Sacred youth games celebrated at Indigenous camp

Youth from different nationsacross Ontario gathered at Chippewas of the Thames First Nation to participate in an Indigenous games camp. The camp taught the youth more than just the skills needed to play the different Indigenous games, butalso lifeskills needed to be successfulin other areas of their lives.

• LISTEN | Indigenous Games camp

They learned how to play an Anishinaabe-style lacrossecalled bagadowe or stickball. The youth also played longball, stick pull and tug of war. While playing each game, the youth learned different life skills including teamwork, trust, perseverance and self-confidence.

This is the second cultural camp organized byChippewasof the Thames with help from Great Lakes Cultural Camps, which is a family owned business fromWikwemikongFirst Nation.

The Indigenous games camp encourages healthy competition by providing a safe and supportive atmosphere to learn and play the different games.

Tayden Grosbeck, a youth from Chippewa and Oneida Nation of the Thames, describes stickball is being like lacrosse, but a bit more difficult. He said that stickball is "a team-building game and sort of like lacrosse, but more old school." Playing the different games made him feel happy, because everyone is laughing and having fun.

The youth were taught the cultural importance of each game through storytelling.DanyonFrench, a youth from Chippewa,describesa story about two guys taking sap from a tree. Something that should have been fairly simple, butto be taught a lesson,they had to work for it. This story and others were shared with the youththroughout the camp to teach them lessons in a cultural context.

Community lifestyle

Kyle French, youth justice advocacy coordinator for Chippewa, said he hopes the games become a community lifestyle rather than a community program.

"All of these games are played on the land, using materials from the land. I really hope it instills a sense of confidence, self-esteem, resilience, capacity building...peer-to-peer relationship building as well," said French.

Shania Albert is a youth from Chippewa.

She had a lot of fun playing the different games and said "it was just a great opportunity for everyone to come together, even though we are on one nation right now, we are all from different places, it was great for everyone to just get together and play."

Games are sacred

MaheengungShawanda, director and founder of Great Lakes, said "the purpose and intention of many of these games was to transfer certain skill sets. It wasn't just to entertain and keep people busy, but it was really to acquire a certain skill set and to develop that at a very young age."

The director said that "learning can be fun, but also when we play with a purpose and we combine the cultural part of an introduction to traditional games [it] really captures the essence of our time here together. It's important to laugh, it's important to play, but also to we have to really bring it back to the games are sacred."

Kyle French said that four more seasonal camps will be held throughout this year.