Team Nunavut basketball player Peyton Dyer-Aknavigak of Cambridge Bay will carry the Nunavut flag during the opening ceremony at the Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse on March 8. (Photo courtesy of Peyton Dyer-Aknavigak)

Peyton Dyer-Aknavigak says she’s “honoured and a little anxious” after being named as Nunavut’s flag-bearer for the opening ceremony of the Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse on March 8.

“Carrying the flag in that moment and being a part of something everyone will remember is spectacular,” said Dyer-Aknavigak, a centre on the Nunavut women’s basketball team.

Originally from Cambridge Bay, she’s currently studying at Mount Royal University in Calgary, preparing to pursue a career in emergency services or midwifery.

She was nominated as flag-bearer by her coaches Olivia Tapatai and Megan Hachey.

“They not only believe that I can represent Nunavut, but also bring the energy, passion and determination that Team Nunavut will bring to the Games,” said Dyer-Aknavigak, who has been involved with the Cambridge Bay Wolverines basketball team off and on for the past decade.

“Both of my parents are coaches, so I grew up travelling with them for tournaments, camps and clinics, helping with their fundraisers, attending their practices — stuff like that,” she said of her mom Daisy Eyegetok and dad Terry Aknavigak.

The Nunavut women’s basketball team gelled while competing at the Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, N.L., in August, Dyer-Aknavigak said. Many of those players will be on the court in Whitehorse.

“We are a pretty great team,” she said. “We work well together and we understand how to play together.”

The Nunavut women’s and men’s basketball teams are scheduled to meet up in Yellowknife on March 4 to train before heading to the Games in Whitehorse.

Nunavut is sending 313 participants to the Arctic Winter Games, including 219 athletes competing in 14 sports. Events run from March 8 to 15.

Team Nunavut will face teams from Nunavik, Alaska, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, northern Alberta, Greenland and the Sápmi region of Scandinavia.