Physical activity and sport participation characteristics of Indigenous children registered in the Active Kids voucher program in New South Wales.

OBJECTIVES: Investigate sociodemographic factors associated with physical activity and sport participation among Indigenous children registered in the New South Wales (NSW) government-funded Active Kids voucher program in 2018, including comparison with non-Indigenous children. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: The Active Kids voucher program aims to support the cost of children's sport and physical activities. All children aged 5-18 years in NSW are eligible for a voucher. To register, parent/carers report child sociodemographic characteristics, physical activity, sport participation and optional height and weight. Regression models were used to determine which sociodemographic characteristics were associated with meeting physical activity guidelines and sport participation for Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. RESULTS: Of the 671,375 children aged 5-18 years, 36,129 (5.4%) were Indigenous. More Indigenous children than non-Indigenous children met the physical activity guidelines before registering in the Active Kids program. Indigenous children had greater odds of meeting physical activity guidelines across all socio-economic quartiles. Among non-Indigenous children, odds reduced with social disadvantage. Indigenous children (38%) were less likely to participate in organised physical activity and sport sessions at least twice a week compared to non-Indigenous children (43%). Indigenous children living in major cities had higher sport participation levels compared with those living in outer regional and remote areas. CONCLUSIONS: The Active Kids voucher program achieved population representative reach among Indigenous children, whose physical activity levels were higher than non-Indigenous children across all socioeconomic quartiles. The program has potential to supplement Indigenous children's physical activity levels using organised sessions and reduce sport drop-out among older children.

Reinterpreting the history of women's judo in Japan.

This paper reassesses the role of women in judo in Japan, from its secluded and restricted beginnings in the late nineteenth century to the gradual changes in gender and social paradigms triggered by the influence of Western feminist struggle from the 1960s onwards. Judo has been considered in theory an inclusive martial art because its creator, Jigoro Kano, stressed safety, etiquette and moral teachings irrespective of age, size or gender of its adherents. However, the social and cultural environment in Japan has traditionally discriminated against women both outside and inside the dojo (training place). We treat this issue historically, considering the broader context of the Japanese social, political and cultural developments.

Football and post-war reintegration: exploring the role of sport in DDR processes in Sierra Leone.

Growing enthusiasm for 'Sport for development and peace' (SDP) projects around the world has created a much greater interest among critical scholars seeking to interrogate potential gains, extant limitations and challenges of using sport to advance 'development' and 'peace' in Africa. Despite this interest, the role of sport in post-conflict peace building remains poorly understood. Since peace building, as a field of study, lends itself to practical approaches that seek to address underlying sources of violent conflict, it is surprising that it has neglected to take an interest in sport, especially its grassroots models. In Africa, football (soccer) in particular has a strong appeal because of its popularity and ability to mobilise individuals and communities. Through a case study on Sierra Leone, this paper focuses on sports in a particularly prominent post-civil war UN intervention­the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process­to determine how ex-youth combatants, camp administrators and caregivers perceive the role and significance of sporting activities in interim care centres (ICCS) or DDR camps. It argues that sporting experiences in ddr processes are fruitful microcosms for understanding nuanced forms of violence and healing among youth combatants during their reintegration process.

Surfing into spirituality and a new, aquatic nature religion.

"Soul surfers" consider surfing to be a profoundly meaningful practice that brings physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits. They generally agree on where surfing initially developed, that it assumed a religious character, was suppressed for religious reasons, has been undergoing a revival, and enjoins reverence for and protection of nature. This subset of the global surfing community should be understood as a new religious movement-a globalizing, hybridized, and increasingly influential example of what I call aquatic nature religion. For these individuals, surfing is a religious form in which a specific sensual practice constitutes its sacred center, and the corresponding experiences are constructed in a way that leads to a belief in nature as powerful, transformative, healing, and sacred. I advance this argument by analyzing these experiences, as well as the myths, rites, symbols, terminology, technology, material culture, and ethical mores that are found within surfing subcultures.

