First Nation stories of coaching barriers: a Mi’kmaq perspective

ABSTRACT

Indigenous coaches play an essential role in educating Indigenous youth about the value of sport and facilitate strong relationships between sport and culture. Unfortunately, across all levels of sport and coaching in Canada, Indigenous sport participation is hindered by a lack of Indigenous coaches. Using a narrative analysis, the following study sought to understand the barriers affecting the development and inclusion of Indigenous coaches in Canada. Specifically, nine Mi’kmaw First Nation coaches from Nova Scotia, Canada, participated in individual, semi-structured interviews. The interviews were interpreted using a thematic narrative analysis. The findings contributed to three distinct narratives: Trials and Tribulations, Displaced by Race, and Westernized Indigenous Education. We discuss how the integrated Indigenous-ecological model can be used as a decolonizing framework to reduce coaching barriers across each ecosystem, subsequently promoting more inclusive and culturally relevant coaching experiences for Mi’kmaw First Nation coaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous coaching
• racism
• coach education
• integrated indigenous-ecological model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The notion of equity-deserving has emerged to refer to those with underrepresented intersections of identity (e.g., Black people, Indigenous people, LGBTQ2S+, persons with disabilities) who are deserving of representation and belonging (Global Water Futures, 2021). Further, the term equity-deserving highlights the fundamental right of equity-deserving groups to experience equity (Garbutt, 2020).

2. See (Gurgis et al., 2022).

3. See Lavallée & Lévesque (2013, p. 219) for an illustration of the IIEM.

4. See Cape Breton University (2022), Mi’kmaw Ethics Watch.

5. For more information on the types of questions asked, please contact the corresponding author.

6. Residential schools were religiously-based, government-sponsored boarding schools that assimilated Indigenous children into Western culture between 1880–1996. Indigenous children were removed from their family homes and communities, their names were often changed, they were forbidden to speak their language or wear traditional clothes, and their culture was criticised. They learned to be ashamed of their race, feeling that they neither belonged to Indigenous or settler society. Many were abused, many died and were buried in unmarked graves (Marshall & Gallant, 2012).