Canada Games partner exhibit celebrates athletes of colour on P.E.I.

The 2023 Canada Winter Games on Prince Edward Island are less than one week away. As the country’s best young athletes prepare to shine, an exhibit in the host city celebrates the contributions racialized people made to the island’s sports community.

When Canada Games organizers approached members of BIPOC USHR, a group offering broad supports to racialized communities, to put something together for the games’ illumination festival, it was an easy yes.

Exhibition curator Bianca Garcia came up with “It's More Than Sports: A Celebration of BIPOC Athletes on Prince Edward Island.”

“With this exhibition, I wanted to showcase that we want to kids to stay in P.E.I.,” said Garcia. “We want the youth, the kids that are growing, to see that P.E.I. is a safe place for them to play sports, any type of sports they want."

The exhibition features Black, Indigenous and other athletes of colour, including trailblazers from Island history who got us to where we are now.

“A lot of times, people forget that P.E.I. has had a very vibrant racialized community, and for a long time,” said Sobia Ali-Faisal, executive director of BIPOC USHR. “That includes within sport, so we wanted to highlight that.”

It's not just those from long ago. The exhibit features former athletes who are still making the island a better place, as well as putting a spotlight on the athletes who are part of P.E.I.’s sports community today.

“If they want to get involved in athletics, sports, or whatever other aspects of society, that there’s space here,” said Ali-Faisal. “That we do belong here, and that we have been here for a long time.”

The exhibit serves to show the general public the ongoing contributions of the island’s athletes of colour, but it’s also painting a picture of who those could look like in the future.

Young artists were called in to add their voices.

“How they envision the future,” said Garcia. “I hope that brings some joy to a lot of kids, and they see themselves in those pictures as well.”

A number of events will be held during the games to show off the exhibit, and give the chance to connect with athletes of colour from across the country.

While this exhibit was set up with the Canada Games in mind, it doesn’t end with them. It carries on until the beginning of April.