UNITY — The Unity Composite High Schools senior girls’ volleyball team hosted their fifth annual Truth and Reconciliation Volleyball Tournament Sept. 19 and 20.
As well as bringing their best on-court play, visiting teams were asked to do a little bit of homework before attending. This year, each team was asked to do a short presentation related to Indigenous art and culture.
The highlight of the presentations was that of the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation. All team members wore ribbon skirts while assistant coach Alexis Fiddler and tribe Princess Marina Cheenanow wore their jingle dance regalia. The two women then performed jingle dances for everyone in attendance.
With a team member’s kokum (grandmother) having made ribbon skirts for her granddaughter and a friend, the two representatives from the Maple Creek Rebelles proudly wore those skirts and spoke about their significance.
Other teams highlighted individual Indigenous artists, while the UCHS girls spoke about the late Mercedez Tate, a poet and 2022 graduate of their school. With her family’s permission, a video was shown of Tate reading her poem, “Have you Seen My Sister?”
Tate’s family had attended the kickoff to the Truth and Reconciliation Tournament, held the morning of Sept. 20. Indigenous inspirational speaker Shalen Fox spoke to the entire school and assorted guests.
Truth and reconciliation and volleyball merged with a “unity game” Friday evening. The game, played just for fun, saw individual players from each team make up two new teams to play one set against each other. The game was designed to promote unity and friendship through sport.
Serious volleyball was played as well, with the team from Bert Fox Community High School in Fort Qu’Appelle emerging as the overall champions. The UCHS girls finished with silver medals, losing very close sets to Bert Fox in round robin play and in the gold medal game.
The Plenty Wildcats defeated Clavet to take the bronze.
