, I’m sure when the games were over they had a bit of a debrief amongst their own organization to see what worked well, what could be improved, and I’m sure, as a result of that, there was probably some improvements made for the event this year. An official review, I’m not sure one exists. I don’t know, but I’m sure the Aboriginal Sport Circle has their own internal debrief, and if there’s information that we can gather from that, I can share that with the Members.
As far as the Member’s question on the booklet, there was somewhat of a book, I think, that was made a few years ago on the Arctic Winter Games and the history and that, so again, I will commit to trying to gather that information and share it with the Member.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These Aboriginal games come from our ancestors, and basically, they come from the land and their survival. Now they have a different meaning but they’re very, very, very important. This is the foundation of our culture and our people.
I want to ask the Minister, in regard to these new Aboriginal games that are being out here, if he can work with this Department Education, Culture and Employment Minister. Is that part of the curriculum for physical education in our schools? This should be, actually, a mandatory part of the curriculum in our schools with our young people.
I can’t speak for the Minister of Education. I can have a discussion with him. We’re fortunate that we have elders that are willing to share their vast knowledge of the traditional games and their beginnings. As far as making it mandatory in the schools, again, that’s a conversation we’d have to have with the Education Minister and the district education councils.
There’s another traditional game, I think, among the old traditional games that we don’t hear much anymore, and it’s called the lip pull. We may have to start practising that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I hear a challenge there.
---Laughter
Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
