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ABSTRACT
This paper reflects on my experience as a non-white international student at a top-ranked sport/kinesiology faculty in Canada, particularly the (un)learning of my complicity within settler colonialism. Following a decolonising autoethnographic approach, I juxtapose my own desired pathway of pursuing international study with shapeshifting forms of settler colonialism. The stories reveal that Canada’s marketing of higher education, settler geography, the whiteness of university, and the spectacle of ‘reconciliation’ can operate in concert to prevent international students from developing critical understandings of the violent conditions of their stay on occupied Indigenous land. While elusive opportunities of (un)learning and resisting do exist, I argue that the seemingly natural trajectory of (re)producing settlers of colour warrants critical intervention.
Acknowledgements
This publication would not be possible without the generous teachings from many past and present Indigenous community members across the Turtle Island. The author also acknowledges the contributions of the Re-Creation Collective to this publication: the insights, collaborations, and call-ins from this collective of intersectional scholars, practitioners, and activists have contributed significantly to the author’s thinking and praxis. Last but not least, the author would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The TRC of Canada was established in 2008 as one mandated aspect of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) to investigate the Indian Residential School system and the impact on Indigenous youth. It released a Final Report and 94 Calls to Action in 2015 (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Citation2015).
2. This monument was installed in 1992 to honour Canadian soldiers that served overseas peacekeeping missions since 1948. Notwithstanding my own interpretation, it has little to do with Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
3. Amiskwaciy-wâskahikan (meaning: ‘Beaver Hill House’) is the Cree name for the region currently known as the city of Edmonton. Treaty No. 6 was signed by Crown representatives and leaders from Cree, Assiniboine and Ojibwa communities in 1876. Its boundaries extend across central portions of present-day Alberta and Saskatchewan. As will be discussed in the paper, names can carry on banal colonialism but can also be (re)deployed as a challenge to colonialism.
4. For example, in 2018, more than 721,000 international students studied in Canada and contributed an estimated $21.6 billion to Canada’s GDP, an amount equivalent to 170, 000 middle-class jobs in the country (Government of Canada Citation2018).
5. The TRC made five Calls to Actions related to sport and Indigenous Peoples, categorised as ‘Sports and Reconciliation’.
6. The translation of ‘American Indians’ in Chinese.
7. While there were rumours that unsuccessful communication was the cause, no official announcement was made by the university on the cancellation of the partnership.
8. Waneek Horn-Miller (Mohawk of Kahnawá:ke) was stabbed by a Canadian soldier at the age of 14, at the end of the 78-day armed stand-off between Mohawk land defenders and the Canadian military. This event led to a five-year Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples to examine the Indigenous-white relations in Canada.
9. Six Nations of the Grand River is a First Nations reserve in Ontario, Canada, where representatives from six Iroquois nations (Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, and Tuscarora) live together.
10. Haudenosaunee Confederacy is an alliance of Indigenous communities crossing the Canada-U.S. border.
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Chen Chen
Dr. Chen Chen (from Guiyang, China), currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, University of Alberta, identifies as a settler of colour and a grateful guest to Amiskwaciy-wâskahikan on Treaty 6 Territory, also known as Edmonton, Canada. He takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore ways for sport to be utilised as a site to challenge colonial legacies and/or ongoing colonialism in different contexts. He believes that researchers need to commit to all learnings that exist outside the walls of institutions.