Traditional Indigenous canoes alongside dragon boats at the 2013 All Nations Canoe Gathering, on the unceded Sen̓áḵw waterways (False Creek, Vancouver, BC) (“Canoe-0104” photo by Rey Torres, granted special permission for non-commercial use)

The #LANDBACK campaign across Turtle Island is a movement organized to get Indigenous Lands back into Indigenous hands and governance. It is an active, sociopolitical, “Indigenous-led movement” that resists settler colonialism. In some ways, #LANDBACK also resists political and legal tools, such as the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius, used to justify claims of land “discovered” along water routes. While the former doctrine claims that a “discoverer” could take possession of land if it was deemed as “discovered,” British colonialists used terra nullius (land belonging to no one) to justify claiming, renaming, and settling, as they understood their relationship to “vacant land” as ownership.

The perception of land or Land differs depending on whether one uses a colonial definition or Indigenous understanding. In Pollution is Colonialism, Dr. Max Liboiron refers to small l-land as the colonial perspective that generalizes and universalizes land as property and resource. In this colonial perspective, Tuck and Yang explain that “human relationships to land are restricted” to those owning land. In contrast, capitalized L-Land is the “unique entity that is the combined living spirit of plants, animals, air, water, humans, histories, and events recognized by many Indigenous communities.” An understanding of identities, responsibilities, and “reciprocity” occurs when Land is seen in relation to humans.

Within the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) 94 Calls to Actions, four (45i, 46ii, 47, & 49) call upon Canadians to reject both doctrines and the ways they continue to show up within the spaces where they work, play, and live. Sport sociologists continue discussing the environmental and ecological impacts of sporting equipment and events, as well as how sport normalizes settler colonial ideas of space and place. Some, like Dr. Victoria Paraschak, have answered the TRC’s 5 sport calls to action (87, 88, 89, 90, & 91). While responding to such calls to action is valuable, sport scholars and athletes should also consider the ways in which terra nullius continues to operate within and around sports. However, there remains a specific group of sports missing in these conversations because we store our equipment on land spaces but our place of play or competition is not on the land. What about sports that compete on the water?

Unceded (Stolen) Waterways

While the tangibility of land allows us to see the impact of colonialism via buildings and colonial monuments, the fluid nature of water makes the ongoing effects of colonialism less visible. Dr. Virginia Marshall refers to the aqua nullius as the “myth” that water belonged to no one before “British colonial settlement” to justify their governance of waterways while also denying the existence of Indigenous people’s own water governance principles and knowledge. As Dr. Michelle Daigle explains, water is political and the “colonial capitalist dispossession of water also dispossess Indigenous peoples.” Preventing or limiting access to water erases culture, language, and knowledge passed down through traditional activities with water, such as fostering community ties, fishing, the art of building canoes, and dance. Given this ongoing injustice, how might watersport athletes, organizations, and governing bodies respond to the TRC’s Calls to Action?

Your Waveprint

I offer the concept waveprint to understand and reflect on the complexity of relationships and responsibilities we have above, on, below, and to Water. Guided by Dr. Liboiron’s capital L-Land, I use W-Water to define waveprint as the unnoticeable social, cultural, political, and biological imprint(s) to bodies of Water made by an individual, group, and/or human-made watercraft. While the concept of a carbon footprint can help us visualize environmental impacts, it was not designed to reflect the ongoing sociocultural impacts of settler colonialism. The waveprint, meanwhile, is an invitation to ask questions, such as how can watersports like rowing, kayaking, surfing, sailing, paddle boarding, and dragon boat racing be aware of their responsibilities to Water, marine life, and to Indigenous Peoples.

The TRC references access to clean and safe water as well as water access for ceremonies and cultural vitality of Indigenous communities; thus, the waveprint offers a broader way of understanding the relations between humans and Water. Just as ripples return to stillness after something connects with Water, the waveprint is also meant to be a returning promise to take action and care, as we begin to understand how aqua nullius operates through watersports.

