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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Traditional games brought together youth from across the territory last weekend.

Amber Lee Gargan waits for the call to be made before revealing her hands at the Traditional Games Championships in Yellowknife. - James McCarthy/NNSL photo

Eighteen teams participated in the inaugural Traditional Games Championships in Yellowknife from March 1 to 3. The event, for 10- to 12-year-olds, was designed to increase participation and awareness of both Inuit and Dene games at the territorial level.

Three teams from the Deh Cho competed in the championships including two teams from Fort Simpson and one from Deh Gah School in Fort Providence. The Deh Gah team finished fifth overall with 45 points.

The team members included Sadeedi Gargan, Amber Lee Gargan, Shannel Landry, Dustin Bonnetrouge, Adam Nadli and Julien Antoine.

"They enjoyed themselves very much," said Diana Gargan, who coached the team.

All of the participants competed in three team and two individual events in both Dene and Inuit games. The Fort Providence team won first place in handgames after beating the Fort Good Hope team in the finals.

Three times a week for three weeks before the competition, the team had practised hand signals along with the other Dene games including snow snake, stick pull and pole push, said Diana. The team wasn't able to practise the Inuit games.

Despite the lack of practice, Amber Lee got first place amongst the female competitors in her pool in wrist hang. The youth tried a modified version of the event in which they hung onto a pole for as long as possible with two hands while two adults lifted the pole and carried them around the gym.

Sadeedi placed fourth in the female two-foot high kick in her pool. Diana said it was nice to see the youth cheer on their team members as well as their opponents in the events like one- and two-foot high kick and pole push.

A team of five students from Thomas Simpson School in Fort Simpson finished in 10th place with 36 points. The participants included Sky Lennie, Delainea Anderson, Meegwun Cazon, Newmoon Buggins and Jade Tesou. The Bompas Elementary School team finished in 18th place with 13 points.

The whole weekend was fun, said Trenton Diamond'C, 12, one of the Bompas team members. He liked the Dene games because he is more familiar with them, particularly handgames. The highlight for Diamond'C was being a caller during one of the handgames rounds.

The Bompas team only had one stick left and there were two people still holding their tokens on the other team. Diamond'C made a hand signal that meant one player had to open their left hand and the other player their right hand and managed to get them both out at the same time.

The Bompas team did particularly well at pole push, coming in second. It takes a lot of teamwork to be good in that event, Diamond'C said.

Hunter Norwegian, 11, said he was also more familiar with the Dene games although some of his favourites from the championship were Inuit games. Norwegian particularly enjoyed wrist hang and two-foot high kick.

"It was fun to see how high you could kick with both feet," he said.

Teammate Mary-Anne Muyambo did especially well in the one- and two-foot high kick events, finishing fourth and second respectively in her pool.

Bernice Gargan, a Dene language instructor at Bompas, coached the team along with Morris Norwegian. Bernice said she enjoyed seeing youth of all races participate in the traditional games.

"It's such a healthy thing for the kids to do," she said.

The other members of the Bompas team were Akesha Antoine, Ariah Thomas and James Tsetso.

The Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT hosted the championships while the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and Sport Canada provided sponsorship.

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