"New Sport" in the street: self-defence, security and space in belle epoque Paris.

Near the turn of the twentieth century, traditional self-defence methods (for example, jiu-jitsu) were revamped into a more accessible and practical set of techniques and tactics for everyday use in urban public space. Framed as a "new sport" with broad public utility, early urban self-defence developed against the backdrop of heightening fears of violent crime and a burgeoning politics of security, as well as tensions provoked by the increasingly common appearance of unchaperoned, middle-class women in public. Self-defence masters pitched their innovations in an inclusive rhetoric, always with separate lessons for men and women and their respective spaces of risk. This article places modern self-defence practices in tension with historical transformations in the urban landscape, arguing that urban self-defence posited a certain subjective relation to the city that tapped simultaneously into the desire for empowerment, fantasies of criminal danger and a law-and-order tone that shaded into urban vigilantism.

The yearbook for folk and youth games: a neglected source in German sports history.

The article deals with the founding circumstances of German sport associations. It argues from a sociological point of view bringing together the structural changes of modern society and the development of youth as a societal group of its own. The author holds that the beginning of the German sport movement was closely connected to the phenomenon of group building processes furthered by the Central Board for Furthering Folk and Youth Games, a social initiative whose activities have been underestimated by sporthistorians as well as sportsociologists. In the organisation's publication organ The Yearbook for Folk and Youth Games many of the elements were first outlined which characterize German sport associations until today.

A martyr for modernity: Qiu Jin -- feminist warrior, and revolutionary.

Qui Jin, at one level, was an oriental twentieth-century Judith, the mythical Jewish widow from Bethulia who cut off the head of Holofernes, the Assyrian general besieging the city, thus saving the Israelites from destruction. Qui Jin was, as Judith was, a self-reliant heroine who when others seemed 'helpless and demoralized undertook to save them single-handedly', or in her case virtually single-handedly. This, of course, was both her making and her unmaking. In Chinese terms the story of Qui Jin, like the story of Judith if less famous, less publicised, more recent, is the story of an icon at once central and at the same time marginal to tradition. She contradicted the most cherished customs on Confucian Chinese culture. She was a radical force who thrust her way to the centre of the concentric circles of customs surrounding this culture and was pushed back to the margins by conservatism. Nevertheless Qui Jin was not without success. She challenged a long-established mythology of exclusively masterful patriarchy - and created a counter myth of purposeful patriotic feminism. She was a counter-cultural icon who changed perceptions of Chinese femininity. She gave courage, confidence and purpose to those women who came after her and absorbed her ambitions for modern Chinese womanhood. For them she was a modern national heroine and a personification of a modern nation of equal men and women. For Qui Jin the body was an instrument of female revolution to be trained, strengthened and prepared for confrontation. As a revolutionary militant she was a failure; as a revolutionary talisman she was a success. For the Chinese women of the 1911 Revolution hers was an exemplary emancipatory story: subscribe, struggle, sacrifice. Patriotism through feminism is the purpose. Her heroism was firmly outside the historic patriarchal order. Her adulation is thus all the more remarkable because of the profound traditions she rejected, the controversial mannerisms she adopted, the uncompromising attitudes she embraced. She eschewed motherhood, abandoned marriage, dismissed femininity, and yet won acclaim in the most traditional of cultures. Qui Jin was hardly a cynosure of universal acclaim but she was admired, respected and emulated by radical Chinese women and men seeking a new society accommodating women. Her modern feminism struggled to overcome an ancient patriarchy. Here was her appeal. She exuded no moral ambiguity. Consequently, if she was demonized by the conventional; she was deified by the radical - and inspired them as the contemplated and attempted to construct the future. There is a point, of course, that should not be overlooked. Qui Jin, in fact, is not divorced from occidental culture and political iconography. Qui Jin is closely associated with the attitudes, aspirations and fantasies of modern Western feminism. As Margarita Stocker observes, a 'romantic heroine, angry feminist, radical, activist is one example of a pervasive figure', in modern Western cultural mythology 'a figure we may sum up as the Woman with a Gun'. Force, that potent means to power, is available to the gun user irrespective of age of sex, with a resulting 'crucial alteration in the sexual politics of violence'. The Woman with a Gun can now be emphatically heroic - without duplicity, without deceitfulness, without subterfuge. Moral ambiguity in action has been abandoned. She becomes an unambiguous potent force - an armed woman faces an armed man on equal terms - physically, psychologically, morally. Equality offers the legal right and responsibility to kill in the name of patriotism. Modern culture has just caught up with Qui Jin.

