First Nation debate team gets peek through the door

Page 8

A group of First Nations students from in and around Calgary made history this month as they participated in the 2005 ConocoPhillips World Schools Debating Championship.

Often referred to as the Olympics of high school debate, the annual event is held to encourage debate and promote an understanding of the impact issues can have on a global scale.

This is the seventeenth year the championship has been held, and the first year any country has been allowed to enter more than one team.

In addition to Canada's national debating team, a second team was created comprised of First Nation students. The First Nations team was featured as an exhibition participant throughout the 10-day event, giving its members an opportunity to test their skills against debaters from around the world.

The championships, which ran from Feb. 9 to 18, featured the best senior high school debaters from more than 30 countries, all vying for the right to call themselves the best in the world.

The debates were held in more than 40 different schools in and around Calgary, including Siksika Nation high school and Tsuu T'ina Junior/Senior high school.

The two First Nation schools hosted debates on Feb. 14, giving participants from all over the world a chance to learn first-hand about First Nations communities and people, and giving students attending the on-reserve schools a chance to learn first-hand about the speech and debate.

Doug Grey is the director of Aboriginal activities for the World Schools Debate. Grey, a member of Carry the Kettle First Nation in Saskatchewan, teaches at Forest Lawn high school in Calgary.

He's been working to prepare for the debate championship for the past three years, co-ordinating the First Nation debate venues and working to recruit and train members of the First Nations debate team.

It was through the efforts of Ron Lee, who also teaches at Forest Lawn, that the First Nations debate team became a reality, Grey said. Lee, World Convener for this year's event, made the successful bid to have the championships held in Calgary, and pushed hard to ensure a First Nations team would be able to participate.

That team is comprised of First Nation students from the Calgary area, all of whom came to the team with no previous debating experience.

Anne Thomas, a former debater, was brought in to coach the team members and get them prepared to perform on a world stage.

"Trying to get the kids to buy in and stay in has been a real challenge, especially with the prospect of having to be front and centre in the world community here against the best debaters in the world. I think they're a little bit apprehensive of that. And that's to be expected," Grey said.

It's not just the members of the First Nations team that had to prepare for the debate championships, Grey explained. Students at the two on-reserve high schools also had to learn about debate because they would be responsible for chairing and timekeeping for the debates held in their schools. Debaters from Strathcona-Tweedmuir, a private school in Calgary with a strong debating team, played a part in that training, going out to the reserves and sharing their expertise with the First Nation students.

Grey hopes that all these opportunities to be involved in the debating championships will spark a lasting interest in speech and debate among First Nation students.

"That's up to them. All we can do is open the door, let them look, see if they like it. And if they do, well, maybe they'll become involved."