Reclaiming Movement. Transforming Systems.
We generate knowledge that supports the reclamation of Indigenous movement as a foundation for renewal, self-determination, and decolonization. Our work critically examines how colonial power has shaped Indigenous sport and physical culture across both historical and contemporary contexts, in Canada and around the world. We also collaborate directly with communities and organizations through applied and policy-focused research, helping to shift sport cultures and drive meaningful systemic change.
Projects
Dr. Forsyth’s current projects include:
1. Exposing the Frame: Sport, Survivance, and Settler Fictions
This project examines a series of historically significant photographs taken by Gar Lunney of the National Film Board’s Still Photography Division during a 1951 promotional tour featuring the Sioux Lookout Black Hawks—a boys’ hockey team from Pelican Lake Indian Residential School in Northern Ontario.
Orchestrated by the Department of Indian Affairs, the tour and its photographic documentation were designed to present the residential school system as a model of discipline, progress, and assimilation, using hockey as a cherished symbol of Canadian identity. The boys toured Ottawa and Toronto, appearing in ceremonial puck drops with NHL players, posing with political leaders, and visiting national landmarks. The resulting images—some routine, others haunting—were widely circulated to reinforce settler narratives of ‘civilizing’ Indigenous youth through sport.
By unpacking the colonial framing of these photographs, the project contributes to national conversations on Truth and Reconciliation in sport through a series of public exhibits, publications, and educational resources designed to confront denialism, elevate Indigenous voices, and foster public reckoning.
Visit this project here: https://crossingtheredline.ca/.
Ongoing research currently funded by SSHRC Partnership Grant #895-2025-1011, 2025-2032. Co-Director (Dr. Sam McKegney, PI, Queen’s University).
2. Inventing the War Canoe: Archival Pathways to Narrative Justice, 1880 – 1910
In partnership with Canoe Kayak Canada.
This project examines how War Canoe emerged within early Canadian sport and what that history reveals about the entanglement of organized sport with the logics of settler colonialism. In doing so, it reframes narratives of Indigenous representation in Canadian sport while situating War Canoe within broader dynamics of nation-building.
Examining how CKC’s identity and culture rested on a manufactured tradition deepens our understanding of how colonialism operated differently across contexts and underscores the archive’s power in producing and sustaining myths. These differences matter: lacrosse’s appropriation from the Haudenosaunee and CKC’s invention of War Canoe represent distinct colonial processes, each requiring its own form of accountability. It also represents the first sustained effort to use archival history to address present-day organizational issues in Canadian sport.
By exposing how myths took root and offering pathways toward accountability and reconciliation, it provides a roadmap for sport organizations and scholars navigating the complexities of decolonization, as well as a novel way to engage Canadians about their past.
Ongoing research, previously funded by Canadian Olympic Committee, Canada Legacy Grant.
3. Addressing the Silence: Understanding Safe Sport for Indigenous Athletes
Indigenous participants remain underrepresented at all levels of Canadian sport, where racism and other forms of discrimination are persistent and well-documented. Yet little is known about how these forms of harm are experienced, negotiated, or resisted by Indigenous athletes themselves. The absence of such knowledge not only impedes efforts to advance Abuse-Free Sport in Canada but also represents a serious health concern, as it limits the system’s ability to prevent or respond effectively to these issues.
This project examines the experiences of Indigenous athletes who encountered racism in sport but chose not to report their experiences to someone in a position of authority. It seeks to understand what they experienced, how they responded, whom they turned to for support, where they encountered resistance, and how they came to view silence as the most viable option.
Using an intersectional approach attentive to differences in Indigenous positionality, the research explores how Indigeneity intersects with other forms of abuse, socio-demographic factors, and institutional contexts to develop a more comprehensive understanding of these athletes’ experiences.
Ongoing research, previously funded by the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada.
