Arctic Bay athletes win big in Dene games at AWG

Arctic Winter Games athletes from Arctic Bay, Nunavut, returned home last month with a mountain of hardware from an unlikely source.

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The tiny community of less than 900 supplied all 16 athletes for Team Nunavut inDenegames. Those athletes walked away with a total of eight medals in a wide variety of competitions, including snow snake, which Team Nunavut swept in the junior females division.

"I was quite happy for the three girls from Nunavut," said Dene Games official Peter Daniels of Crystal Quannaq Enoogoo, Elvina Natanine and Kristine Qamaniq Oyukuluk, who won gold, silver and bronze respectively.

"In the past in snow snake, I hadn't seen Nunavut actually place that high before, let alone a clean sweep in the medal standings."

What is snow snake?

Snow snake is a sport that developed from traditional ways of hunting caribou. Athletes throw a spear, usually carved from a spruce tree, as far as they can. The person who throws it the farthest distance wins.

According to Daniels, the popularity of Denegames over the past few years seems to be "catching like fire" in Nunavut.

This might seem surprising to some, considering most Nunavummiut don't have access to proper snow-snake equipment a sharpened tree branch. Because Arctic Bay sits above the treeline, those who want to hone their craft must get creative.

Thomas Levi, Team Nunavut's Dene games coach, elaborates.

"We would practise with a broom handle," he said. "We just sharpened it like snow snake."

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This year's Arctic Winter Games were jointly hosted March 18 through 23 between the N.W.T. communities of Fort Smith and Hay River. Thomas said being an Inuk participant in the Denegames has always been a welcoming, positive experience.

"I've known [some of] these athletes since 2004," he said.

"We've been seeing each other every two years, so it's kind of a family."

Denegames rise in popularity over Inuit games

And Dene games aren't only catching in popularity as part of the Arctic Winter Games competition according to Levi, Arctic Bay residents hold more interest in Denegames than Inuit Games.

He said mini-handgame tournaments are played every Sunday at the community's Arctic College. Organizers even brought in a Yukon coach to visit Arctic Bay to host a drum-making clinic before this year's Games.

"We have more Dene drums than our own cultural drums," said Levi.

Rex Willie is the person behind the Sunday tournaments. He started learning Dene games in 2014. He got into it because Team Nunavut were short two men going to that year's Games, which were held in Fairbanks, Alaska.

"I had my passport with me, so they picked me," he said.

Willie said he had no interest in Denegames, but wanted the opportunity to travel somewhere he'd never been before. Now that he's learned, he said he's begun to love Denegames, and has passed them down to his own children.

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"My daughter, Horizon Willie, won a medal in the handgames," he said.

"I love her and am extremely proud of her I also have three sons here with me. They won a medal too."

What does Daniels think about the spread of Denegames outside of Dene culture?

"It's a lot of pride I have in seeing our games being enjoyed by everybody," he said.

"When you are out there you see the friendships being made, the relationships being formed It creates one whole big family."