Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the past few days I was in Deline and I was witness to the hand games that were played there, Mr. Speaker. This is the first annual traditional hand games that the Deline First Nation have hosted. There were 37 teams from the Yukon, Alberta and Northwest Territories in total.
Mr. Speaker, there were just over 260 to 280 hand game players. There’s about 40 hours of singing and drumming. The traditional hand games brought out a lot of excitement from the people in the tournament. People played all hours of the night.
I want to say that on behalf of the Sahtu region I want to congratulate the winner from the community of Wrigley who won the hand game tournament. Meander River came in second. To put on this type of event requires a lot of volunteers from the community of Deline, to the First Nations, to the land corporation, to all the volunteers that came out and cooked and looked after the people who came out to visit.
The hand games were a truly successful event. You could just see the culture come alive when the young kids come and play with the hand games. They educate themselves to learn about their culture and way of life, working as a team. They are being educated on how to play the game in a good manner.
The hand games are a lifelong tradition of the people of the Sahtu region. Certainly when they played, a lot of people came out to witness it. It was a fun-filled weekend and I want to say to the people of Deline and the organizers how much I appreciated being there to witness a part of our culture I’m certainly proud of.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