People
Lab Director
Dr. Janice Forsyth
Professor, School of Kinesiology
Current Students
Naim Cardinal – PhD Student, UBC Okanagan
Naim Cardinal is nehiyaw napew (Cree man) and proud member of the Tallcree Tribal Government located in Treaty 8 territory. Naim grew up in Fort Vermilion, AB. and currently lives as a guest in the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the syilx (Okanagan) Peoples in Kelowna, BC. He is a husband to Melanie and father of three children: Amelia, Augustine, and Alden.
Naim is also an Educational Facilitator at UBC Okanagan (UBCO) and works to provide the campus community with context, history, and experiences that Indigenous people have with colonialism in Canada.
Naim has collected hockey cards for 27 years and, for the last 11, he has collected of one rookie card of every NHL player of Indigenous ancestry. A PhD student at UBCO, his research project explores how hockey cards are a product of colonialism and how Indigenous Peoples can respond to them through nehiyaw perspectives on relationality.
You can read more about his work here: www.indigenousrookiecard.com.
Alana Cook – PhD Student, UBC Vancouver
Alana is a Métis professional Mixed Martial Arts athlete, scholar, and community leader dedicated to advancing Indigenous wellness through sport and movement.
Originally from the West Coast and now based in Ontario, she competes at the highest levels of Canadian MMA while pursuing her PhD in Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia.
Her research and community work center on the decolonization of sport and the integration of Indigenous knowledge systems in movement, health, and martial arts through a Métis lens.
Alana is the founder of Walking Like Warriors Self-Defence, a self-defence and wellness initiative that supports Indigenous communities across Turtle Island (www.walkinglikewarriors.com). Through teaching, fighting, and community leadership, she aims to create spaces of strength, safety, and self-determination rooted in Indigenous identity and holistic well-being.
Ivy Osei – PhD Student, UBC Vancouver
Ivy is a doctoral student in Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia. She lives, works, and studies on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam People, and acknowledges with gratitude the privilege of being a visitor on these lands.
Her research bridges critical Indigenous and decolonial frameworks to examine how settler-colonial structures shape the way games and movement are imagined, organized, and valued across Ghanaian and Canadian contexts. She centers Indigenous games and community-driven pedagogies to explore how culturally embodied knowledge can advance more equitable, and relational approaches to sport and education.
Her doctoral research investigates contemporary efforts to revitalize and institutionalize Ghanaian Indigenous games as vessels of knowledge, cultural memory, and community identity, while critically examining how these processes can both enable and constrain cultural continuity.
She is co-founder of SportDrive, which focuses on advancing Ghanaian traditional sports: https://sportdrive.org.
Miruthula மிருதுளா Queen Anbu – PhD Student, UBC Vancouver
Miru is a descendant of Tamil ancestors, who are known as ‘the ones who return from the Sea.’ As a South Asian diasporic scholar, the heart of her work is grounded in ancestral knowledges tied to Water and the returning way.
Anchored in critical settler-colonial theory and guided by decolonial, relational, and community-based EDI approaches, her research navigates the intertwined currents of race, aquatic sport, and settler colonialism.
Miru’s record reflects both scholarly achievement and organizational leadership. She is organizing Vancouver’s first decolonial Water Tour through boat sports, centered on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action on sport and Indigenous sovereignty. This initiative is being developed in collaboration with Canoe Cultures (an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to the art and culture of the canoe) and the False Creek Racing Canoe Club (dragon boats) for the 2026 biennial International Conference on Social Identity and Sport (ICSIS), themed Pulling Together, in Vancouver.
She has also contributed to national equity initiatives with organizations such as the Sport Information Resource Centre and the Canadian Olympic Committee, and currently serves on the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport’s (NASSS) United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Alignment Committee. She has presented and published her work across audiences locally, nationally, and internationally.
Megan Tomyn – PhD Student, UBC Vancouver
Megan is a First Nations scholar from M’Chigeeng First Nation who grew up in Saskatchewan. An accomplished volleyball athlete, she brings lived experience to her research on Indigenous representation and visibility in high-performance sport.
