They come from a land of ice and snow, so when it’s time for sport, Team Nunavut heads indoors to the badminton court.Nine young indigenous athletes make up the Nunavut badminton team, from communities thousands of kilometres apart. Now 10,000 kilometres of travel away from home, they have come together at the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer, Alta.

Piers McDonald remembers being intrigued from afar as a youth during the early days of the Canada Games Movement, when the first editions of the Games were staged in Quebec City in 1967 and in Halifax in 1969. That initial curiosity would eventually blossom into a deep personal and professional connection that remains to this day.