(Ben Tompkins/HuskieFAN)

By Ben Tompkins

National Truth and Reconciliation Day

U of S to host multiple Truth and Reconciliation games in honour of national holiday

Sep 28, 2022 | 12:20 PM

The University of Saskatchewan Huskies football and men’s hockey teams will host the University of Manitoba Bisons and the Trinity Western University Spartans for a pair of games this weekend, surrounding National Truth and Reconciliation Day.

Chief Athletics Officer Shannon Chinn told HuskieFAN they’re grateful to honour the occasion.

“We’re really excited for this weekend and having the opportunity on September 30 to answer some of the calls to action to reconciliation.”

Friday night, the football team plays host to the Bisons at 7 p.m. with orange theme fireworks on display at Griffiths Stadium.

There will also be residential school survivors participating in the opening coin toss.

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“This is just an opportunity for us to grow some of the education that we’re doing in the stadium, working on truth and reconciliation,” said Chinn.

A special halftime performance will be led by Indigenous dancers, while young scout drummers will drum the club out of the tunnel during the intro.

And one of the program’s Indigenous football alumni will be in the flag plant.

“It’s just such an opportunity for us to be a bigger part of that advocacy and allyship, it just was the perfect opportunity to help contribute to this important day.”

The U of S will also be debuting their Huskie Athlete Council, which has drafted a new land acknowledgment that will be a part of every one of their games moving forward.

On Saturday, there will be the sled dog open (cross country team’s competitive race for the season), as all teams in Canada West will wear orange singlets.

They’ve also partnered with the Saskatchewan Aboriginal Track and Field to include a smudging ceremony presentation to the First Nations’ elders and a community walk and run to support residential school survivors prior to the races.

“Just being able to educate through some of the stuff, our student-athletes are really doing a lot of work in this space as well,” Chinn said.

An Indigenous athlete council has now started up, for some of their indigenous athletes to gather together.

Some orange lighting will also be displayed outside Merlis Belsher Place, while orange shirt pins will be handed out coming into all the events.

Chinn explained how huge of a part the athletes will play in this weekend’s festivities.

“They continue to be allies, they continue to be educated and they continue to learn. It’s just awareness and education and it’s continual learning and continual growth for all of our student-athletes. The more that we can help contribute to the opportunity for indigenous youth to become part of sports, that’s what our athletes are really interested in.”

The Huskies men’s hockey team will face off against the Spartans Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday night at 7 p.m.

There will be sticker helmets for both football and hockey, along with some orange tape on sticks.

Chinn mentioned how grateful the campus is to partner with and have some very important representatives, in attendance.

“We feel really fortunate that we can have them be a part and that they want to participate with us in the game. We’ve got some senior leaders across campus that lead in our indigenous space and we’ve been working really closely with them along the way.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8