Nunavut students promote healthy living through Inuit games

First year Nunavut Sivuniksavut student Donovan Gordon-Tootoo, explains how to leg wrestle for an instructional video on Inuit games Feb. 18 in Ottawa. (PHOTO BY LISA GREGOIRE)

Kyle Hainnu, left, and Donovan Gordon-Tootoo, demonstrate the armpull game in preparation for a video project on healthy living through traditional games. (PHOTO BY LISA GREGOIRE)

OTTAWA — Donovan Gordon-Tootoo may well end up in politics, like his uncle Hunter Tootoo, the Nunavut MP and federal fisheries minister.

But, on Feb. 18, Gordon-Tootoo was busy jumping high into the air and leg-wrestling with a friend.

Gordon-Tootoo and a handful of other Nunavut Sivuniksavut students in Ottawa are helping to promote healthy living and Inuit traditional games, thanks to a three-year grant from the Ontario government.

“Sharing our culture by staying healthy, I guess,” said Gordon-Tootoo, 18, who was born in Ottawa, but spent most of his life in Rankin Inlet.

“It means a lot to stay healthy in mind, body and spirit. That’s part of the reason I enjoy doing these games. You get to do all three in one.”

Through the Healthy Kids Community Challenge program, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is funding 45 projects around the province that help to promote exercise, activity and healthy eating.

Ottawa’s Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health is among six Aboriginal-specific organizations that received funding through the program. The balance went to 39 Ontario municipalities, including the City of Ottawa.

A spokesperson for Ontario Health said successful recipients are receiving between $375,000 and $1,125,000 over three years under the Healthy Kids program. Wabano will get $525,000, Ontario Health said.

Fabienne Tougas, the project lead for Wabano, said as part of the first phase of the project, the organization has decided to make a series of short videos showing traditional Indigenous activities.

This way, Aboriginal youth can share cultural traditions with other Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal kids and promote active living at the same time.

“The Healthy Kids Community Challenge provides Wabano with a unique opportunity to promote healthy living, whilst celebrating Aboriginal culture,” said Tougas.

“Through strong community partnerships, we are working to remove some of the barriers to health experienced by urban Aboriginal children in Ottawa. We are also trying to utilize the assets that already exist in our community and that enable our children to live healthy lives. That is what these videos are all about.”

As part of the three-year project, Wabano is partnering with Inuit, First Nations and Métis organizations across the city including the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre, Tungasuvvingat Inuit and Nunavut Sivuniksavut.

For the past few weeks, NS students have been tasked with picking a traditional game or activity they enjoy and writing an instructional script explaining how that game or activity is done.

A handful of students travelled to Wabano, located on Montreal Rd. in Ottawa’s Vanier neighbourhood on Feb. 18, so a videographer and director could film them reciting their instructional scripts and then demonstrating their activity.

Tougas is hoping to have three five-minute videos of Inuit games and traditions completed by the end of March. Those videos will be uploaded sometime in the spring to Wabano’s YouTube channel and burned onto DVDs for educational purposes.

Kyle Hainnu, 21, who hails from Clyde River, said he enjoyed playing Inuit games when he was growing up but was never serious about it until he got to NS last fall.

Part of the NS program involves public performances and cultural demonstrations so students are taught how to drum, sing, dance and do traditional games.

Hainnu said once he started practicing at NS, he got skilled at some games, especially the one-foot high kick.

“I said, OK, I’ll try,” Hainnu said.

“And now he’s one of the top ones,” said Gordon-Tootoo, laughing.

“I guess it came naturally, I don’t know,” said Hainnu.

“It’s like you’re an Inuk or something,” Gordon-Tootoo said.

Hainnu, who hopes to study computer science when he finishes at NS, said he was pleased to participate in the video project because he supports its goals.

“It’s about promoting culture, teaching people what Inuit games are and showing them how it’s done. It might increase interest in the games and our culture. It’s a promotional thing,” said Hainnu.

Both he and Gordon-Tootoo said they’re settling into NS and enjoying learning about the history of Nunavut and improving their Inuktitut. But they say they miss hunting. And country foods.