KIN 1050: Social Foundations of Kinesiology Midterm #2 - Terms and Definitions

Weeks 6-8

Social Determinants of Health

Economic and social conditions that shape the health of individuals and communities

• primary determinants of whether individuals stay healthy or become ill

Three key problems that social determinants of health deal with:

1. Societal factors that shape health and explain health inequalities

2. Societal forces that shape the quality/distribution of factors

3. Problems with Canada’s economic/political system that make addressing social determinants of health challenging

Income as a Social Determinant

Determines premature mortality, quality of early life, education, employment, working condition, and good security

Physical Activity and Social Determinants

The extent to which individuals and communities may participate in physical activity is determined by social and economic factors, cultural shifts, and government policy.

Motivation for Physical Activity (19th to 20th Century)

For health and function

• personal rsponsibility for health, moral fiber, strong character

  • muscular chistrianity —> combingin religion and fitness to maintain strong men and against the social ills of women

Motivation for Physical Activity (20th/21st Century)

From health to apperance

• body as a project —> status

• fitness as a moral virtue practice and means towards self-fufillment

• growth of consumerism advertising, film, and celebrity also further marked as a shift to appearance-oriented values

Healthism

The idealogy that health is a product of lifestyle choices —> healthy people are moral people

Canadian Settler-Colonialism includes processes of:

1. Dispossession of Indigenous Peoples

2. Elimination of Indigenous Peoples

3. The political struggles that surround them

   1. Unequal power relationships between Indigenous Peoples and settlers

Canadian Settler Colonialism

• Early 17th century w French —> replaced by British in 18th century

  • Justified in part on the colonial idea that Indigenous Peoples were a “savage”, “helpless”, and “underdeveloped” race

The Indian Act

• passed in 1876

• attempted to displace Indigenous identity with “Indian status” to erase Indigenous political authority with the Crown’s

  • Treaties signed in good faith were often utilized as another strategy of the Crown/Canada to strip Indigenous Peoples of their lands/rights

Aboriginal

As defined in the Canadian Constitution, includes First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Peoples

• literally meaning “not original”: grouping many people and groups with one term defined by CA constition

Indigenous

Characterizes those who first inhabited lands in different parts of the world

• ex: Maori (New Zealand), Kuikuro (brazil), Aboriginal Peoples in Australia

Indigenous Lands that UWO Occupies:

• Anishinaabek Nation

• Haudenosaunee Nation

• Lunaapeewak Nation

• Chonnonton Nation

  • And on lands connected with the London Township and Sombra Treaties of 1796 and the DIsh with one Spoon Covenant Wampun

Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum

Wampum: developed by Indigenous, connected to great lakes

Idea: Symbolize share of land —> boundaries actually overlap

Spoon: resources used by all nations

Dish: land

nations are all in peaceful cohesion

Tom Longboat

Onondaga runner from Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve who won the Boston Marathon in 1907

• represented as a “tragic hero”

Fred Saskamoose

First Indigenous man to play in the National Hockey League

Shirley and Sharon Firth

Cross country ski sisters who competed at four Olympic Games and won 48 national titles

• First Indigenous women inducted into Canadian Sports Hall of Fame

Sport Canada

Responsible for sport development

• oversees the development of aboriginal sport in Canada

Aboriginal Sport Circle

• National voice for Aboriginal sport development in Canada

• Established in 1995

• Develops and delivers sport only to Aboriginal people

Residential Schools

Church and/or state operated institutions that ran for a period of over 150 years

• estimated htat over 150,000 children attended schools

• intent was to separate Indigenous children form their families and culture as part of a civilizing mission —> assimilation

• 1920 —> Indian Act made attendence mandatory for Treaty-status children between ages 7 and 15

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concluded that residential schools were:

a systematic, government-sponsored attempt to destroy Aboriginal cultures and languages and to assimilate Aboriginal peoples so that they no longer existed as distinct peoples. The TRC characterized this intent as “cultural genocide”