Using narrative inquiry, her MA research explored the experiences of Indigenous post-secondary student-athletes, examining how sport, physical activity, and education shape their pathways to and through university life.
Her doctoral research investigates the systemic invisibility of Indigenous student-athletes within Canadian universities. While institutions often report overall Indigenous enrollment academically, few disclose data specific to Indigenous athletes—an absence that perpetuates the erasure of Indigenous presence in collegiate sport and reflects broader patterns of settler colonial governance.
Her work critiques how institutional control over Indigenous data reproduces colonial practices of silence and advocates for Indigenous data sovereignty as a foundation for equity and accountability.
Megan is also actively involved in national forums on sport and physical education in Canada, contributing her expertise to advancing Indigenous participation and leadership across the sector.
Publications
Dr. Forsyth’s publications can be viewed here: https://janiceforsyth.ca/
Student Outputs:
Naim Cardinal, PhD Student
Professional Publications
Cardinal, N. (2025, June). Examining Indigenous influences and experiences in the NHL via hockey cards. Echoes on Ice, Special Edition, 12 & 15. https://umanitoba.ca/law/sites/law/files/2025-06/echoes-on-ice-magazine.pdf
McKee, T., Cardinal, N., & Lacoste, N. (2025, January 19). NCAA rule change will allow CHL players to play — but it could have some drawbacks. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/ncaa-rule-change-will-allow-chl-players-to-play-but-it-could-have-some-drawbacks-244813.
Scholarly Publications
Cardinal, N. (In Press). Review of Beyond the rink: Behind the images of residential school hockey, by A. Giancarlo et al. Native American Indigenous Studies Journal.
Scholarly Presentations
2025 Panel member. Decolonization & racism in hockey. The Hockey Conference, Winnipeg, MB.
2025 Presentation. Exploring Indigenous influences in the NHL via hockey cards. National Indigenous Physical Activity & Wellness Conference, Vancouver, BC.
2024 Presentation. Indigenous influences in the NHL via hockey cards. Indigenous Hockey Research Network National Summit, Vancouver, BC.
2023 Panel member. Genealogies of Indigenous hockey. Indigenous Hockey Research Network National Summit, Montreal, PQ.
Public Presentations
2025 Guest Lecture. Exploring Indigenous influences in the NHL via hockey cards. KIN 484A – Restoring Wellness Through Indigenous Land-Based Practices, UBC, Vancouver, BC.
2025 Guest Lecture. Exploring Indigenous influences in the NHL via hockey cards. KIN 487B – Hockey in Canadian Society, UBC, Vancouver, BC.
2024 Webinar. Indigenous influences in the NHL via hockey cards. UBC Learning Circle, Online.
2023 Presentation. Indigenous influences in hockey. National Indigenous Peoples’ Day. UBC, Okanagan, BC.
2022 Panel member. One of three panelists for EDU 211 – Aboriginal Education and Contexts for Professional and Personal Engagement, Aboriginal Teacher Education Program (ATEP) for Pre-Service Teachers, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB.
Alana Cook, PhD Student
Professional Publications
Cook, A. (2024, September 18). We are the river. Terralingua. https://terralingua.org/stories/we-are-the-river/
Cook, A. (2020). Summers on the reserve. The Mamawi Project, 10-11. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/kiyokewin-zine-231435247/231435247
Scholarly Presentations
2024 Presentation. Intersections between Indigenous cultural values and martial arts. North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) Conference, Chicago, IL.
2022 Presentation. Indigenous land-based health and wellness. Pacific Northwest Rural Health Conference, Victoria, BC.
2019 Presentation. Indigenous land-based fitness. Aha Aloha ‘Āina Conference, University of O‘ahu, Honolulu, HI.
Keynotes
2023 Keynote. A good guest. Indigenous Physical Activity & Cultural Circle (IPACC) Health & Wellness Conference, Vancouver, BC.
