Northland athletes bring home medals from Canada's indigenous games

The seal hop, the neck pull, and the Alaskan high kick are just a few of the sports two Northland athletes excelled in during the Masters Indigenous Games in Canada.

Although it was the first time Yves Brown and Hana-May Riedlinger-Kapa had tried traditional Arctic sports, both came home with medals from the four-day event.

The Kerikeri women also gained fresh insights into the similarities between indigenous peoples from opposite ends of the planet, and an appreciation for the Inuit approach to competition.

Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Raukawa, Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto/Te Nehenehenui) won bronze in the seal hop, a test of stamina which imitates the movement of seals on the ice.

She said the sport had its origins in the way hunters would sneak up on their quarry to avoid being observed.

Competitors started on the ground in a "plank" position and then had to move their bodies forward in a single motion.

Men started on their knuckles in a push-up position. Their feet and knuckles had to leave the ground at the same time with each hop.

The aim was to hop as far as possible before exhaustion set in.

Brown, 23, said one of the sports she enjoyed most was the one-foot high kick, which involved kicking a seal-skin ball placed at ever greater heights.

Competitors had to land, and remain standing, on the same foot they kicked with.

Brown said it had its origins in the way hunters signalled to distant villages that a hunt had been successful, and they needed help to bring their catch home.

She had tried the sport at home before their departure but could not even kick the starting height.

"But once we were there and in the spirit of the games we ended up getting through quite a few rounds. That was one of the highlights, just seeing how much you can improve in the right environment."

Brown said her final height was 60 inches (1.52m), but the female record was seven foot six inches (2.29m).

Meanwhile, Riedlinger-Kapa (Ngāti Rēhia, Ngāpuhi) won silver in the women's Inuit stick pull and bronze in the head pull.

In the stick pull, two competitors sat on the ground with their feet touching, then gripped a stick placed between them and tried to pull their opponent to their feet or off balance.

In the head pull, contestants started on their bellies with a strip of leather looped around their heads, and used their neck muscles to try to overpower their opponent.

Riedlinger-Kapa said the games were traditionally used to prepare for hunting and survival in the harsh Arctic conditions.

The stick pull, for example, maintained the strength needed to pull seals or whales out of the ice once they had been harpooned.

The games were designed to be played in limited spaces when people were sheltering indoors in the long winter darkness, she said.

Riedlinger-Kapa, 31, said her Polynesian heritage was an advantage in some of the sports.

"I've never felt so tall as when I was among the Inuit tribes. I felt super, super tall. For the sports I did well in, my Māori DNA and my strength definitely came in handy."

Brown, the daughter of traditional games expert Harko Brown, said she had discovered similarities between indigenous games even from other ends of the globe.

While the games themselves were different, all had connections to pūrākau (stories, legends) and had their origins in traditional activities.

Many of the Arctic games were used to build strength for hunting in the same way that poi, for example, were originally used to improve dexterity in battle.

Pride in traditional games was another common factor, with the pair travelling to Canada under the motto whakaora taonga takaro ('revive and nurture our traditional games').

However, as a highly competitive athlete with a background in rugby union, sevens and netball, Brown said she had to "rewire" her brain to adapt to the Arctic concept of competition.

"I learned a lot of human humility... at home I'm involved in very competitive sports where it's kind of kill or be killed.

"You try to be the best you can and almost forget about lifting up others, either within your team or the people you're competing against," she said.

"However, within these games, everyone is happy for everyone. It was cool to see that even when someone missed a kick, everyone congratulated them.

"Or if somebody won, everyone still congratulated them. There was just a lot of praise and positive talk among everybody.

"I'm usually quite hard on myself but there I felt very accomplished and supported, even when I was missing my kicks."

That was echoed by Riedlinger-Kapa.

"The most beautiful takeaway was being able to experience the ethos of the games... in our sports there's this really competitive nature where you're constantly competing against each other.

"Over there your biggest competitor is yourself. You'd have people going for the top spot in a sport, and they'd be pausing to give each other advice and show them different skills to better themselves."

About 500 athletes from five countries took part. Most were Inuit and Dene people from the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland and the USA.

A report in the Ottawa Citizen singled out Brown, Riedlinger-Kapa and Mexico's Gerardo Uvando for exemplifying the spirit of the games by claiming medals in Arctic sports not played in their home countries.

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