Project proponents Sara-Lynne Knockwood-Sack and Ryan Francis reported that Sara-Lynne completed a series of community engagements in 14 Mi’kmaq communities (including Halifax), and compiled a summary of findings from those engagements. These engagements were part of the first of the project’s two phases. The first phase included a literature review and community engagement, and the second phase focused on validating and receiving feedback on findings and action, and hosting a sports summit.

Following those phases, the next step in the project is to draft a Final Action Plan.

At a recent Sport and Recreation Committee meeting, Sara-Lynne provided an overview of how the work was done. The project’s engagements yielded several key findings:

• Participation in SPAR is supported by social connection, family focused programming, female-centered spaces, visible role models, cultural connection and a sense of belonging.
• Much of the SPAR programming accessed was in-community, and included recreational activities, such as gardening, dancing, or family activities
• A low number of participants reporting participation in a provincial and national sport program.
• Walking in communities was most mentioned, across communities
• Participation in provincial and national sports was minimal, indicating ongoing inequities in access and pathways thereto.

The engagements revealed a series of factors that facilitate participation, as well as barriers to participation and challenges or gaps.

Barriers identified through the engagements include:

• Limited financial resources
• A lack of time
• A lack of transportation
• A lack of facilities
• A lack of equipment and safe infrastructure
• Low sense of belonging in mainstream spaces
• Racism and bullying
• Limited awareness of participation and high-performance pathways
• Mental health challengers
• Female-specific health considerations

Facilitating factors include:

• Socialization and fun
• Family-focused programming
• Health and wellness
• Female-centered opportunities
• Female role models
• A sense of belonging
• An opportunity to participate
• Existing initiatives to reduce barriers

Challenges and gaps include:

• Available and accessible resources
• Adult female age group
• Mental health
• Participation and competition pathways
• Health, wellness, and fitness education
• Gender disparity
• Celebrating females In SPAR

The community engagements also identified several opportunities for Mi’kmaq language and culture to be integrated into SPAR, with the potential inclusion of cultural and Elder teachings, smudging, language learning and Indigenous events and more cultural activities.

The SPAR Action Plan will be designed around building capacity and increasing participation in Indigenous sport, physical activity, recreation and culture at community and provincial levels.

This project is a response to evidence of lower rates of SPAR participation among Mi’kmaq women and girls, and is intended to encourage and facilitate participation, along with the physical, mental, emotional and culture wellness it supports.

The Action Plan is also meant to advance Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action 89 and 90 (policy and program development for Indigenous people), and Calls to Justice 1.3, 2.5 and 7.7. (prioritizing resources, establishing sustainable funding for self-determined programs that assist in cultural learning and capacity building).

It is the goal of Wasuek Googoo to preserve and share this ancient knowledge.

To that end, Wasuek, the Infrastructure Program Manager with the Union of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq (UNSM), spoke to Sports and Recreation Committee members about a potential project that will see the restoration of old Mi’kmaw hunting trails, using traditional place names.

To get to this point, Wasuek spent a great deal of time hiking, consulting old land surveys and maps in Mi’kmaq, French and English, piecing together the complex and sophisticated way the Mi’kmaq have traditionally understood and lived within the landscapes of Mi’kma’ki.

“Fishing and hunting grounds were always huge activities for us,” she said.

Her Aug. 22 presentation in Membertou entailed ideas and work she has done for a potential program she hopes to initiate, to increase historical and cultural awareness of ancient Mi’kmaw trails and their usage.

Wasuek’s work took her from mountaintops to the beds of dried rivers and waterways and the deep woods, finding signs of past use and occupation by the Mi’kmaq People.

Wasuek told committee members that old Mi’kmaw trails can be identified by trail markers, pointing to water sources, such as bent – culturally modified – trees.

‘We would always leave inscriptions, they could be carved into rock and trees, and those would tell clan names, kin names, what types of animals you’d find on the trails, or mountain, medicines you could forage, type of terrain… and if there are any water sources,” Wasuek said.

“As markers, guides and hunters would start bending trees as they were young, so over time, as the trees grew, they’d eventually be pointing toward something, typically sometimes burial grounds.”

Other means of identifying old Mi’kmaw trails include inscriptions on rocks and trees, the remnants of old hunting grounds and former Mi’kmaw settlements – and the presence of artifacts.

Wasuek said she’s gone to places to Parrsboro, and confounded conventional local knowledge of where the Mi’kmaq dwelt, finding artifacts like quartz arrowheads in a place she was told she’d not find them.

Wasuek explained that finding many old trails and settlements involve exploring the meaning of old Mi’kmaq place names, which often are verb-based and tied directly to the land, with some old Mi’kmaq names for places referring to what animals are hunted in a particular area.

“Time is of the essence,” Wasuek said, noting her work takes place in Nova Scotia’s forests that range from 150 to 200 years old.

“I know there is urgency in my work because I know these trail markers are going to fall, and what evidence is there after that?”

Wasuek told committee members she hopes to develop a program that would accurately tell the Mi’kmaq stories associated with the many former trails in the province, by sharing content.

“There is so much room for us to Mi’kmaq-ify the signage, with our own artists. We could have Mi’kmaq wording, too. Right now there is Mi’kmaq, English, Gaelic and French on signs, and we want to be the first language on there.”

Sara-Lynne, a three-time gold medalist at the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG), and this year’s Director of Sport for the games, earned a berth in the Hall of Fame for her performance in Taekwondo.

She is one of four athletes, one team and two builders inducted in Halifax on June 5.

Sara-Lynne holds a Bachelor of Human Kinetics (B.H.K) from St. Francis Xavier University and is a standing member of the sports and recreation committee. She was inducted into the Mi’kmaq Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.

Sara-Lynne first medaled when she was 16, during the North American Indigenous Games. Sara-Lynne’s international Taekwondo career also included wins from competing in the Pan-American Games and World Open Championships in the under-16 lightweight division in 2002.

She credits her successes in the marital at to the support of her family, friends and community.