Fun and games at P.A. Grand Council Culture Festival

Cooking over a fire were slabs of caribou meat and fish – meals which are staples in the Dene culture, said Allan Adam.

“Lots of people rely on caribou meat, and fish, lots of fish from the land,” Adam explained. “This meat would have been harvested in March or April because right now, we can’t get caribou, they’re too far north yet. Once it freezes, the animals come back down and all winter they hunt caribou – that’s there staple food.”

The other big attraction took place under a small tarp where attendees joined in on a game of traditional Dene hand games.

The game is played by two teams who sit across from each other. Members of one team place their hands under a jacket or blanket in an attempt to hide tokens from the opposing team. Once they unveil their fists, a designated person on the opposing team must guess which hand the token is hidden in.

“It’s all about guessing, you’re trying to hide the object from each other,” Adam said. “When the old people get into it, it’s a real high energy game and it’s really fast, too.”

Traditional drums are played in the background at fast tempos to dictate the energy level of the game. Players dance and use elaborate hand gestures to try to distract their opponents.

“There’s some spirituality to it as well because you use the drums for the energy,” Adam said. “You’re trying to play mind games with people than you’re trying to fool them on where you’re hiding the object by different gestures.”

Although a traditional Dene game, Adam had only played the game a few times before the Culture Festival on Friday.

“It’s a good display of Northern Dene culture. It’s really different and fun to do.”

knguyen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@khangvnguyen

by Khang Nguyen

Fun and games at P.A. Grand Council Culture Festival

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