2019 Keynote. Kanaka Maoli experiences within the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. Through the Eyes of the Buffalo Elders Conference, Honolulu, HI.
Public Presentations
2024 Webinar. Land-based fitness. UBC Learning Circle.
2024 Webinar. Walking Like Warriors self-defence. UBC Learning Circle, Online.
2023 Guest Lecture. Life as an Indigenous professional athlete. KIN 483 – Advanced Seminar in Systems Biology, Exercise and Health, UBC, Vancouver, BC.
2022 Guest Lecture. Decolonizing sport & decolonization through sport. Sociology 101 – Introduction to Sociology, Douglas College, New Westminster, BC.
2020 Guest Lecture. Climate change through an Indigenous lens. ILS (Indigenous Land Stewardship) 140 – Climate Change Strategies. Native Education College, Vancouver, BC.
Workshops
Unceded & undefeated. Gathering Our Voices: Indigenous Youth Conference, British Columbia. March 2024, 2023.
Walking like warriors self-defence. Gathering Our Voices: Indigenous Youth Conference, British Columbia. March 2024, 2023, 2019.
Ivy Osei, PhD Student
Professional Publications
Osei, I., & Forsyth, J. (2025). Summary of findings: Equity, diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) policies in Canadian sport policies. Report prepared for Curling Canada and the Winter Sport Caucus.
Scholarly Publications
Williams, V., Chan, C. K., Osei, I., Ducharme, D. B., Lawan, A., Asubiaro, T., Katsivo, M., Onaolapo, S., & Oldfield, N. (2025). Module 4: Indigeneity and decolonization in Canada and in Africa: Impact on healthcare providers, students, patients, and communities. In A case-based approach to achieving equity in healthcare ecosystems. The African Institute & Western University, London, ON.
Osei, I. A. (2024). Examining the balance between the formalization process of Indigenous games and the protection of cultural heritage: A case study of the South African Indigenous games project [Master’s thesis, Western University]. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/10618/
Scholarly Presentations
2025 Presentation (first author, with Misener, L). Examining the balance between the formalization process of South Africa’s Indigenous games and the protection of cultural heritage. North American Society for Sport History Conference, Gatineau, QC.
2025 Presentation (first author, with Misener, L.). Examining the balance between the formalization process of Indigenous games and the protection of cultural heritage: A case study of the South African Indigenous games project. Canada-Africa Academic Collaborations Conference, The African Institute & Western University, London, ON.
Public Presentations
2024 Guest Lecture. Focus on flexibility. KIN 2000 – Physical Activity and Health. Western University, London, ON.
2019 Guest Lecture. African games. PESS 203 – Sport for Development and Peace. University of Ghana, Accra, GH.
Other Works
2023 Video. How cultural identity lives through sport. The Impact Project. Western University. https://www.theimpactproject.ca/stories/ivy-aboagyewaa-osei
Miruthula Queen Anbu, PhD Student
Professional Publications
Queen Anbu, M. (2024). #LandBack also means #WaterBAck: (Re)visiting sports on stolen waterways, Engaging Sports. https://thesocietypages.org/engagingsports/2024/07/16/landback-also-means-waterback-revisiting-sports-on-stolen-waterways/
Scholarly Presentations
2024 Presentation. Wavetales of賽龍舟(Sài Lóng Zhōu)/dragon-boat racing – sporting diaspora: The agony and the ecstasy in the foreign field. North American Society for Sport Sociology (NASSS), Chicago, IL.
2024 Presentation (second author, with Szto, C., Scully, O., & St. Amant, N.). Privilege, pollution, and gender equality: Reconciling the labor conditions of women’s professional sport with the climate. North American Society for Sport Sociology (NASSS), Chicago, IL.
2024 Presentation. Sports at the intersection of UNDRIP and the TRC Calls to Action. Bodies of Knowledge, Graduate Student Conference, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
2024 Presentation. 龍舟/dragon-boat RACEing: The (hi)Stories of dragon boat in Canada. Sport Anthropology Caucus III: International Perspectives, North American Society for Sport History (NASSH), Denver, CO.
