The elders looked happy cracking open crab with their hands on Sunday at the Alberni Athletic Hall during last day of the second annual Tseshaht Lightning Open Basketball Tournament.
They also enjoyed a free seafood feast of clams and frybread the day before.
“The Tseshaht families are very generous. This is their traditional territories,” said Andrea Amos-Baker.
Elder Donna Samuel’s pink beaded Nike cap and pink sweater matched the huge plate of prawns she was served after finishing her crab.
“It’s not political or anything this tournament. Tseshaht really helps the residential school survivors,” said Samuel, who is of Gitxsan descent and went to Alberni Indian Residential School.
“They hold meetings for us. They include us because the residential school is on their land. They treat us so well. They make us feel like human beings, like we are accepted. You feel so unaccepted with all the politics that are going on,” she continued.
Len Watts, Tseshaht Lightning U13 girls coach, praised tournament organizer Nasimius Ross for recognizing the elders.
“It’s his upbringing. He’s really good at incorporating our people’s culture within the sport and taking care of elders,” said Watts.
Ross says it’s because he was fortunate to live and see the late Tseshaht Chief Adam Shewish.
“I felt loved, I felt proud when I was in his presence. He always told us, ‘You want people to leave your territory talking about you, how they were treated’,” said Ross.
“I think sports is the closest thing that we have to potlatches rights now. It’s just coming together and all the visiting. It’s around the bleachers, it’s around the food table, that people are just catching up,” he shared.
Ross found other ways to weave Indigenous culture into the May Long weekend hoops tournament – the logo is a raven stealing a basketball.
“It’s a modern theme; we meshed our culture with sports. The raven steals the sun or the moon and you see that on all kinds of art. The raven is a trickster and he’s stealing the ball,” said Ross.
All-stars received beautiful cedar necklaces with trade beads made by Jan Green with “good energy and intention”. Other players winning MVP, Most Inspirational or Mr. Hustle went home with silver pendants of the raven logo crafted by artist Norman Seaweed.
Ross and Watts offered a tremendous amount of gratitude towards all the parents, scorekeepers, kitchen crew, security, tournament scheduler and clean-up crew.
“Volunteers are hard to find, but the ones we got, though - oh man, they just go, go, go. They are in it for the right reason. We couldn’t do it without these people,” said Watts.
Tseshaht Nation donated 72 championship sweaters and Canadian Tire gifted 60 new basketballs so all the U10 players can “ignite their dream”.
Watts adds that the main reason they set about to host a tournament is to “keep the kids busy, active and to show them community.”
“Prevention is a huge part of it for me. We’re not blind to just go down the road and see lots of our people down there…” he said.
For next year, Tseshaht Lighting is considering taking on another 20 teams (on top of the 67 that entered this year) and changing the youth divisions from a double knock-out format to a round robin so the kids get more court time.
“My daughters were watching their sister knock threes back. It was like they were watching their hero do that, and that’s what we need,” said Ross.
“Kids. That’s what started it all, kids,” said Watts.
