On April 19 students from Port Hardy gathered for the annual lahal tournament, held at the Port Hardy Secondary School this year. Teams came from PHSS, Eke Me-Xi, Eagle View Elementary, The Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw School, Ft. Rupert Elementary, Wagalus School, and K'ak'ot'lat'si.
For those of you unfamiliar with the game, lahal is a traditional bone game played by First Nations up and down the coast. It is played by two opposing teams, each team having a set of 'sticks' which are like points. There are two sets of two 'bones', one with a black stripe (male) and the other one unmarked (female).
At the beginning of each turn one team has both sets of bones and the other team has a pointer. Two people from the bone team each hide the bones in their hands, so you can't see which one has the stripe.
When the pointer is ready to guess, he or she makes two fists in front of him/herself, and the players with the bones must hold their fists out in front of them.
Then the pointer uses his or her fingers to indicate which bones he or she thinks are female, the ones without the stripes. You can choose both outside bones, both inside bones, or the right or left side ones. Here is Roberta, choosing both bones in her opponents' right hands.
After the pointing, the bone-holders must reveal the bones. If the pointer guesses the right ones, the female ones, the pointer's team wins the bones. If the pointer guesses the male bones, they lose a stick to the other side for each striped bone they chose.
If the pointer guesses one male and one female bone, they lose one stick, receive one pair of the bones, and then take another turn to try and win the second set of bones.
When a team runs out of sticks, the team with both sets of sticks, theirs and the other team's, can start putting their own sticks into a 'dead' pile, which means those sticks are out of the game. The game ends when all of a team's own sticks are 'dead, plus they've won all the sticks from the other team'.
Lahal songs are an important part of the game. They are typically very fast, and the bone-holders move their hands in time with the drumbeat to distract the pointer (and maybe cheat, if they're very sneaky!)
You can also support your team by dancingbehind them to try and distract the other team's pointer.
It was great to see all the energy and enthusiasm at the lahal tournament, There was a ton of kids, and it was great to see them all so excited to carry on this tradition.
At the tournament Kaleb Child introduced Brigette Avoine, Port Hardy Secondary School's new First Nations Counsellor, replacing Maggie Sedgemore.
Congratulations to Ft. Rupert Elementary, who ended up winning first place in this fun tournament! See you all again next year...
- Posted by Jessie Hemphill
