Decolonizing Sports Sociology is a “Verb not a Noun”: Indigenizing Our Way to Reconciliation and Inclusion in the 21st Century? Alan Ingham Memorial Lecture

Abstract

In this paper, which is a revised and modified version of the 2019 North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Alan Ingham Memorial lecture, the author shares four views, contributions, and opportunities that sports sociologists might consider useful in how to decolonize as well as indigenize our discipline together. The need to actively engage in the theory and practice of how to decolonize while understanding what it also means to work toward becoming an accomplice, activist, ally, or co-resistor are important threads underpinning the nature and scope of this paper. The author concludes with a plea to sports sociologists that decolonizing our minds is as much a collective effort as it is an act of reconciliation while maintaining the promise of inclusion, equity, and human rights. As sports sociologists, understanding what it means to be in “good relations” with Indigenous Peoples is fundamental to how we continue to build on and improve our discipline together.

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

“…Besides, "Canadian" sport is known to display significant inequity and injustices while valorizing hypermasculinity, racial discrimination, and norms of abuse and harassment (Peers et al, 2023). We now turn our attention beyond the TRC's calls to action on sport to consider how Indigenous epistemologies of land, kinship, and connection engender opportunities for a radical reimagining of what is possible in and through sport (Forsyth, 2020a;Gilbert, 2012;Welch et al, 2021;Whitinui, 2021).…”

“…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.…”

“…This can be enabled by favoring the resurgence of the interconnectedness between the physical, spiritual, intellectual (including the political), and emotional elements that are all holistically tied to the land. This initiative-Indigenous scholars, elders, and activists have argued -must be led in consultation with Indigenous organizations that place more emphasis on language, elder engagement, and selfdetermination as well as learning about ceremonies, spirituality, the cosmologies of Indigenous Peoples, and the land (Forsyth, 2020a(Forsyth, , 2020bWhitinui, 2021).…”

“…Emphatically secular, settler sport has a long legacy of not only repressing and appropriating Indigenous Knowledges, practices, and worldviews but also advancing the settler nation state and the accumulation of capital (Forsyth, 2007(Forsyth, , 2013. Indigenous epistemologies provide another paradigm for understanding sport, one that links athletic achievement and participation with spiritual connection and communal health (Downey, 2018;Gilbert, 2012;Whitinui, 2021). Indigenous epistemologies of sport also illuminate a reimagining of a connection between sport and land.…”

Decolonizing the Sneaker: Sneaker Customization and the Racial Politics of Expressive Popular Culture

“…We conclude by arguing that the sociology of sport could benefit from broadening its conception of the forms decolonization can take, and of the spaces within which it can occur. The legacies of colonialism are material, and as such, the process of decolonization must extend beyond the symbolic or the intellectual (Whitinui, 2021). Still, we advocate for the serious engagement of the quotidian practices (such as stylistic expression and consumption) that occur within everyday popular culture; a realm too-often disregarded by the academy, but (as this analysis demonstrates) is often infused with political praxis, identity projects, and meaningful confrontation with structural context.…”