Achi news desk-
The 60th edition of the Servus Calgary Marathon was held on Sunday morning with 13,600 runners crossing the finish line.
This year, marathon organizers invited an Indigenous running group to set up a tent at the finish line with members from several First Nations coming together to take part in the events.
At 69, Teresa Campiou is new to competing in half marathons but grew up in the Drift Pile Cree Nation (ᒪᐦᑕᐦᑕᑲᐤ ᓯᐱᕀ mihtakaw sipiy) near Llyn Caethweis Lleiaf, running was part of life.
“We were quite busy with all kinds of activities so we had to run,” recalled Campiou, who grew up working on his family farm.
She crossed the finish line at the Servus Calgary Marathon on Sunday after running the half marathon. Campiou ran in her moccasins, as she usually does, and was wearing a ribbon skirt.
She was also part of the Calgary Marathon Indigenous Runners Team.
“While I run, I will call on my ancestors. I will communicate with my relatives who have passed on and it is a way of bringing them closer to me without any interruption,” said Campiou.
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As she runs, Campiou says she connects with her son, daughter and granddaughter, who are all dead.
He said the grief of those losses is compounded by intergenerational trauma but Cardinal said this is also a place for healing.
“It’s a beautiful thing and a generational thing too. There is intergenerational trauma, there is also generational healing and there are ways to do that and running is one of them. To be out on the trails — to be out on the land — that’s a way to heal and a way to recover,” Cardinal said.
Anita Cardinal is Nêhiyaw (Cree) and a member of the Woodland Cree First Nation located on Treaty 8 territory. He started a running group in Edmonton after noticing a lack of diversity in the running community.
Cardinal is the founder of YEG Indigenous Runners and the founder and race director for the annual Orange Shirt Day Run, as well as the Edmonton walk held on National Truth and Reconciliation Day.
“Our ancestors have run on this land since time immemorial along these rivers,” he said gesturing at the Elbow River near the finish line of the Calgary Marathon.
The Edmonton lawyer and ultramarathon runner says she inherited her love of running from her father who used to run to the next town over to visit her mother.
“He would show up in a flash,” laughed Cardinal. “When I was a kid, what I remember about my childhood is how much my dad was always running with us and playing games.”
Cardinal said running has powerful cultural significance for her.
“It is a place of peace and gratitude. Running is healing and running is prayer and running is ceremony. That’s the connection to the land that we have,” said Cardinal.
Emilea Karhioo-Saadeh drove from Edmonton to take part in the run. She says that, like other trail runners who are part of the Indigenous Runners YEG, she is not plugged into any electronics.
“When I run on the trails, I take time to stop and touch the trees and touch the leaves and look at the flowers. When I’m running, it’s time to pause and think and reflect,” Karhioo-Saadeh said.
