Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

INUVIK
This summer has been all about fun and games for James Day, and that's a good thing.

The 20-year-old Inuvik resident has been tirelessly promoting the Northern Games to Inuvik youth at Chief Jim Koe Park for the last two months or so.

The Northern Games are a traditional Inuvialuit competition that served to develop strength, endurance and resistance to pain.

Day is one of the best-known practitioners of the multifaceted sporting events. He's been learning the different aspects of the sport since he was a child and his skill runs in the family.

"My family is a big part of Northern Games and drum dancing," he said. "So it was just introduced to me and I really enjoyed it.

"I kind of grew up doing the games," Day added. "Then the last couple years I really got into it. I joined a program called Youth Ambassadors and that really helped me a lot."

During the program, he refined his skills. Day also travelled to Ottawa as part of the Youth Ambassadors program to exhibit the games.

"From there it just really picked up and I really started to like doing it."

While he says "all of the games are exciting," his favourite is the one-foot high kick.

Day is also partial to the blanket toss, although he's only done that a handful of times.

"That gets your blood pumping for sure," he said.

Day has been working with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) for the summer, and his supervisor Donald Kuptana encouraged him to begin offering some workshops to town residents on the Northern Games.

"We wanted to try to get the Northern Games out there because there's a bunch of stuff happening over the next while," Day said. "There's the Circumpolar Games happening next year, so we're trying to get the games out there and the youth more into it."

He said the sessions have gone well, particularly earlier in the summer. The weather recently slowed attendance down a bit, he said, combined with many people leaving on vacation during August.

"I definitely want to do it again though and keep going with it," he said.

"I've been trying to get it bigger," he said. "It's done in the schools and I did some work with the day camp, and some workshops this summer. So it's big. There's a lot of people doing it, but I just want to get it more out there."

Day said he may have a full-time job lined up starting sometime this fall, but he hasn't received official word yet. That potential position would involve more work with youth, something he's committed to doing.

"I want to get into sport and recreation and continue working like that," he said. "I never stop practising and I never stop learning stuff."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.