‘Calling out’ corporate redwashing: the extractives industry, corporate social responsibility and sport for development in indigenous communities in Canada

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

“…Settler-colonial theory encourages the decolonization of the field of study and associated SFD research questions, while unlocking the restrained, metaphorically decolonial discourse presented in most SFD scholarship. Critical SFD research should strongly condemn the sector’s ongoing role in land dispossession (Millington et al, 2019), but it could also look for ways to produce a more impactful contribution to Indigenous healing and resurgence (Paraschak and Heine, 2020). SFD research should engage more with Indigenous scholars, studies, methodologies and knowledge, and become more cognizant of programs that are Indigenous, sport and recreation-based, and that are truly meaningful to Indigenous peoples.…”

“…Essentially, SFD is driven by corporate wants, where partnership-led structures convey unequal power relations dominated by settler-oriented donors, sponsors, and policy-makers (Nicholls et al, 2011). This problem is particularly apparent given the role the extractives industry plays in sponsoring SFD initiatives, an industry with a long and complex history of colonizing Indigenous land (Millington et al, 2019; Van Luijk et al, 2020).…”

Sport for Sustainability? The Extractives Industry, Sport, and Sustainable Development

“…To explore the intersections of SFD, sustainable development, and extractives CSR, we undertook a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Rio Tinto’s sustainable development reports and CSR documents. Our focus on conducting a CDA of the reports of one company was purposeful, in that, it builds on our previous work (Millington et al, 2019) and offers an opportunity to take up Thomas-Müller’s (2017) call for academics to “call-out” corporate CSR strategies that attempt to portray an image of benevolence to Indigenous communities while “covering up the detrimental effects of corporate initiatives,” particularly for their “devastating effect[s] on our collective rights and title, our lands, our waters and our health” (para. 6).…”

“…The ethos that underpinned the use of sport in colonial projects in Canada was one of social transformation, whereby sport offered a vehicle to promote health, education, and self-improvement (Hayhurst & Giles, 2013). Such understandings remain prevalent in the contemporary context, whereby SFD programs often operate under the problematic pretense that Indigenous peoples are in need of the aid of Euro Canadians who ostensibly possess the expertise and benevolence to provide such social change (see Millington et al, 2019).…”

“…Within this context, the industry has engaged in various forms of CSR practices to address the social and environmental harms of extractivism and has turned to the sustainable development potential of sport as one avenue for such social outreach. Examples of extractives-funded SFD programming in Canada include Goldcorp’s support of Right to Play’s “Promoting Life-skills in Aboriginal Youth” (PLAY) program; Imperial Oil funding of “Imperial Oil Place” for recreational hockey and skating in Cold Lake, Alberta; and Rio Tinto’s support of programs such as the Northwest Territories (NWT) Track and Field Championship, “Diavik Super Soccer,” and Sport North’s KidSport program in the NWT (see Millington et al, 2019).…”