"It started off with just a small group and it grew and grew"
After nearly a decade of hosting local and regional tournaments the Fort Nelson Handgames Society has dissolved.
The organization said it's successfully revived the Dene tradition in northern B.C., passing the torch to Fort Nelson First Nation, which has hired a hand games co-ordinator.
Chief Coun. Curtis Dickie, an avid handgames player who helped found the society, said the tradition offers a meaningful and important recreation activity for his community.
"It started off with just a small group and it grew and grew, and community support grew for it," he said. "It's really fostered a lot of positive relationships for young men and women."
Dickie says it's also been a way to grow the tradition of drumming, as handgames are played against the sound of the Indigenous drums.
The high-stakes, high-action game features sleight of hand and bluffing. Teams of four try to outsmart their opponents who guess which hands are holding hidden objects.
"There's a more spiritual side, cultural piece that I'm still learning about basically every time I go to a tournament, I learn something new," said Dickie.
Dickie said he's also been able to share the sport with his brother, Ryan Dickie, an acclaimed filmmaker and photographer.
"It's been really special, we definitely strengthened our bond through handgames and being in that competitive environment," Dickie said, noting his young nephews also play.
"They're very involved and it's extra special when you get to play with them or even play against them."
With a co-ordinator in place, the society said it feels there's no need to continue operating and wants to avoid duplicating work being taken on by the nation.
"We've come to learn how important traditional games is to men's mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health," wrote the society on Facebook.
"It can be life-changing at a time when men, through colonization, have become disempowered and could lose their identity, and disconnect from who they are and why they were put on this earth."
-with files from CBC.ca
More than $20,000 raised by the society will be donated to Fort Nelson First Nation, with the funds to support handgames through the nation's recreation department.
The game is played across the Yukon and Northwest Territories, which were the first places Dickie had the opportunity to play handgames.Fort Nelson has since hosted tournaments inviting neighbouring communities across the far north.With ice roads freezing in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, Dickie says he's excited to welcome visitors and returning players.
"Colonization and the effects of residential school, they are all still factors every day in our communities. Having the outlet of Dene handgames, when there are tournaments, there's a lot that happens in those three or four days," he said.
"Young men have an opportunity to share in a safe space and have somebody that's there to support and just hear them."
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