Colliding Identities in Arctic Canadian Sports and Games

Using field data collected in northern Canadian communities between 1991 and 1995, this paper explores recent attempts by Canadian aboriginal peoples to determine and re-discover, on their own terms, what is meant by the expressions “traditional life” and “traditional culture.” Faced with the infiltration into the north of rationalized and commercial “southern” sports and the values they imply, aboriginal Canadians have attempted to consolidate their cultural integrity through the staging of games-festivals. An examination of these games-festivals demonstrates a number of tensions or colliding identities not only between “outside” and aboriginal communities but also within aboriginal communities over the place and meaning of traditional forms of sport, games and other contests.