Double ball tourney keeps culture alive through sport
- NC Raine | June 14, 2017
Youth in Saskatoon are discovering a
piece of Indigenous culture through an unlikely avenue: sport. Approximately 100 Grade 7 and 8 students from
Princess Alexandra, Pleasant Hill, Vincent Massey, and Westmount schools
participated in a Double Ball tournament on June 7th. The tournament, a first in Saskatoon's
history, incorporated not only skill and endurance, but engaging with mental
and spiritual skills to carry on this long standing tradition of Double Ball.
If you're unfamiliar with Double Ball, think of a cross between lacrosse and field hockey. It's a traditional First Nations game that essentially works as such: two teams face each other with a small goal on each end, and players, equipped with three meter long sticks, must throw a double ball [two balls attached by a string] through the opposing team's goal.
As is the case with many cultural
practices, the sport has many variations based on the oral teachings of the
teacher.
“By playing the game, we're keeping it
alive,” said Cole Wilson, Physical Education Consultant with Saskatoon Public
Schools.
“The game is a gift from the Creator.
It's a way of learning the skills you need in order to be a responsible adult,
a responsible member of society. So they're building emotional, mental, and
spiritual skills as well a physical skills. Through the game they're continuing
the tradition,” said Wilson.
Double Ball was implemented in these
four schools' curriculum as a response to one of the calls to action by the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission to revitalize relationships between
Indigenous people and Canadian society.
On average, the four schools had been practicing about a month in
preparation for the tournament.
“We want to make sure we are
embedding Indigenous way of knowledge and understanding into our curriculum in
an authentic way,” says Wilson.
The other objective, says Wilson, is
to get teachers to understand how they can take traditional activities and
embed them in more diverse ways of learning, like physical education.
One of those teachers, Jamahl
Manning, grade seven and eight teacher at Pleasant Hill, says his students have
had a strong response to playing a game so deeply rooted in our history.
“At [Pleasant Hill], we have a lot of Indigenous student, so it's a great opportunity for them to play a game their ancestors played,” said Manning.
“It's part of a bigger picture too,
in the sense that this is part of the [TRC call to action] in the community. I
think a big part of the theme of reconciliation is seeing kids of many backgrounds
enjoying these traditional sports.”
As students are all new at the game,
everyone starts out from a level playing field, and creates great team
building, says Manning. After watching the tournament, it's clear that the game
imparts a sense of mutual respect and fairness with their competitors. Although
the kids were of various physical abilities,
competitors seemed to play not adversary but out of joy of the game.
Saskatoon Public Schools hope that
this tournament becomes the first of many, expanding to more grades, more
students, and more schools.
“We can focus on getting Double Ball
to more teachers and schools next year,” said Wilson. “My personal goal is to
see it grow into something like Kinsmen hockey, where Double Ball has its very
own league.”