Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
Ecole Providence in McLennan is excited to welcome back its annual Hand Games competition, set to take place on April 25.
“We decided to organize a hand games competition after it was discussed at our First Nations, Metis, and Inuit meeting,” says FNMI Indigenous coordinator and educational assistant Norma Chalifoux.
“We’ve called the games Holy Family Catholic Regional Division 2025 Hand Games.”
The games will be hosted at the school on Friday, April 25 with grand entry at 10 a.m. and games played until 2 p.m. Chalifoux says the games are a lot of fun and have cultural significance.
“I find the importance of hand games to give other cultures a chance to play our game and to see how it is played and the fun of hiding an object in your hand,” she says.
“You can also chant and move to the sound of the drum.”
Chalifoux says the day will begin with grand entry of all the teams and students who are participating. After the entry is finished, she says welcoming begins with some house rules.
“We have eight schools competing, age categories Grade 4 to Grade 8,” she says.
“Each school in our division HFCRD will host the tournament so that everyone can experience the joy of getting everything together.”
Chalifoux says the games are also open to the public to come and enjoy. She hopes people will take the time to attend and watch the games unfold.
“There are two teams, one team of eight on each side, each player will have an object in their hand to hide from the guessing team captain,” Chalifoux says, explaining how the game works.
“You have two extra players and your coach. Players will be on a mat on the floor with a blanket or their jacket to hide their hands under.”
Chalifoux says the captain will sit in the middle of his or her group, and the team hiding their hands will be chanting, moving, shaking to the sound of the drums.
“The captain guessing will point his or her thumbs up and yell up, then all players hiding will put their hands out keeping the object hidden from the guesser,” she says.
“No player is allowed to switch the object from hand-to-hand. The guesser will point which side the object is hidden in their hand, and hiders open both hands and lift their empty hand high above their head.”
For each correct guess, players will each get a stick.
“If they get all 17 sticks right away before time is up you keep playing on you can play up to three games,” she says.
“If played three games it’s best out of three, but if time runs out then it is the team with most sticks that wins. After the three games are played each player on each side will shake hands.”
Chalifoux says hand games is a fun tournament and a great chance to learn a little about Indigenous culture. She hopes people come out to cheer on all the participants.
Indigenous hand games are sometimes also known as stick games or stick gambling and are a culturally significant guessing game played by Indigenous people across North America.