Paddling as resistance? Exploring an Indigenous approach to land-based education amongst Manitoba youth

ABSTRACT

A group involving Métis and Indigenous graduate students from the University of Manitoba and inner-city Indigenous youth developed and participated in an outdoor adventure-based canoe trip in Quetico Provincial Park. The five-day trip was steeped in Métis, Voyageur and Indigenous history and ceremony. This ensuing paper focuses on what is at stake when taking a decolonizing approach toward land-based education involving both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants that aspires to (re)introduce Indigenous practices, environments and ceremonies. Inspired by recognizing the complexities involved in creating physical activity and sport programming for Indigenous youth under colonial structures within and outside of the academy, we seek to both illuminate and deconstruct the possibilities of measuring the transformative effects that such a trip has on all those involved, including the youth, mentors, and researchers. Drawing on the results of a qualitative study using both Indigenous and Western approaches, we present community-based research focusing on the impacts these experiences have on community building, identity, and decolonization.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

jay johnson

Dr. Jay Johnson is an associate professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management at the University of Manitoba. His interdisciplinary research explores child labor issues and body fascism, doping knowledges of elite female triathletes, and the impact of climatic change on our physical experiences and the interface of sport, physical activity and the environment. He is currently investigating how economically and socially disadvantaged youth experience their metropolitan landscape in a bid to identify desired environmental changes that may increase the use of active spaces.

Adam Ehsan Ali

Dr. Adam Ehsan Ali is a post-doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the global sport-for-deradicalization movement in the post 9/11 war on terror era, anti-Islamic racism, Orientalism, and sport, and the relationship between sport, sustainability, climate change, and the environment.