Sport for Indigenous resurgence: Toward a critical settler-colonial reflection

Abstract

This article examines the field of sport for development (SFD) while considering Indigenous resurgence amidst Canada’s neoliberal settler-colonial landscape. While sharing challenges encountered within their practice, program staff from the Promoting Life-skills in Aboriginal Youth program revealed high levels of constructive self-criticism and reflexivity. There are three emergent themes, the adoption of which appeared essential for transforming the sector in recognition of Indigenous resurgence: growth and pace; Indigenous agency and knowledge; and political engagement. Grounded in settler colonialism and resurgence, this paper also reflects on the field of SFD and what it would mean to decolonize the practice. The article concludes by asking if non-Indigenous scholars can study SFD by subverting the colonial status quo that is also reproduced in this research field.

Sport for Reconciliation?

“…Hence, while sport being used as a tool to separate Indigenous Peoples from their cultures is less apparent today, SFD efforts still have the potential to encourage forms of assimilation by reproducing neoliberal discourses relating to risk, individual responsibility, and development (Hayhurst et al, 2016;Rossi & Rynne, 2013;Lucas et al, 2021). Subsequently, scholars and Indigenous community leaders have emphasized the importance of Indigenous communities having control over the development and implementation of sports-based initiatives in their communities (Arellano & Downey, 2019;Essa et al, 2021;Giles & van Luijk, 2017;Hayhurst & Giles, 2013;Henhawk & Norman, 2019;Sheppard et al, 2019).…”

A Critical Examination of Race and Antiracism in the Sport for Development Field: An Introduction

“…This work has examined how knowledge and power in SfD create and maintain preferred subjects (Darnell, 2014), often in terms that are gendered (Hayhurst, 2013) or grounded in neoliberal understandings of responsibility or social change (Darnell, 2010a;Forde & Frisby, 2015). Also, there have been examinations of the ways in which SfD confirms, reproduces, and/or reifies colonial histories and hierarchies (Darnell & Hayhurst, 2011;Essa et al, 2022). It is within this literature that something of a critical race analysis of SfD has emerged.…”

Beyond Reconciliation: Calling for Land-Based Analyses in the Sociology of Sport

“…Despite the fact that the sociology of sport is increasingly including articles on Indigenous issues and featuring the work of Indigenous scholars (Arellano et al, 2018;Arellano & Downey, 2019;Essa et al, 2022;Forsyth, 2007;Millington et al, 2019;Paraschak, 2019;Phillips et al, 2019;Whitinui, 2021), the sociology of sport largely remains rooted in Eurocentric knowledges and worldviews.…”

“…Euro-Canadian culture's adaptation of a traditionally Indigenous sport has removed the sport's cultural, spiritual, and epistemological qualities (Arellano & Downey, 2019). And ironically, settler-funded sport for youth development programs have refashioned the Euro-Canadian Lacrosse to allegedly "develop," regenerate identity and revitalize the culture of Indigenous communities (Arellano & Downey, 2019;Essa et al, 2022).…”