The UBC Pop Culture Cluster, Critical Play Lab, and the Indigenous Comics Initiative will set out for Whitehorse, Yukon, on March 8, 2026 with nine Indigenous artists and a support team. Get ready for artists to bring their visual flair to the amazing feats of strength and agility on display at the 2026 Arctic Winter Games, where Dene and other sub-Arctic Indigenous sports get the spotlight. Here’s Cole Pauls, a fan and comics artist who’s drawn past events, sharing his love for the Arctic Winter Games and the community that comes together every few years to celebrate sport and culture.
By Cole Pauls. Originally printed in Kwändür, published by Conundrum Press 2022.
Interviewed by Cynthia Liu.
Cynthia Liu: What’s your favorite Arctic/traditional/Dene game, and why?
Cole Pauls: Stick gambling! It’s so fun and lots of community members play it year round. Wanna see some high octane energy? Watch a stick gambling match.
CL: Do you play any Arctic/traditional/Dene games yourself?
CP: Yes I grew up practicing lots of the arctic and dene sports. I was mostly involved in stick gambling as a Yukon youth but I also loved the challenge of the one foot high kick.
CL: Do you observe any interesting twists on customs, rules, or materials used in these sports? Any other personalizations or innovations that catch your eye?
CP: I’m always curious what stick gamblers use as their token. Some kids use their favorite rock. Others might use a button. I would always use a stone I found on the site of the gambling tournament.
CL: Got thoughts to share about the training these athletes go through?
CP: I can’t wait to see all the athletes put their endurance to the test! Especially sports like airplane. You gotta have amazing core strength to do that! Have you ever seen the Rick Mercer report from the 2008 Arctic Winter Games? They make it look so easy but I know that’s because of their training, not because of how easy the sport is haha.
CL: What AWG sport or event do you like drawing best?
CP: I enjoyed drawing them all, but sports like the two foot high kick or the Alaskan high kick are really fun to watch & pause to draw each step.
Cole Pauls is a Champagne and Aishihik Citizen and Tahltan comic artist, illustrator, and printmaker hailing from Haines Junction (Yukon Territory). He holds a BFA in Illustration from Emily Carr University. Residing in Vancouver, Pauls has created four graphic novels: Dakwäkãda Warriors (2019), Pizza Punks (2021), Kwändür (2022) and We See Stars Only At Night (2025). In 2017, Pauls won Broken Pencil Magazine’s Best Comic and Best Zine of the Year Award for Dakwäkãda Warriors II. In 2020, Dakwäkãda Warriors won Best Work in an Indigenous Language from the Indigenous Voices Awards and was nominated for the Doug Wright Award categories The Egghead & The Nipper. In 2022, Artspeak Gallery, in Vancouver BC, held the first solo exhibition of Pauls’ work, “Dazhän Kwändür Ch’e (This is a Story)”. In 2023, Kwändür won the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize from the BC & Yukon Book Prize.