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The Indigenous Hockey Research Network has received $2.5 million funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Grant. Created in 2019 at Queen’s University, the Network is focused on making hockey not only safer and more inclusive but also expressive of Indigenous values and an incubator for anti-racism and decolonial change.

Sam McKegney (Department of English Literature and Creative Writing) is the primary investigator and co-director of the Network. He is a white settler scholar who has worked in Indigenous literary studies for 25 years. His first book focused on residential school survival narratives, , and he’s worked for 15 years on Indigenous masculinity theories which have him engaging with hockey in different and interesting ways.

The Indigenous Hockey Research Network was born at a gathering organized at Queen’s in 2019. In the practice of community building and the power of play, the group held a community-building game for participants and supporters. The IHRN organized another community-building game when hosting The Indigenous Hockey Research Summit at McGill University in 2023. 

He explains funding for the initial start-up came from two SSHRC Grants (one Insight Grant and one Connections Grant) which allowed him to gather researchers, athletes, advocates, and community advisors for two days of discussion about what the Network could become.

After seven years of steady growth, the now features 10 research team leaders, 25 university affiliated researchers, and an advisory council of eight Indigenous sporting leaders. There are also 16 partner organizations that are mainly Indigenous sport organizations but also includes the Professional Women's Hockey League, Hockey Canada, and 14 university partners that support the Network.

“We are building projects that are seen as needed by the community-based organizations and, because we have geographical breadth, and we have interdisciplinary research expertise, we can attack these projects from various angles,” Dr. McKegney explains.

“This exceptional research network led by Professor Sam McKegney is a wonderful example of community-based research,” says Sharon Regan, Associate Dean (Research). “We look forward to following the outcomes of this important Network.”

The IHRN will pursue an array of community-driven projects across three thematic areas:

• Decolonizing Systems: Combatting Anti-Indigenous Structural Racism in Hockey – At the systemic level, these projects analyze and intervene in the reproduction of settler colonial power dynamics in hockey, while supporting and expanding sovereign Indigenous hockey spaces.
• Decolonizing Experiences: Generating Change-Making Tools for Athletes, Advocates, and Administrators – At the individual level, these projects explore the diverse experiences of Indigenous athletes across time, territory, gender, and level, generating tools and best practices toward positive change in dressing rooms and arenas.
• Decolonizing Approaches: Indigenizing Data Collection, Analysis, and Knowledge Mobilization – At the community level, these projects revolutionize research methodologies to generate knowledge sought by partner organizations that serve the needs and aspirations of their athletes and communities.

Dr. McKegney says an example of just one project involves helping support Indigenous athletes who from remote reserve-based communities who want to pursue elite sports. “Because the travel is so intensive, most of the time, they need to leave their communities very early to pursue their dream. The Network has examined that issue from a variety of angles.”

“One angle is recognizing the kinds of supports that are needed when moving to an urban space, both cultural supports and billets and the infrastructure within teams to ensure they have cultural awareness.”

He adds that along with that program, they are building out what they are calling “the older cousins mentorship network” that will connect athletes with people who have been through the same process they are going through.

The Network is currently working on projects that have been previously identified, but the goal with the funding is to build the Network and increase the capacity for research so it can respond to projects that are needed right now.

“I think there are a variety of reasons this project was attractive to SSHRC,” Dr. McKegney says. “The Network brings together the sciences, the humanities, the arts, and social sciences in a creative way and demonstrates how interdisciplinary research can yield important results. Another aspect is that this Network is designed to be impactful. We’re not just attempting to make hockey more inclusive and diverse but we’re trying to change aspects of Canadian culture by changing the culture of our national winter sport. The goals are large but the impacts, we hope, will be significant at the individual player athlete level and also culturally.”

When asked about his goals for the next five years and how he and the entire Network would deem it to be a success, Dr. McKegney points to policy changes at the national level and cultural changes in terms of education within the sport.

“I would also point to the understanding of colonial history along with an understanding of the game. I would point to a nimble responsiveness in our network, such that there can be an immediacy with which we engage with issues as they arise, so they don’t fester. And I’d like to see greater autonomy for Indigenous communities in terms of running teams in accordance with their cultural traditions.”

Learn more about the funding on the .