Call for papers: Indigenous voices matter

The Journal of Sport for Development is calling for papers for a special issue on indigenous voices in the theory, practice and research of sport for development.

This special issue seeks to probe, deconstruct, and contest current sport for development (SFD) discourse related to Indigenous voices, providing a more nuanced understanding in the SFD space. Indigenous peoples are holders of unique languages, knowledge systems and beliefs, and have a special relationship with land. Indigenous peoples hold their own diverse concepts of development, based on their traditional values, visions, needs and priorities. However, Indigenous scholarship remains marginalized in many disciplines due to a lack of acceptance and understanding of other forms of knowledge, and how such knowledge is produced and shared. We look to consider Indigenous concepts and theoretical understandings embodied in SFD research and practices.

Research topics and themes may include but are not limited to:

Indigenous and/or post-colonial critiques of SFD theory, research, and practice
Place-based approaches in SFD
Indigenous SFD intersections with health, education, gender, youth development, disability, conflict, and peace
Examples which focus on Indigenous resistance, reclamation, identity, or social movements
Sport as a vehicle for Indigenous reconciliation
Feminist Indigenous insights
Insights from Indigenous methodologies and methods when doing research in the field of SFD
Specific Indigenous approaches to monitoring & evaluation in SFD
SFD stakeholder management which centers Indigeneity
Indigenous informed management approaches to SFD
Indigenous informed program design and implementation: challenges, lessons learned, and opportunities
Collaborative examples between Indigenous organizations, and/or Government, NGOs, and the Private Sector
Government and policy impacts on Indigenous SFD programs
Facilitating Indigenous community participation and empowerment via SFD
Indigenous approaches towards local community capacity building via SFD
Developing SFD Indigenous organizational capacity
Settler/Indigenous SFD partnerships
The link between Ancestral land to holistic (physical, spiritual, emotional, economic and social) wellbeing being central to collective physical and cultural survival

The special issue will draw on the United Nations’ understanding of Indigenous wherein an official definition is not given; rather a “modern understanding of the term” is based on the following:

Self-identification as Indigenous peoples at the individual level and accepted by the community as their member
Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies
Strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources
Distinct social, economic or political systems
Distinct language, culture and beliefs
Usually form non-dominant groups of society; and/or
Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities

Indigenous peoples (also termed Aboriginal people, Native people, or Autochthonous people) are distinctive groups protected in international or national legislation as having a set of specific rights based on their linguistic and historical ties to a particular territory, prior to later settlement, development, and or occupation of a region, from the Arctic to the South Pacific region. Other terms which have been used to describe or label Indigenous people are hunter-gatherers, nomads, peasants, or hill people. Thus, Indigenous peoples include, but are not limited to, those of the Americas (for example, the Haudenosaunee in Canada, the Mayas in Guatemala or the Aymaras in Bolivia), the Inuit and Aleutians of the circumpolar region, the Saami of northern Europe, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia and the Māori of New Zealand/Aotearoa.

By making Indigenous voices visible in SFD, this special issue seeks to expand the narrow range of knowledge and perspective that are often privileged and thus dominant within SFD scholarship. This special issue will be an illustration that Indigenous voices in SFD matter.

World-renowned Indigenous scholars Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith and Distinguished Professor Graham Hingangaroa Smith have agreed to write the foreword. We welcome work from Indigenous and Global-South scholars as well as non-Indigenous, Settler scholars as allies, who are working in genuine partnership with Indigenous scholars and/or community participants. We are interested in those also working to support early career scholars and are inclusive of practitioner voices.

Key dates and details for submissions:

To be considered for the special issue, please upload your manuscript through JSFD’s online portal by 1 December 2021. Please indicate that the manuscript should be considered for this special issue in your cover letter. Submitted manuscripts should ensure to follow the author guidelines and manuscript format of JSFD. We expect the special issue to be published in late 2022. To discuss a potential submission, feel free to contact any of the special issue guest editors.

Contact details for guest editors: