Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua – “I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past” is a whakataukī (proverb) that illuminates Māori (Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand) conceptualisation of time, “where the past, the present and the future are viewed as intertwined, and life as a continuous cosmic process. Within this continuous cosmic movement, time has no restrictions – it is both past and present” (Rameka, 2017, p. 387). Thus, as we write this closing piece for the Special Issue: Indigenous Voices Matter to Sport for Development (SFD), it makes sense to return full circle to reflect on where the seeds were first planted for this work. In doing so, we are better able to consider the challenges faced, take note of the opportunities that have presented themselves, and be better guided for the future by those who have come before us.

This foreword brings together the theoretical analyses of Kaupapa Māori (Smith, 1997) and Decolonising Methodologies (Smith, 2021) alongside an extensive practice-based knowledge of Indigenous sport and Indigenous development in Māori contexts in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). We critically examine changing contexts and understandings of both sport and development and how those concepts have been applied to and for Māori in Aotearoa NZ. We argue that many of the taken for granted ideas about sport and development need decolonising, disrupting, and reframing within an Indigenous frame we refer to as Kaupapa Māori. This is necessary if we are to fully appreciate and understand how sport and development might work relationally for the well-being of any Indigenous communities and collectives. We explore the role and relationship between sport and development through four political contexts: (a) a historic context and the role of sport as an organized physical activity in an Indigenous society that held its own sovereignty, (b) an Imperial and colonial context in which sport as conceived and introduced by British colonisation was wielded as an instrument of colonisation, (c) a neo-liberal context in which sport as an activity of market forces, competition and privatisation reshaped the organisation of sport and development as a form of economic neoliberalism, and (d) a decolonising and Kaupapa Māori context in which sport has been reimagined and reframed in terms of Indigenous Māori development. The first two political contexts will be covered less extensively because more is known of these two periods, however, there are threads of important ideas that we wish to draw upon that inform Māori concepts of sports and development in the current context.

Over 30 years ago, Graham Hingangaroa Smith (1992) presented a paper titled “Tane-nui-a-Rangi’s Legacy: Propping up the Sky” at the joint New Zealand Association for Research in Education and Australian Association for Research in Education conference in Geelong, Australia. In this paper Smith argued that “resistance strategies developed by Māori people, ought to be carefully studied in order to identify the potential intervention factors” (1992, p. 4) inherent within a (Indigenous) Kaupapa Māori approach. In particular, Smith reinforced the need to learn from innovations with a view to the wider application of success indicators embedded within Indigenous responses. Such “radical action,” he argued, was necessary to intervene in the “educational crisis” that Māori then faced, trapped within a narrow range of existing mainstream schooling options. Three decades on, similar criticisms could be attributed to sport for development (SFD) initiatives with/for Indigenous communities. Indeed, our plea is for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers operating in the SFD space to take notice of the results and recommendations from the articles in this Special Issue.

This paper describes findings from an Indigenous student’s postgraduate research alongside an Indigenous rugby organisation, Otago Māori Rugby. The aim of this research was to explore how Otago Māori Rugby incorporated Māori values to enhance Māori identity and welRlbeing. This research utilised Kaupapa Māori Theory and methodology (Smith, 2015). Five semi-structured interviews were completed with members of Otago Māori rugby on topics related to Māori identity and wellbeing. Deductive and inductive analysis was used. The main findings are presented in “Te Papa Tākaro o te Tuakiri: The Field of Identity”. The two primary deductive themes were the application of: taonga tuku iho (cultural aspirations principle) with the subthemes of whakapapa (genealogy), identity, Te Reo Māori (Māori language) and tikanga (custom); and whānau (extended family structure) with the subthemes of whanaungatanga (relationship building) and community involvement. The four primary inductive themes that emerged were: (a) whakaurunga (engagement); (b) tangata whenuatanga (people of the land); (c) influence of cultural values for mainstream; and (d) safe avenue for rangatahi (youth). The findings will contribute towards understanding the importance of Māori cultural values, identity, and wellbeing within Indigenous sport.

Waka (ancestral canoes) and water are central to Māori, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa, New Zealand, yet Māori have disproportionately high rates of drowning. New research has begun to examine Māori and Indigenous understandings of water safety; however, Indigenous approaches to water safety continue to be an underdeveloped area, particularly in a sport for development (SFD) context. In this study, we demonstrate how waka as an “Indigenous-plus” approach to SFD can provide important insights for a field in which Indigenous views are often absent or marginalized. Underpinned by a kaupapa Māori approach (generally, but not exclusively, research by Māori, for Māori, with Māori), we surveyed 74 future aquatic educators of primarily Pākehā descent (New Zealand European) who participated in a Māori water safety wānanga (cultural space of learning) led by Hauteruruku ki Puketeraki Waka Club, an Indigenous canoe club based in New Zealand’s South Island. Through our thematic analysis, we found that the participants identified the role of waka as fundamental to learning Indigenous Māori water safety in an Aotearoa, New Zealand context. In this paper, we argue that waka provides a vehicle for educating our future aquatic educators about Māori water safety, which will support more meaningful drowning prevention for all New Zealanders.

This paper addresses the modern rubber ballgames of Middle America and traces their genealogy to before the Spanish Conquest. It follows a theoretical framework to register contemporary players’ point of view. On the field, the focus is on recent initiatives materialized in the Maya region of Mexico and Guatemala around the play of three games: chaaj, pok-ta-pok, and chajchaay. Studied from the social sciences and historical anthropology, to confront academic sources arguing the disappearance of the ancient rubber ballgames, it offers a transdisciplinary intercultural assessment of initiatives surrounding their play, emerging from indigenous Mayan communities in the recovery of a worldview that offers a balance between human beings and the natural world.

Indigenous games are rarely discussed within the sport for development (SFD) realm. Instead, even when SFD interventions are aimed at Indigenous youth, the focus is typically on the use of “modern” (European-derived) sport. We sought to analyze how mainstream and Indigenous media in Canada produce understandings of traditional Indigenous games and how, and if, media discourses reflect the idea of traditional games as a form of SFD. Using databases, we searched both mainstream and Indigenous media sources over a ten-year period from 2011 to 2021, identifying 23 articles pertaining to traditional games. Using critical discourse analysis, we noted the (re)production of two discourses in both mainstream and Indigenous media sources: Traditional games keep culture alive; and Indigenous youth can be “reclaimed” through traditional games. In concluding that similar discourses were produced about traditional games in both mainstream and Indigenous media sources, the manner in which the discourses were produced became a focal point for examination. The Western-centric sports journalism approach to traditional games coverage illuminated a strong SFD ideology within the discourses, despite traditional Indigenous games largely rejecting Western sport logic. Our findings suggest the need to appreciate the differences of traditional games from SFD practices for the purposes of cultural and youth development.

The notion of sport as a cultural offset has gained great popularity over the past few decades as a symbol of self-determination and empowerment for Indigenous peoples in Australia. This article involves an examination of Indigenous ways of using sport to culturally offset the effects of colonization from Indigenous perspectives. As such, this account offers insights into the elements that encompass Indigenous resistance: racial injustice; the enactment of a sometimes-negative oppositional culture; cultural maintenance; the reformulation of a positive Indigenous identity; the development of Indigenous political movements; and resistance to sport as a weapon in the arsenal of colonization. This consideration of sport as a site of resistance against the hegemony of the State is informed by Indigenous voices, including that of the first Author, so as to offer a more nuanced understanding of the intersections between sport, development, and Indigenous peoples in Australia.