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Alashuk Allen, Enoosie Allen, Joy Akavak and Mary Akavak play Ammalukitaa in Kimmirut last week. - photo courtesy of Billy Akavak

Circle game endures

Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Nov 08/04) - In a place where winter lasts much of the year, it is not surprising Inuit have created many entertaining games to pass the time.

An old Inuit board game involving five marbles and up to four players is much more addictive and fun to play than it looks at first.

This game, which is always home-made and cannot be purchased in any store, goes by different names in different communities.

Essentially the various names translate to "Circle" in English.

No matter what it's called, the use of five marbles per player, the rules and the design of the board are virtually the same wherever you go in Nunavut.

Here is how it works: Each player has five marbles lined up in front of them on a board lined with perfectly marble-shaped dimples for travelling.

You get your marbles "on the road" one at a time by rolling either a one or a six.

If you roll a six, you get to move again.

You keep moving around the board until you get all five of your marbles lined up in the safe spot -- a line that is usually coloured red like your starting line up is. If you land on one of your opponent's marbles he gets automatically sent back to his starting line.

In Cape Dorset they call the game Sappanngarpait -- which means "Beads" or "Circles."

Geela Jaw, a Grade 4 Inuktitut teacher at Sam Pudlat school in Cape Dorset, only learned the game about four years ago.

In the Dorset version, once you are "on the road" making your way around the board, if you roll a three you must move back three spaces.

In Kimmirut the game is known as Ammalukitaa. Some people there add an extra rule that rolling a four makes you move back four spaces.

Sanikiluaq uses cards

Sanikiluaq players use a deck of cards instead of dice and call the game Pattaapik.

Lisi Kavik said in the Sanikiluaq version one player cuts the deck and deals. The rules are basically the same, but you can move along up to 13 places at a time, with the Ace being the one that gets you out of home.

Whenever the game is mentioned to anyone, there is much laughter over the variations on it around the North -- and how much fun it is to play.