Inclusionary Practice
"We Are Taking Back Our Game": Sport, Catharsis, and Lacrosse in the Process of Reconciliation
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Andrew Pettit
Within Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s ninety-three calls to action, a total of six identify sport as having a significant role in the ongoing process of reconciliation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying element of catharsis within this dynamic of sport and reconciliation. This project focuses on the sport of lacrosse as played by indigenous populations in both Canada and the United States. Unlike examples such as CLR James’ narrative of cricket in the West Indies or rugby in post-Apartheid South Africa, lacrosse is not a sport that was imposed on indigenous peoples by the colonizing powers. It was appropriated away from them. Today, lacrosse provides a space in which indigenous athletes can relive their colonized history but are able to assert a form of agency against their former colonizers in a mutually agreeable fashion. Through previous analysis of indigenous discourse, it is found that athletes do not conceive of their participation in lacrosse as an act of resistance coming from a subservient position for it is their game, to begin with. Thus, by demonstrating the achievement of catharsis through lacrosse, the role of sport in the reconciliation process will be further exemplified. By surveying the contentious colonial history of lacrosse, and an analysis of the current discourse perpetuated by indigenous athletes through interviews, I argue that lacrosse provides a uniquely cathartic experience for indigenous athletes and communities within the reconciliation context.
The Capacity of Sport to Integrate Immigrants into Canadian Communities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sacha Smart, Kyle Rich
Sport has been widely credited as a mechanism for facilitating the growth of interpersonal bonds and the inclusion of population groups that may otherwise be marginalized or less likely to participate in their community activities. Given that Canada is poised to increase the number of immigrants arriving annually, understanding the lived experiences of new immigrants into Canadian communities is important for contemporary Canadian society. These experiences will depend upon pathways to integration and innovative approaches that create opportunities for immigrants to participate in community life in their respective locales. In this paper, we use a phenomenological approach to explore how organized youth sport programming is implicated in the integration experiences of new Canadian immigrant families. Data collected from semi-structured interviews with parents and guardians who have at least one dependent family member currently enrolled in an organized youth sport program in communities within the City of Toronto. Data was analyzed thematically, and our discussion will explore the role of sport within the complexities of the immigrant experience during the settlement process, the sociocultural environment of sport in a large Canadian city, and the constraints to participation in sporting activities that immigrants face on the field of play and within their communities. Our discussion has implications for academics, practitioners, and policy makers interested in sport programming in and for diverse community contexts.
In Search of Identity: Taiwanese Indigenous People and Baseball
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Junwei Yu
The research intends to explore the transformation of self-identification among Taiwan’s indigenous people, specifically aboriginal players who identify themselves differently during various period of time. In the literature review, it is divided into two parts, aboriginal identity, and modern sports and ethnic relations. The author discovers that aboriginal identity and official recognition are changeable. Although modern sport is an expression of cultural hegemony exercised by colonial government, it is also a space for minority group to display identity. In Taiwan, baseball is a national obsession that is often connected to national identification. Especially, many outstanding baseball players are aborigines. Accordingly, the research is divided into three sections, which are ethnic prejudice period (1945 to 1982), transitional period (1983 to 1993), and proud-to-be-aborigines period (1994 to now). The project attempts to understand how aboriginal baseball players consider their own identity and the connection with baseball through in-depth interviews. The research subjects not only refer to aborigines, but also to mixed race and pingpu group so as to analyze the issue of sport and ethnic identification profoundly.
