The 2024 NWT Archery Championship in Hay River was proof that the sport is on the rise in the territory, as a record number of people showed up to participate. 

"I think we had 64 registered," said Carson Roche, events manager for Aboriginal Sports Circle NWT, the organization behind the tournament. "Obviously, a few don't show up and some sign up last minute SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” so I think we're hovering around that 60 range. In previous years, we were sitting around 40, sometimes 30, but 40 is kind of our target. So we got 20 more coming this year. That was not expected, but it worked out perfectly.

"This one was very successful." 

The tournament was hosted on the grounds of the Hay River Ski Club from Sept. 13-15. It was broken into three categories: under-14, under-18 and an open category. Roughly half of the total participants, who came from all over the territory, were competing in the U14 division.

"It was awesome to see that many kids shooting," Roche said. "They had fun. Some of them were first-time shooters. Parents were giving high praise on the event, saying it was well-run and their kids enjoyed it. I've had parents asking how they get certified so they can run some archery programming in their community. They're already looking forward to next year."

The prevalence of youth participants at the 2024 championship suggests that young people in the territory have a growing interest in archery. That is exactly what Aboriginal Sports Circle has been working toward, according to Roche.

"Archery is one of our main sports," he said. "Archery's a traditional sport, an Indigenous sport. We're really trying to grow the sport and catch up to our partners over at Yukon Archery. They're pretty good with their programming and their coaches. We're trying to increase our coaching, get certified instructors, increase participation and do more community programming.

"Our job's just to start creating interest at the grassroots level and get kids interested," he added. "It looks like it's growing because we got a lot of kids, a lot of youth."

After such a successful event in Hay River, Roche and his colleagues at Aboriginal Sports Circle are confident that the future is bright for the sport in the NWT. How big it can get remains to be seen.

"We're excited," Roche said. "We have some new coaches that moved up from down south that are living here, and some of them are certified archery instructors and really good archers. And with our multi-sport facility [in Yellowknife] we have our archery programming all winter. We'll be in there shooting, and we'll have tournaments and I think we'll increase our membership a lot this year, because archery is a fun indoor sport. And now the Arctic Winter Games and North American Indigenous Games, they all have archery, so it's a great sport to learn and actually compete at a territorial and national level."