'She's my No. 1 fan': Mom and daughter have deep roots in Indigenous Games

Katana Arcand was four years old when she first attended her first North American Indigenous Games.

Perched on the shoulders of her mother, Miranda Arcand, Katana — who is now 15 — waved a Canadian flag, supporting her mother's athletic efforts at the games.

"It was nice to have her on my shoulders and see what she could accomplish at four years old," Miranda said of her daughter.

Katana is continuing her mother's legacy, representing the Enoch Cree First Nation on Team Alberta in under-16 softball.

It's her second time at the games: she won gold in under-14 javelin in Regina in 2014.

A legacy of family support

Miranda Arcand's history with the games stretches back to Prince Albert, Sask., in 1993, when she was a talented track and field athlete winning multiple silver medals in shotput, javelin and discus. She has missed only two NAIGs, attending either as an athlete, coach or chaperone.

It was the games in Denver in 2006 when her daughter joined her for the first time, slung over her shoulders during the opening ceremonies.

Miranda remembered there was a tornado warning that night, but her daughter's presence comforted her in the storm.

Today, they continue to inspire each other.

"She comes to all my games, and she supports me all the time," Katana said of her mother.

Miranda said she's amazed with her daughter's efforts.

"It's unimaginable, especially when she won the gold in javelin three years ago," she said. "You just can't imagine that your offspring has accomplished something that you've been doing too."

One major supporter Miranda and Katana have in common is Miranda's dad, a residential school survivor. Miranda recalled how he and her mom scrounged to send Miranda to a sport school in Saskatchewan for basketball and volleyball.

"Even though they didn't have enough money they did the best they could…. I didn't realize how much they gave up for me to do that," she said.

MIranda said her father has supported her and Katana through all their athletic endeavours.

"Every hockey game, he's there. Every softball game, he's there. I have no words to explain how grateful and how proud … I'm overwhelmed with the support my dad has given me and my daughter," she said.

Supporting reconciliation through sport

On their home reserve on the western edge of Edmonton, sport is an important part of everyone's lives.

"I work at the school there and I coach the teams there in our little community and it's quite popular and the kids quite like playing," Miranda said.

However, both she and Katana see a lot of talented athletes who simply don't have the support or means, sometimes dealing with the intergenerational effects of residential school in the community.

"They come from homes that are broken," she said. "I see this phenomenal athlete at home and they're not being recognized. And that's when I try to go to them and say, 'Let's try and do the best you can,' and I try to lift them up from there, besides my own daughter."

They support the 88th Call to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation report, which calls on the federal government to adequately fund NAIG and Indigenous athletes.

"All these years that I was competing at these NAIGs, I basically had to fundraise for my own self, and get myself to places and both my mom and dad, they scrounged to get it," Miranda said. "If it wasn't for our chief and council and our community members supporting us, we wouldn't have been able to come."

After NAIG, Katana will turn back to hockey, which she says is her favourite sport. She hopes she can attend the Warner Hockey School south of Lethbridge, Alta., to hone her skills.

And through it all, she'll have her mom by her side.

"She's always there and she's my No. 1 fan."

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