Hand Games Tournament

Information about the

2024 Hand games Tournament

The Dene Hand Games Tournament has been a centrepiece of the ATC Cultural Festival since the first day of the inaugural 2019 Festival. During the Opening Ceremonies, Chief Alan Adam, President of the Athabasca Tribal Council (ATC) and Chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, welcomed the attendees to the first ATC Cultural Festival at the Snye. During his speech, he was inspired to challenge each of the five First Nations ATC serves, to a Hand Games Tournament. Since that moment, the event has drawn large crowds of spectators each year, to watch teams of all types participate in this lively, boisterous and highly entertaining event.

24 teams with a maximum 6 players can register online NOW!

Click Here to submit your registration form

The Dene Hand Games is a guessing game where a team of players hide an object in one of their hands. The other team must guess which hand the object is in. Points are given to correct guesses, points can also be stolen! The sport gets lively as the tactics to confuse the other team about which person has the object, and which hand the object is in, can get very animated. Spectators often get just as involved guessing from the sidelines and cheering on their favourite teams and players.