Meet Dr. O’Bonsawin, a sports historian who’s passionate about Indigenous sport across the globe
Photo via the University of Victoria.
Indigenous sports historian Dr. Christine O’Bonsawin is a UVic associate professor of history and recent author of a book chapter that dives into the history of the Native Indian Football Association (NIFA).
The Martlet got the chance to sit down with her to learn more about her research.
O’Bonsawin is a self-described “sport nut,” whose lifelong love for playing soccer started at age four. After studying kinesiology for her undergraduate degree, O’Bonsawin combined her interest in Indigenous history with her love of sports to specialize in this niche area of research.
“It just combines all of my passions,” she said.
Editors of the book Sports Through the Lens asked O’Bonsawin if she could write a chapter about the experience of an Indigenous athlete or group. The book features famous photographs in sports history and the stories behind them. The chapter she wrote, published in January of this year, focuses on NIFA.
NIFA was created by local soccer coach Dano Thorne and other Indigenous sports leaders from Vancouver Island, said O’Bonsawin.
“I’ve had this interest for a long time in writing on the all-native sporting spaces that I’ve been participating in since moving to the west coast,” she said.
O’Bonsawin decided to write about the history of NIFA, and one of its “key highlight moments,” which was winning the World Indigenous Games in 2015.
“I think that this is so significant of a moment — the first World Indigenous Games, and this team of Indigenous athletes, representing Canada and Indigenous people in Canada,” she said.
The photo that O’Bonsawin chose to highlight in her chapter was taken in 2015, moments after the team won the championship game after a penalty shootout.
“In a lot of ways, it’s a very typical photo, and in a lot of ways, it’s not,” said O’Bonsawin. “You really see the connectedness and the community of the players themselves,” she said, explaining that the players in the photo are “…not only friends — some of them are relatives, sisters, cousins; there’s leaders, chiefs, mothers, [and] children.”
O’Bonsawin says that it’s important to study Indigenous sport history because so much of it is unknown to the general public.
“One of the calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada is actually to start sharing the histories of Indigenous sporting success,” said O’Bonsawin.
She said she also feels that this type of sporting league offers an important opportunity for Indigenous athletes.
“So often, we’re forced into mainstream sport, and that does come with a lot of racism,” she said. “It’s really important to have those opportunities and alternatives.”
When it comes to misconceptions about Indigenous sport, O’Bonswain says that the biggest one she sees is that people are surprised by the talent in these spaces.
“They are very much community-organized and community-centered, but they are [also] very much about competition and athleticism,” she said.
O’Bonsawin’s work has also involved studying Indigenous participation in the Olympics. Her Master’s thesis looked at the experiences of Indigenous women who have competed in the games.
Her PhD focused on “misrepresentations and appropriations of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous cultures in Olympic history,” starting with the first modern Olympics held outside of Europe, in St. Louis, Mo., in 1904.
“There’s a lot of really awful things that were included in those [early] Olympic games,” said O’Bonsawin, adding that the 2010 Olympics held in Vancouver were particularly interesting to her.
“The slogan ‘No Olympics on Stolen Native Land’ really stuck with me,” she said. “What does it mean to bring the Olympic games onto unceded Indigenous territories?” she asked.
O’Bonsawin says that people also often forget that sport history goes beyond competitions themselves. “[Sport] has significant political, social, economic, [and] environmental impacts,” she said.
In order for regular sports fans to become more involved in the world of Indigenous sports, O’Bonsawin suggests that people look to the athletic spaces close to them.
She says people should “find out about events and possibly go to them, and talk to people.”
For UVic students who want to learn more, O’Bonsawin teaches HIST 385B — History of the Modern Olympic Games, where she discusses Indigenous participation and representation at the Olympic games. She also teaches HIST 328B — Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada since 1850, where she draws on sporting examples to highlight Indigenous resilience.
“The stories that come out once you start to peel back the layers and learn these histories… there are beautiful moments that need to be shared,” said O’Bonsawin. “There is so much history left unwritten.”
