Vol. 49.4 – Traditional Inuit Games
McKinley and Darlene Winters both grew up in Hopedale watching traditional games and sports. Now, the two parents are working on passing on the games to their children and all Nunatsiavut communities. They spoke to Them Days‘ Heidi Atter about the importance of the games to Inuit culture, which can be found in the pages of Vol. 49.4, and about what they are doing to pass on the skills.
Heidi: Is there anyone that you want to mention who has helped you?
McKinley: Yes. What’s come to my mind right away is Kyle Worl, and Eden Hopson. They’re from Alaska. We’d actually done training with them two years ago online. We became aware of a session they were doing for online virtual training sessions in Inuit games, and we decided to join, and that’s where we started to learn about why we do what we do and and we had them here in Hopedale last month in person, it just made it more connection and brought a bigger value to why we do it.
Darlene: And it kind of opened our minds and eyes and hearts to that there is competition out there, right McKinley? Like the Native Youth Olympics, the Arctic Winter Games.
McKinley: We’re starting the first ever Agvituk Indigenous Games here in Hopedale soon. It’s all developed to incorporate our culture and our Inuit games, what we do, and to learn other ones as well from our fellow Inuit in Alaska, who taught us new games like this, the jumping one. Yeah, and even stick pull, and as we grow in this ourselves, myself and Darlene we’ll continue to add more and grow more and learn more about why we do certain games.
Darlene: And we hope to see the Agvituk Indigenous Games continue either annually by or every two years, or every three years, we would love for it to continue.
McKinley: Yes, as this is the first one ever conducted in Nunatsiavut region, and it’s important for this to continue, and hopefully it will. Like Darlene said, it’s our culture, our identity, and a sport developed just around Inuit games. It just brings connection and community together, and that’s what it’s all about, to teach others and help others in games. That’s how our culture has been passed down to us for centuries.
