ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the aim of this study, to challenge the taken-for-granted nation state–sport nexus by investigating sport for Indigenous peoples without their own state. The two research questions are: (1) What roles do Indigenous sport organizations, including sport clubs, play (and how do they vary)? (2) What might contemporary conventions within Indigenous sport signal in terms of future community development and the (re)emergence of Indigenous culture and ‘nation’? The chapter sets the scene for the study by discussing key concepts such as nation, state, ethnicity, indigeneity, nation-building, culture, society, and organizations. Moreover, the chapter indicates how the complex history of colonization provides various impacts in the everyday activity of sport and how this variation in sport participation and organization impacts nation-building, by focusing on the Sámi people and sport in Sápmi. The chapter locates the study within sports sociology by discussing how everyday activity sports are influenced by and affect the global issues of peoples without states, including Indigenous peoples crossing state borders, and Indigenous emancipation.
