ABSTRACT
Indigenous Peoples have an inherent responsibility and right to “exercising” sovereignty – the practice of sport and physical activity in the performance of our cultural, political, and spiritual citizenship (Ali-Joseph, 2018). During the Covid-19 pandemic, access to and equity (inequity) in sport and physical activity has been felt (e.g., physically, spiritually, politically) within Indigenous communities. We implement an abundance-based Indigenous approach to understanding Indigenous Peoples’ responses to the coronavirus pandemic through sport and its far-reaching ramifications in Indian Country. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen Indigenous Peoples utilize social media such as Facebook and TikTok to reimagine Indigenous sport in digital spaces such as the “Social Distance Powwow” and “Pass the RezBall Challenge.” Utilizing Indigenous ways of knowing, practices of survivance, Indigenous sport scholarship, and Indigenous responses to Covid-19, we describe five protective factors of “exercising” sovereignty that have emerged including community, relationality, strength, abundance, and resilience.
