INUVIK - While most Inuvik athletes take to the ice at the Arctic Winter Games in Grande Prairie, Alta. this week, one young woman is going for gold in a traditional sport that predates hockey in Canada.

Kandace Sittichinli, 17, from Inuvik is a member of NWT's Dene Games team. Comprised of five events - the stick pull, handgames, pole push, snow snake and finger pull - the Dene Games competition began with the handgames tournament.

Competing at the games for the first time "is pretty sweet," she said. Sittichinli said she decided to try out this year because she thought it would be fun. So far, she has not been disappointed. Her excitement was obvious on Monday when she competed in her first handgames competition.

To the thunderous beat of Dene drums, teams from juniors to adult categories fought to outsmart their way to a gold medal. Handgames is equal parts skill and chance. To win, a team must con its opponents into incorrectly guessing in which hand players are hiding a token and callers must use a series of signals to try and ferret out the hidden objects. Although it sounds like a game chance, the game is rich with cultural history. Many elders have stories telling of great shamans who used spirit power to win handgames tournaments in the past.

That spiritual connection to the sport is demonstrated to this day in the joy on participant's faces and the enthrallment of spectators.

Sittichinli is one of only a handful of participants from the Beaufort Delta region competing in Dene games at the Arctic Winter Games. Traditionally, Dene games have been played in the southern part of the NWT, but in recent years the games have been migrating north to the Beaufort Sea and even east into Nunavut where Arctic sports such as the high kick are more prevalent.

The reason is simple: Dene games are more inclusive than Arctic sports, which are more physically gruelling.

"I can't kick; I can't high kick," said Sittichinli's teammate Chelsea Raddi of Tuktoyaktuk, where Dene games are still uncommon.

Both Sittichinli and Raddi are looking forward to the stick pull event.

"I am good at it," Sittichinli said.