Beyond underrepresentation: narratives of identity and healing among Indigenous post-secondary student-athletes

Abstract

Indigenous student-athletes remain underrepresented in post-secondary sport, yet limited research has examined how they experience and make meaning of participation within sporting and educational contexts. Guided by narrative inquiry and Clandinin and Connelly’s three-dimensional narrative inquiry space of temporality, sociality and place, this study explored the experiences of three Indigenous post-secondary student-athletes in the Canadian prairies. With three conversational interviews with each participant, data were generated through three in-depth conversations with each participant involving early sporting experiences, transitions into post-secondary athletics and present-day reflections. Narrative accounts were co-composed with participants and interpreted relationally, attending to how experiences were storied and re-storied across time and context. Findings illustrate that sport functioned as more than a site of physical activity or athletic achievement. For these participants, sport provided distinct opportunities for cultural connection, belonging, identity exploration, educational support and advocacy. Sport also emerged as a context in which participants could negotiate and re-story their identities and relationships. These findings highlight the value of relational, participant-centred narrative methodologies that attend to temporality, sociality and place and create opportunities for Indigenous participants to shape how their experiences are represented. Rather than positioning sport as inherently transformative, this study demonstrates how its meaning is continually constructed through relationships and lived experience. Additionally, these findings offer critical insights for institutions seeking to better support Indigenous student-athletes by creating culturally grounded and wholistic approaches to sport and education.