Abstract
This paper seeks to extend understandings of Australian Aboriginal sport history by arguing that sport constituted a site of resistance for Aboriginal athletes in controlled settlements. While examples of overt resistance are rare, opportunities for covert, everyday resistance abounded. For activities performed beyond the notice of settlement administrators provided safe spaces for identity assertion and for expression of anger, dissatisfaction, grievance, unhappiness, or other sense of injustice. Sport, although publicly performed, was a potential site for acts of everyday resistance. This paper explores resistance through oppositional acts of stealing, drinking, and playing-to-rule, which are explored through “hidden transcripts. “ Research for this paper focuses on Queensland, a state with a uniquely odious record on Aboriginal affairs. By focusing on sport as a site of resistance, it offers new insight into the sociocultural practice and meanings of sport in Aboriginal communities historically and, more broadly, on decolonizing sport history.