2023 Panelist. Implementing UNDRIP through NASSS alignment: Possibilities & next steps. Round table discussion. North American Society for Sport Sociology (NASSS), New Orleans, LA.
2023 Presentation. Dragon boat and the waveprint: Environmental impact of dragon boat paddling in Sen̓áḵw. North American Society for Sport Sociology (NASSS), New Orleans, LA.
2023 Presentation. 賽龍舟(Sài Lóng Zhōu)/Dragon-boat racing and the racialization of Chinese-Canadian history. North American Society for Sport Sociology (NASSS), New Orleans, LA.
2023 Presentation. Can sociocultural studies bend sport like Beckham? A look into transnational representation of South Asian women in sport movies. World Congress of Sociology of Sport (ISSA), Ottawa, ON.
2022 Presentation. A look into active integration and segregation strategies for “safe third spaces” in sport. North American Society for Sport Sociology (NASSS), Las Vegas, NV.
Public Presentations
2025 Guest Lecture. Reflecting on water: Boat sports and water cultures. KIN 484, Advanced Seminar in Indigenous Sport, Physical Activity and Health, UBC, Vancouver, BC.
2024 Guest Lecture. Brownness – Brown is Grey. KNPE 366: Race, Sport, and Physical Activity. Queen’s University, Kingston, ON.
2024 Public Presentation. LegacIes. Imagination for Liberation Artists Gala. Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Vancouver, BC.
2023 Public Presentation. #BeyondtheSport: Women in sport and academia. Shad Canada – STEAM and Entrepreneurship Program. York University, Toronto, ON.
Workshops
2023 Decolonizing access and inclusion toolkit for working with youth in recreational spaces. City of Vancouver Day Camps, Access and Inclusion Team, Vancouver, BC.
Megan Tomyn, PhD Student
Scholarly Publications
Toymyn, M. (2025). Braiding counter-stories: A narrative inquiry into sport, Indigenous identity, and healing [Master’s thesis, University of Saskatchewan]. https://harvest.usask.ca/items/16d61aa7-1b5e-4af3-bec0-c364dc3670e4
Chapelski, M. S., Tomyn, M., Sobolewski, K., Froehlich Chow, A., Ferguson, L. J., Pockett, C., Tomczak, C. R., & Erlandson, M. C. (2024). Children with congenital heart disease and the Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines: A scoping review. CJC Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjcpc.2024.10.008
Scholarly Presentations
2025 Presentation. Braiding counter-stories: A narrative inquiry into sport, Indigenous identity, and culture. North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Vancouver, BC.
2025 Presentation. Braiding counter-stories: A narrative inquiry into sport, Indigenous identity, and culture. National Gathering of Graduate Students, Banff, AB.
2025 Presentation. Indigenous voices: Exploring the pathways of Indigenous post-secondary student-athletes. Crossroads Interdisciplinary Health Research Conference, Halifax, NS.
2025 Presentation. Indigenous voices: Exploring the pathways of Indigenous post-secondary student-athletes. Physical and Health Education Canada (PHE Canada) National Conference, Niagara Falls, ON.
2024 Presentation. Indigenous voices: Exploring the pathways of Indigenous post-secondary student-athletes. Three-Minute Thesis, Graduate Student World Café. Physical and Health Education Canada (PHE Canada) National Conference, Saskatoon, SK.
Public Presentations
2025 Presentation. My journey to grad school. Indigenous Student Achievement Pathways program, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK.
Opportunities
To discuss graduate student training opportunities, or research collaborations, please contact Dr. Forsyth at janice.forsyth@ubc.ca.
For details on the School of Kinesiology’s graduate programs and how to apply please see here.
Contact Us
Dr. Forsyth can be reached by email at: janice.forsyth@ubc.ca