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• Mike Auksi - ON NEIHR WEBINAR SERIES 2024/2025

Welcome to the Ontario NEIHR Monthly Webinar Series 2024/2025

Please join us on Tuesday April 29, 2025 with guest speaker Michael Mahkwa Auksi!

Presentation title:The Time Traveller: Historical and Contemporary Understandings of Indigenous Education and Physical Health Determinants

Abstract: This talk explores the auspicious origins and contemporary climate of Indigenous education and sport in Canada and draws from aspects of my dissertation on seventy-five years of (ice) hockey in my home community of Lac Seul First Nation. In Canada, the Indian Residential School (IRS) system leveraged Settler genres of physical culture (i.e., gymnastics, hockey, military drill) as vessels of assimilation, discipline, and the imbuement of British morality. Pelican Lake IRS (Pelican), near Sioux Lookout in Northwestern Ontario, is the site of Lac Seul’s hockey origin story and exemplifies the interrelatedness of education and modern sport systems. We honour Indigenous contributions to the embryonic years of modern sport in Canada such as the Abenaki snowshoe and the Haudenosaunee game of lacrosse, particularly given the irony of their role in constructing a romanticized Canadian identity.

The Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, founded in 1881, became the centre of Canada’s organized sport empire as a direct result of the Montreal Snow Shoe Club, Montreal Lacrosse Club, and the Montreal Bicycle Club. And yet, early British- and American-informed amateur ideals explicitly excluded Indigenous participation in sports competitions. I argue that the ongoing legacies of the IRS system and exclusionary sport policies have directly impacted the Indigenous health determinants of education and physical wellness. These contexts have been ameliorated in large part thanks to Indigenous education and sport leaders. Today, there are more Indigenous-specific education programs and postsecondary access points that continue to change lives. The sport landscape now features large inter-Nation and inter-territory sport gatherings such as the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships and the North American Indigenous Games, which become vital spaces for expressions of Indigeneity and sovereignty. Lastly, I present the potential of embracing land-based curricula and the emerging concept of digital minimalism, both of which may hold the key to empowering Indigenous Peoples to discover their preferred expressions of physical culture and avenues of life-long learning.

Speaker bio: Mike is a doctoral candidate at McGill University’s Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education. His dissertation explores over seventy-five years of (ice) hockey, as practised by his home community of Lac Seul First Nation. Mike recently moved back to Toronto, re-joining the Waakebiness Institute for Indigenous Health as a research assistant. He is a proud Transitional Year Programme alumnus (’04) and completed his Master of Social Work degree (’13) at Toronto Metropolitan University. In his spare time, Mike enjoys café-hopping, (re)watching movies, and inline skating on the Toronto Islands.

Download: Michael Mahkwa Auksi – ON NEIHR Webinar Series 2024-2025