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These are difficult stories. We bear witness in this chapter to the role of sport in furthering the settler colonial projects throughout Turtle Island. Here are some supports to access in the community and from a distance:
First Peoples House of Learning Cultural Support & Counselling
Niijkiwendidaa Anishnaabekwag Services Circle (Counselling & Healing Services for Indigenous Women & their Families) – 1-800-663-2696
Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre (705) 775-0387
Peterborough Community Counselling Resource Centre: (705) 742-4258
Hope for Wellness – Indigenous help line (online chat also available) – 1-855-242-3310
LGBT Youthline: askus@youthline.ca or text (647)694-4275
National Indian Residential School Crisis Line – 1-866-925-4419
Talk4Healing (a culturally-grounded helpline for Indigenous women):1-855-5544-HEAL
Section One: History
A) The Residential School System
Exercise 1: Notebook Prompt
We are asked to honour these stories with open hearts and open minds.
Which part of the chapter stood out to you? What were your feelings as you read it? (50 words)
| The part that stood out to me in the Ways of Knowing chapter is how both Australian Colonizers and Aboriginal People had ulterior motives to playing sports. Sport is to be fun and competitive but the Australians used it as a way to further systemic and individual racism while Aboriginal People used sport as a way to resist colonial ways without having too much a negative impact on themselves. I felt curious if one thought of the others intentions.
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B) Keywords
Exercise 2: Notebook Prompt
Briefly define (point form is fine) one of the keywords in the padlet (may be one that you added yourself).
| White Savior Industrial Complex:
I see this one often in my work. This is the idea that a white person believes in their ability to solve all of the complex issues of BIPOC most often to boost their own ego and support their own privilege. This is a common toxic trait in many white trauma survivors that work in the social services or helping professions in the not for profit industry. |
C) Settler Colonialism
Exercise 3: Complete the Activities
Exercise 4: Notebook Prompt
Although we have discussed in this module how the colonial project sought to suppress Indigenous cultures, it is important to note that it also appropriates and adapts Indigenous cultures and “body movement practices” (75) as part of a larger endeavour to “make settlers Indigenous” (75).
What does this look like? (write 2 or 3 sentences)
| It appropriates the masculinity that it desires in white western culture through the view of the athletic body of the indigenous man. If you are strong, fast and winning you are at the top of the desired masculinity list.
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D) The Colonial Archive
Exercise 5: Complete the Activities
Section Two: Reconciliation
A) Reconciliation?
Exercise 6: Activity and Notebook Prompt
Visit the story called “The Skate” for an in-depth exploration of sport in the residential school system. At the bottom of the page you will see four questions to which you may respond by tweet, facebook message, or email:
How much freedom did you have to play as a child?
What values do we learn from different sports and games?
When residential staff took photos, what impression did they try to create?
Answer one of these questions (drawing on what you have learned in section one of this module or prior reading) and record it in your Notebook.
| I had too much freedom to do everything as a child. I did not have access to sports. I think sports and games teach us how to be fair and how important it is to challenge ourselves, but also how to support others like our team mates. The photos were made to distract from the abuse, neglect and murder in the residential school system.
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B) Redefining Sport
B) Sport as Medicine
Exercise 7: Notebook Prompt
Make note of the many ways sport is considered medicine by the people interviewed in this video.
| Sport is considered medicine in indigenous cultures in various ways. Some in the videos stated it was like therapy to them, at first in residential schools and then to cope with the PTSD later in life they continued sports as a healthy outlet and self care for their trauma. The reading states that sport is essential to indigenous well being. Not only as an emotional release but also as a way to bring connection back to their culture. It kept people together and gave a sense of pride to their indigeneity. One person in the videos stated that sport was a gift from the creature as medicine to the people who endured great suffering.
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C) Sport For development
Exercise 7: Notebook Prompt
What does Waneek Horn-Miller mean when she says that the government is “trying but still approaching Indigenous sport development in a very colonial way”?
| Indigenous sport is still approached in a colonial way as it lacks access to those in remote communities that are fly in only. It also holds many barriers to participation beyond physical access, such as the cost for team fees and equipment, lack of funding for coaches and lack of indigenous led sporting events. |
Exercise 8: Padlet Prompt
Add an image or brief comment reflecting some of “binding cultural symbols that constitute Canadian hockey discourse in Canada.” Record your responses in your Notebook as well.
| Hockey is known to be Canada’s sport, however there is little attention on how it was developed for indigenous children to support colonization. The pride that sits with Canadian hockey was the concept behind colonizing children in residential schools. Many will report that it was mandatory to be outdoors in -40 degree weather for hours playing hockey. If you were lucky enough to get good at it then you were provided some respite from the schools. Hockey was still a symbol of connection for Indigenous youth, however today it is very much a white Canadian pride game that perpetuates colonization and the lack of reconciliation in our nation for indigenous people.
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Section Three: Decolonization
Please see the major assignment for this half of the term in the final section of this chapter.
