6th-annual Adka Cultural Festival kicks off in Whitehorse

Half an hour before the theAdka jigging contest was scheduled to start on Saturday afternoon, the best seats werealready filled up.

Steve Wallachof Athabasca, Alta., hadnever seen jigging before, and managed to snag someseats in the second row.

Earlier in the day, heand his wife took in ahandgames demonstration and aperformance by theTuktoyaktuk Siglit Drummers and Dancers. Like the jigging, the events are part of the seven-dayAdkaCultural Festival taking place in Whitehorse.

"It's pretty cool stuff," Wallach said. "There's a lot of interesting native culture here that I haven't really paid much attention to previously, so it's very interesting."

Adka, which means "coming into the light" in Southern Tutchone, showcases Yukon and neighbouringFirst Nations people throughmusic, arts,cultural demonstrations andworkshops. The festival is now in it's sixth year.

Make your own Tlingit design

Megan Jensen wasn't able toattend the jigging contest because she was busy face painting in the kids tentall day, although faces aren't the artist's usual medium.

On Sunday, the 21-year-old is leading a workshop on Tlingit design and will get participants creating their own art on canvas using paints or pastels.

A member of Carcross Tagish First Nation, Jensen says she combines historical shapes and forms with contemporary styles when she's painting.

"I take what I have learned from our ancestors but I also acknowledge... what it mean to be a young Indigenous youth of the present and how that influences my art form."

Jensen's workshop is one of several daily workshops taking place throughout the festival.

'We dance for them'

Jensen was winding down her day in the kids tent just as the fiddle music at the jigging contestwas fading in the nearbyLonghouseof the Kwanlin Dn Cultural Centre.

An energetic Shirley Frost emceedthe jigging competition, which includedcompetitors from Alaska, the Mackenzie Delta and the local area.

Frost says jigging is a mix of traditional dancing with drumsand the addition of the fiddle, which she says was introduced about200 years ago.

Shesays jigging is a way of celebrating, even for those who can't dance.

"A lot of elders... aren't able to dance any more, but they can sit up all night and watch us dance and we dance for them," she says."We feed each others' spirits."

Adka Cultural Festivalruns until Thursday, July7.