Beyond “add women and stir”: Politics, feminist development, and dene games

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The recent addition of a Junior Girls’ category to the Dene Games component of the Arctic Winter Games raises important questions about the ways in which popular physical practices are developed. In this paper, I examine efforts aimed at the “development” of physical practices and attempts at gender equity in Dene games in the Northwest Territories (NWT) and at the Arctic Winter Games. In so doing, I highlight the links between these popular physical practices in the NWT, politics, Western feminisms, and cultural self‐determination, while also suggesting possible future directions for women's involvement in Dene games.