Tk'emlups bid to host Indigenous games draws province-wide support, city says

Photo: Contributed

A City of Kamloops official says a bid from Tk’emlups te Secwepemc to host the 2027 North American Indigenous Games — which would be the largest sporting event in Tournament Capital history — has received support from across B.C.

City council recently approved a $10,000 contribution to support the band’s bid to host the games, co-funding a selection committee site visit scheduled for April.

During Tuesday’s community relations and reconciliation committee meeting, Tammy Robertson, the city’s Indigenous and external relations manager, said meetings about the NAIG bid are happening twice per week.

“While a lot of that work remains confidential because we are in a competitive bid process, I’d just like to share that we do have support throughout the province, both from Indigenous leadership councils, many, many nations, as well as throughout non-Indigenous leadership representatives,” Robertson said.

“Once we're able to be sharing what we're doing we'll be very happy to do so, but I think you’ll be very proud of our combined efforts in trying to secure this bid, which would mean so much to Tk’emlups and to our community.”

The TteS and Kamloops bid is the only one from B.C., competing against Calgary and Saskatoon. It is expected the successful 2027 host committee will be announced at the Halifax games in July.

The North American Indigenous Games is the largest multi-sport and cultural event hosted in Canada and the United States. The event is expected to draw more than 5,000 athletes from about 750 Indigenous nations for eight days of competition.

Sports include 3D archery, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, swimming, canoe and kayak events, lacrosse and golf.