Toonik Tyme 2 (Sports Edition)

Despite all of the amazing cultural activities going on these past few days for the Toonik Tyme festival, I ended up spending a lot of my time watching the basketball tournament.  I play basketball pretty much every Sunday out here at the Old Res (see past post for pictures) and I was bummed to find out that this tournament was for MEN only.  So annoying.  Regardless, I went and supported my friends who were playing.  It was lots of fun and the level was really high.  It was also super interesting to see a bunch of teams from different communities throughout Nunavut (Pond Inlet,  Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, etc.).  The team I was going for (i.e. the people I've played basketball with on Sundays) were the "Flyers" whom you can see in the first and second pictures--they're the ones wearing grey.  They almost made it to the finals but ended up losing to "Iqaluit", whom you can see in the second picture wearing their super nice uniforms.  Although Iqaluit went undefeated for the entire tournament, they lost in the finals to Rankin!!  I was actually so happy for the Rankin guys!!!  Especially Ryan (top left in the third picture) who used to play basketball at Old Res before moving back to his community, and who had a broken hand for the last three games and still managed to play really well.

Inuksuk High School gym is way nicer than the one at Old Res and I found out that people come out to play basketball on Mondays and Thursdays so I will definitely be going there too from now on!!

Iqaluit vs. Flyers

The champions: Rankin!

Tonight I also went and checked out the Teen Inuit Games, which took place at the Youth Center (which turned out to be literally 30 feet away from my work).  It was really awesome getting to see the different Inuit games and such young kids participating and keeping this part of their culture alive.  The vibe for these games was really "how to make something out of nothing" in the sense that most of these games required very little (to none) to be executed.  My favourites were the games that involved kicking, as you will see in the pictures. 

Double-leg kick to try to hit a little target made of seal skin.

Here the person had to put down an object on the floor as far away from them as possible without touching the floor at any point--definitely requires some abs of steel.

Essentially a two-person tug-o-war.

One-leg high kick!

I hope these pictures do justice to how high the target was!!!

Over 7 feet high!

Johnny Issaluk raising the target up to 7'6".

So much air!!

My friend Ipellie, the winner of this game, preparing himself for 7'8''.

Try number 1... Almost there....

BAM!