The plan to grow the popularity of Arctic sports in Nunavut

Key takeaways: 

• ‘I would love to see this association increase back to our numbers,’ says Dawn Currie.
• Wesley Innukshuk is contending in an Arctic sport event in Inuvik, N.W.T., in 1995. 
• He’s lately offered to coach athletes in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

Over the years, participation in Arctic Sports in Nunavut has been declining, states Dawn Currie, but she and her group plan to change that.

She’s the interim director of Nunavut’s first-ever Arctic Sports Association, which officially merged last July.

As it looks forward to its first annual general meeting this summer — one of its forthcoming events to extend the organization — the association expects to rejuvenate the sport by supporting communities to set up local Arctic sports programs.

Nunavut has been long overdue for a territorial Arctic sports organization to Currie.

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The region is almost 20 years behind, and the number of athletes, coaches, and officials has dropped because their main action has been to host a selection of people to attend Arctic Winter Games. 

Arctic Sports consists of events like the one and two-foot high kick events, the head pull, the Alaskan high kick, and various jumps. The sports have origins in Inuit culture and a form of life — the games were created to help people ready to go out on the land and hunt.

“I would love to see this association extend back to the numbers that we had 20, 30, 40 years ago where individuals wanted to be a part of it,” Currie said. “I would love to have numerous coaches in all the communities.”

Growth strategies

There are three individuals on the association’s board. Still, it’s expected that digits will grow after the forthcoming A.G.M., which is happening during the 2023 Arctic Winter Games’ Territorial Selections in Rankin Inlet in August.

Source – cbc.ca