Meagan Big Snake, a talented Siksika hockey player from Alberta, will use her athletic prowess and community spirit in the job of a lifetime this winter — running with the Olympic Flame as its guide and protector to ensure it keeps burning bright on its cross-Canada journey, starting next Friday (Oct. 30) in Victoria.

The 20-year-old flame attendant is among 600 First Nations, Inuit and Métis men and women selected to play significant roles, such as torchbearers and honorary elder firekeepers, in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay Aboriginal program.

The program was designed by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) in partnership with the Four Host First Nations and other Aboriginal organizations, including the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Métis National Council/Métis Nation B.C., National Association of Friendship Centres, and Aboriginal Sport Circle. Nominations for the Aboriginal torch relay positions opened in March and closed over the summer.

The other Aboriginal participants named this week are: Susie Pearce of Iqaluit, Nunavut (community torchbearer), Stephanie Albiston of Vancouver (language torchbearer), Waneek Horn-Miller of Montreal (sports hero torchbearer), Marc Hunter of Lac Simon, Que. (urban community hero torchbearer), and Audrey Rivers of Squamish First Nation (honorary elder firekeeper).

“To be nominated by your own communities and peers is a great honour. These Aboriginal men and women symbolize the best in all of us,” said Andrea Shaw, VANOC’s vice president of sponsorship sales and marketing. “As flame attendants, torchbearers and firekeepers, they’ll help carry the Olympic Flame’s special message of hope, peace and friendship as it travels from coast to coast to coast as we prepare to welcome the world to Canada's Games in 2010.”