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The All Native Basketball Tournament is in its 63rd year and is hosted annually in Prince Rupert, B.C. The small town of 12,000 enjoys welcoming the estimated 4,000 athletes, family, friends and fans to the community every year.
“It’s an incredible honour to be able to host the All Native here in Prince Rupert,” said mayor Herb Pond. “Bringing greetings on behalf of the people of Prince Rupert, seeing everybody in the games and saying ‘You’re welcome here, this is your second home’ is a fantastic feeling.”
Prince Rupert is at the centre of Ts’msyen territory with a large Indigenous population – over 5,000 – and the All Native is the “cultural heartbeat” of the city. Pond says that when everyone gets together for the tournament, it’s basketball but it’s also family.
Kiefer Collison agrees. He’s a Haida broadcaster whose been coming to the tournament and calling games for years. He knows the tournament is huge for Indigenous athletes across the province but also sees how it brings everyone together.
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“It’s a battle and it’s more than just basketball,” said Collison. “It’s culture sharing, it’s tradition and it’s camaraderie.”
The All Native has grown from what was once a village rivalry into a 50-team tournament with people travelling from all across the province to Prince Rupert for the week-long event.
“If you have a chance to come and watch the games, I think we’re at a time where we’re ready to share our culture,” said Collison. “We’re ready to share our traditions with the world and we’re ready for them to be visible.”
While the tournament is of course centered around basketball, it’s hard to ignore its economic impact on the city.
“(With) the influx of people that come in for (the tournament), it really changes the whole city of Prince Rupert,” said Collison. “It’s huge revenue building, we bring in a lot of money here.”
The tournament’s impact is easy to see — people have to make reservations at restaurants they normally wouldn’t and there are lineups at grocery stores; hotels across the city have no vacancies.
Angie Eccleston, general manager of the Crest Hotel in Prince Rupert, says their 108 rooms are fully booked.
The hotel has been in the city for almost as long as the tournament and Eccleston says about 90 per cent of their current guests are here to watch or play.
“Every year at the end of the All Native, (our operations manager) is already making efforts to get all of the people who just stayed with us booked in again,” said Eccleston.
“The connections that she’s built over the years are incredible. (And) February is typically one of our slower seasons — so to have the All Native Basketball Tournament here, we’re so grateful to have them, they mean a lot to us.”
Though it’s been years since a measure of the economic impact the All Native has on Prince Rupert was done, mayor Pond says if you extrapolate a little you can almost figure it out.
“Let’s just say there’s 4,000 people who come to town for it, and in the course of a week between hotels, meals and other purchases, spending, say, $1,000 a head, you’re up to $4 million,” said Pond.
“That’s a pretty substantial impact.”
The All Native Basketball Tournament continues until Feb. 18 and all games can be live streamed.
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