Indigenous Physical Cultural Practices and Self-Determination

The practice of sport and physical culture is an important aspect of Indigenous self-determination

• CA gov attempted to replace traditional Aboriginal cultural practices with Euro-Canadian sports and games

  • Indian Act was eaponized to commit cultural genocide by banning traditional practices (including Potlatch and Sundance ceremonies)

Canadian assimilation

The process by which Indigenous Peoples were forced to adopt Eurocentric culture, lifestyle, practices, and idealogies

• sport and physical education was an important assimilatory tool, particularly within residential schools

Eurocentric Sport and “Regulated Desire”

• Repression alone was not enough to enact cultural genocide —> Euro-Canadian sports and games were used to help bring about fundamental changes in values and behaviours

• Activites that sparked pleasure and excitement were utillized in conjuction with punishment to bring about assimilation

Physical Activity Spaces and Indigenous Resistance

• sport, physical activity, and human movement are spaces where Indigenous bodies have been oppressed

  • also for challenging and building resilience to colonial forms of power

Indigenous Approaches to Physical Activity

• oral traditions (storytelling) is done through different cultural practices

• Indigenous sports —> less about individual success and more about community building

Indigenous physical cultural practices tend to be:

1. Land-based (rural and urban spaces)

2. Practiced in a functional, reciprocal and collaborative fashion

3. Used to maintain strong connections to community and the natural world, inclduing non-human animals and the environment

Settler-colonialism

A gendered practice that connects the extraction of land with the violence that specifically targets Indigenous women

Decolonization

Undoing/dismantling structures, processes, and institutions of colonialism

• involves giving up/repatriating the land and a transfer of power between settler-colonial nations to Indigenous Nations/Peoples

Anishinaabekweg Dibaajimowinan (Stories) of Decolonizations Through Running

• Anishinaabekweg Nations had female and male runners called michitweg, who were messengers between communities

  • Ran distances of a dozen to over a hundred miles to reach communities through intertribal relay system

  • A way to directly connect with their ancestral lands and cultural practices

Double Helix

Two unique ways Indigenous people can participate in sport:

1. Mainstream —> sport canada, elite, etc.

2. Indigenous stream —> tends to be only for indigenous people and tends to be governed by Indigenous leaders

The Beardy’s Blackhawks

• The only Midget AAA team in Canada located on and controlled by a First Nation’s community

  • Told by Saskatchewan Hockey Association in 2019 that they would not be allowed to stay in the league

North American Indigenous Games

• Began in 1990 in Edmonton, Alberta

• Largely modelled on mainstream Olympic sports

• Created access to an event where Indigenous identiy and community building is encouraged, fostered, and normalized

  • Led by regional Indigenous sport bodies

Who said: “In First Nations life, you've got to work three times as hard, you're going to deal with many barriers, you're going to deal with racism.

Rilee ManyBears from the Siksika Nation

Who said: "By and large, we just don't make it to the international and Olympic levels at the same rate as privileged white people”

Alison Desmarais, a former short-track speed skater from Metis Nation British Columbia

“More Indigenous people are identifying their citizenship as belonging to their Indigenous nation and not Canada . . . a rejection of an assumed Canadian identity.”

Christine O’Bonsawin, Associate Professor of History and Indigenous studies, University of Victoria

TRC Recommendation 87

Educate the public on Indigenous athletes’ history with sports halls of fame and organizations

TRC Recommendation 88

Support Indigenous athlete development and fund the North American Indigenous Games

TRC Recommendation 89

Amend the Physical Activity and Sport Act to reduce barriers and promote Indigenous inclusion in sports and physical activity

TRC Recommendation 90

Ensure national sports programs meaningfully include Indigenous peoples, with funding, elite athlete programs, culturally relevant training, and anti-racism programs

TRC Recommendation 91

Respect Indigenous protocols and involve local communities in international sporting events