The origins of French boxing: bare-knuckle duelling, savate and chausson, 1820-45.

Savate, also called chausson, or French boxing is a combat activity characterized by kicking and punching. Its inception reaches back to the Restoration and the monarchy of Louis-Philippe (1818-48) although it was not recognised as a combat sport until the twentieth century. This article, based on a variety of rich sources (police reports, newspapers, books, etc.) demonstrates how, on the one hand, the origins of savate can be traced back to the bare-fisted duels of the Restoration and, on the other hand, its emergence corresponds to the mutation of structural order as put forth by M. Foucault.

In pursuit of empowerment: Sensei Nellie Kleinsmidt, race and gender challenges in South Africa.

This chapter traces the way in which Nellie Kleinsmidt, known as the grandmother of karate in Africa, has negotiated discriminatory practices and overcome race and gender-related struggles, including the struggle to free the female body, in pursuit of empowerment. It explores her expectations and the constraints and frustrations she experienced, as well as the many contributions she has made to women's karate in South Africa. Nellie Kleinsmidt's karate career, which began in 1965, coincided with the early developments of South African karate. As a woman of colour her life and karate career were significantly shaped by apartheid legislation. It divided the country into areas of occupancy and residency according to race and was designed to prevent contact between the people of the government defined race groups. Black karate-kas were prohibited by law from practising karate in white designated areas. Lack of facilities and qualified instructors in areas allocated to Kleinsmidt's race group meant that she received very little formal karate instruction between 1966 and 1973. Soon after, she met Johan Roux, a white male. He was to become her chief karate instructor and life-long companion. They defied the apartheid legislation and in 1978 set up home together. They organized defiance campaigns, resisting the pressures from government to close their dojo because of its non-racial policies. Freeing her body at the broader political level involved the abolition of the race categories and all other apartheid legislation which impacted on her life choices and experiences. Initially this struggle and that of freeing her body occurred simultaneously. In her ongoing struggle against gender discrimination in the sport, it was in karate that Nellie Kleinsmidt could strive for the personal empowerment she sought. She could however not translate this into freedom in South African society itself. The impact of apartheid legislation together with the imposition of a sports moratorium by the South African Council on Sports (SACOS), hindered the growth of Nellie Kleinsmidt's karate career, yet she managed to obtain her sixth Dan Black Belt in 1998. This was a remarkable achievement given the constraints she had to overcome. In karate, Kleinsmidt was often viewed as a female first. The problem of female access is exacerbated by the overwhelming number of male instructors perpetuating the notion that the martial arts are inherently male sports. Accessing the various levels of karate has involved claiming physical and symbolic space on the dojo floor as well as involvement in the decision-making arenas of karate. In 1992 with the unification of karate in South Africa, Sensei Nellie began to extend her involvement with the refereeing arena and jointly established a Women's Karate Forum in her province. She has subsequently become a South African national referee and has earned the status of continental judge with the Union of African Karate Federation (UFAK). Nellie Kleinsmidt is the first and only woman of colour to have been appointed to the Referee's Board of South Africa and the only woman of colour in Africa to have obtained a sixth Dan Black belt.