The Waveprint of Watersports in Sen̓áḵw (False Creek, Vancouver, BC)

On September 17, 2013, the All Nations Canoe Gathering began Reconciliation week on the unceded waterways of Sen̓áḵw, where 60 traditional canoes, dragon boats, and other vessels welcomed Indigenous Peoples and Canadians to Coast Salish Lands. Indian Residential School survivors paddled in their canoes for recognition and honor as “the canoe movement signifies the resurgence of songs, dances, names, language and teachings.” However, you’re more likely to know about the activities of the paddling and rowing community including dragon boat, waka ama, va’a, surfski, sprint canoe and kayaks, and marathon canoes. These groups follow the rules set by the following governing structures, including the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Park Board, Vancouver Police Department Marine Unit, Vancouver Fire Rescue Services, Port of Vancouver, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Transport Canada, Coast Guard Canada, and Vancouver Coastal Health. They advise monitoring and reporting concerns “about safety, pollution, and mobility” such as abandoned boats, oil and sewage spills, and suspicions of “illicit activity” to protect the water.

But as Anishinabek Chief Water Commissioner, Autumn Peltier says, “whole ecosystems depend on water and the chain reaction effect [of our watersports too] will happen if water is not protected and slowly things will die.” Public reporting becomes a form of policing who can and cannot access the water, so that on Water sports and activities can continue in Sen̓áḵw. The objects that allow us to be on the water, such as faster and lighter boats made of fibre glass and equipment made out of carbon fibre, reflect above Water. As our sports’ equipment enters the water, we directly impact the marine ecosystem below Water. If False Creek’s June 20, 2024 sewage spill can lead the community to advocate for “safe [water] access for its thousands of users,” then they must also advocate for the same water access for Indigenous communities. Y(our) actions are interconnected to the relationships to Water #beyondthesport. As Stó:lō Nation’s knowledge keeper, Lee Maracle, wrote in Goodbye Snauq, “there is hope in irony.”

Y(our) Waveprint

We have to be honest and realize that most commercialized, modern day versions of watersports in Canada have a responsibility to the TRC’s calls to action. In 1992, Indigenous Meriam successfully overturned terra nullius in Australia. The Canadian Supreme Court denied the use of terra nullius but acknowledged use of discovery in 2012. Therefore, aqua nullius remains very present and active in watersports because all waterways are unceded. My hope is that the waveprint helps others reflect, have conversations, and act on y(our) responsibilities to Water beyond your boat, board, and sport. Here are some starting questions to ask yourself:

• Is your paddle environmentally sustainable and friendly?
• The next time you’re racing, think about the marine life underneath: do you know who’s there?
• Did your race/regatta have a Land acknowledgement? What could a Water acknowledgement look like if traditional canoes led watersports’ opening ceremonies?
• Most importantly, where, how, and can Indigenous communities access, foster culture, and govern their waterways in the same capacity watersports allow us to?

Indigenous Peoples are the Water’s first users, guardians, and knowledge keepers, and returning water governance of unceded waterways is also #LANDBACK.

Author Biographical Note:

Miruthula/மிருதுளா Queen Anbu is a South Asian master’s student whose people are known as the ones that return from the sea. Currently, she is completing her master’s from Queen’s University (situated on the traditional and ancestral homelands and waters of the Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, and Anishinaabek), on the lesser known part of dragon boat racing’s history in Canada are the stories connected to helping address the racial tensions faced by the Chinese-Canadian community, through the sport itself. Her MA thesis is a community storytelling project that (re)visits the cultural and social importance of dragon boat racing to Chinese-Canadians; amplifies their voices and contributions to dragon boat history and Canadian sport history; and informs future ways the sport can support the community in the face of post-Covid-19 anti-East Asian racism. Her research interests broadly focus on sport and social justice, settler colonialism, decoloniality, and anti-racism, with a specific focus on watersports, Indigenous sovereignty, and intercultural relations fostered through human-powered water vessels. You can follow her on X @frndlynghbrhdsc or Instagram @friendllyneighbourhoodscholar.