Indigenous games get youth active
Stick pull, high kick hits with Aboriginal Sport Circle taking traditional activities to Fort Simpson schools
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, November 24, 2016
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Maybe it was the grease, or maybe it was the difficulty, but aside from a couple dissenting opinions stick pull was the hit of the day with many of the students who participated in Aboriginal Sport Circle's two-day sports stint in Fort Simpson this month.
Thomas Roche kicks up high to hit a ball on Nov. 17 during an evening session with the Aboriginal Sport Circle. Behind him are James Williams and Jordee Reid. - April Hudson/NNSL photo
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The organization spent two days in Fort Simpson's schools, teaching its Arctic Sports and Dene Games program all day at Bompas Elementary School and Thomas Simpson Secondary School.
For students at the elementary school, the stick pull proved a source of particular entertainment when students paired off against each other. As each grabbed hold of the stick, which was greased, they would try to pull it out of the other's grasp.
"It was a lot of fun," said Megan Kaglik-Lapierre, a Grade 1 student at the school.
Kaglik-Lapierre said she didn't find the game too hard but enjoyed playing with her fellow students.
Grade 5 student Dejah Horesay said the grease is what made stick pull the most fun.
She and her classmates went into the game with extra experience under their belts.
"It was kind of easy because we did it in (our culture) class as well," Horesay said.
Students received T-shirts at the end of the day.
Jordee Reid, one of the Aboriginal Sport Circle instructors, said some of the other games they took students through included triple jump and one-leg high kick.
"The kids were really getting into it," she said.
Thomas Simpson Secondary School ended up turning the group's program into a schoolwide competition. Student Marshall Kwasney won the one-leg high kick by kicking seven feet and two inches into the air, falling just short of the seven foot and three inches mark.
Shawna McLeod, James Williams and Jordee Reid, all from Aboriginal Sport Circle, also spent two evenings at Fort Simpson's recreation centre, helping adults to learn some of the different sports, such as the one-foot high kick.
They brought Fort Simpson's Chris Stipdonk on board for the evening of Nov. 17, where he spent time demonstrating how to properly do the one-leg high kick.
