When two worlds collide: the unsettling experiences of non-Indigenous volunteers at 2017 World Indigenous Nations Games

Abstract

ABSTRACT Foregrounding the ethical demands for non-Indigenous people to be relationally accountable to Indigenous Peoples in settler colonial societies as well as the potential of sport as a site for social change, this study examines the experiences of a group of non-Indigenous sport volunteers at the 2017 World Indigenous Nations Games (WIN Games), an international event hosted simultaneously with the ‘Canada 150ʹ celebration. The findings reveal four themes related to non-Indigenous volunteers’ unsettling yet meaningful experiences. This research highlights how responsible and reflexive engagement through sport, e.g., volunteering, might contain critical educational value and be mobilized as a modest way of action in unsettling settler colonialism.