Participating in sport and physical recreation enhances social inclusion as well as health and wellbeing. The mental and physical health benefits of physical activity are well known. Participation in these activities, for example, can improve cardiovascular health, decrease stress and improve self-esteem. Participation in sport and group-based physical recreation has also been found to help facilitate social interaction, build community strength, decrease anti-social behaviour and promote ethnic and cultural harmony and community involvement. These benefits extend into the economic sphere to include cost-effective health prevention, a fit and productive workforce, business growth, tourism and employment (Collins and Kay 2003: 28-33; Cortis et al. 2006).
Benefits for CALD Women
The women in the focus groups acknowledged the health and social benefits of participating in sport and recreation. While those participating in sport and recreation provided clear examples of how physical activity had benefited them, their communities and the nation, women who were not currently involved in physical activity also recognised the important role physical activity could play.
Health benefits of sport and recreation
Participants perceived a range of health benefits from participating in sport and recreation, including feeling good and keeping fit; managing weight (especially for those affected by migration-related changes in diet); and recovering from illness or injury or staying active (for the older woman). These benefits were recognised to benefit society as well as individuals, through reduced health spending.
Weight management
For women who grew up outside Australia and especially those from Middle Eastern or African backgrounds, sport and recreation were understood primarily as opportunities to enhance health and manage weight through exercise. Aziza, a Somali woman aged in her late 30s (group 9) for example, felt she was more mobile when she first arrived in Australia from Somalia, and now wanted desperately to go to the gym to lose weight. Weight gain was an issue for other African women, whose diets included richer, higher calorie foods post-migration. Similarly, in regional Victoria, the health benefits of sport were framed as a way to alleviate problems caused by dietary changes, and a way to enhance sleep. Through a translator, one Iraqi woman described:
We have too much oil in our food, I'll die when I'm 18!... I hope someone forces me to play sport everyday... sport makes you tired, so you sleep better... sport re-energises you. (Group3)
Problems of weight gain were compounded by other lifestyle changes post-migration, most notably, a reduced tendency to walk for transport. Sadia, a young African-Australian woman born in Sierra Leone described how the very concept of sport and recreation seems redundant for women from Africa, where walking and physical work are instilled as part of women's daily routine, and where time is spent attending to the necessities of life rather than in leisure. She described how migration represented a deep shift in African women's physical routines:
Exercise was part of our routine without realising it was exercise. What western countries call exercise, we didn't have that concept, it's just you did your daily routine, you walk everywhere you know, do really physical manual handling ... back home everybody walks to every place... We don't think of it as exercise; to us it's just I have to get there, I will walk (Sadia, group 7)
It was not only the African or Middle Eastern women in the study who framed sport and recreation as a way of addressing health problems associated with migration. Tamiko, a Japanese woman in her late 30s who had been in Australia for around 4 years also linked post-migratory weight gain primarily with diet, rather than altered patterns of exercise:
I once gained fourteen kilos in Australia and it was pretty hard to shed off all those kilos. I never want to do that again! ... You find each portion that you are eating is much bigger than when you are living in Japan. ... Other people eat a lot more than you usually do ... and being there you will be like that, and it's quite an unconscious process. (Tamiko in Adelaide, group 7).
Mental health benefits
While the issue of weight management emerged strongly amongst women from Africa and the Middle East, women across the groups and from various cultural backgrounds identified the mental health benefits of sport and recreation. Opportune, a Burundian in her late teens from regional NSW, described simply that:
'I just go walking because when I walk I feel good in my life' (group 10). Similarly, Michelle, a Pacific Islander described, 'When I'm walking I actually meditate, I take that time to meditate and prepare myself for the day, I find that's fantastic' (group 11)
Older women in the groups in western Sydney, who tended to have been in Australia for longer periods (mostly over twenty years), identified a wide range of mental health benefits. While many of these women attended activities such as gentle exercise, aqua exercise or tai chi to help with health problems like arthritis or blood pressure, these were not necessarily the women's primary reason for attending. Some attended mainly for the mental health and social benefits, and the meaning activities gave to their lives. Bernadine, an older woman from a German background in Western Sydney described:
It helps and clears my head from my worries. When I'm walking I can solve all my problems. When I'm belly dancing I don't think about anything else, just moving. It's not just health reasons, it's feeling good. (Group 5)
Bernadine also found recreational activities to give her a sense of meaning, stating that 'It's important to get up in the morning and have a purpose'. In the same group (group 5), mental health benefits were also identified, with the activities seen to 'give me inner peace' (Reena from Mauritius). Georgia, an older woman from a Greek background described:
When I stopped working I was very depressed. When I walk I feel really happy inside. I'm much better health wise, mind and physically. I have had [health] problems so I was too scared to do anything, but now I do I'm really happy. I like to meet other people to. Sports make me happier. (Group 5)
The mental health benefits were also recognised by younger women. Elene, a Sudanese-Australian in her early 20s in South Australia found, for example that:
When you're really stressed or really angry or really upset and you're sitting there doing something monotonous you actually force yourself to have to think about it, and by the time you get off the machine [at the gym] you've kind of gotten rid of a lot of that bad energy and you just feel a whole lot better. (Group 6)
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Social benefits of sport and recreation
As well as the physical and mental health benefits, participants in all the groups perceived sport and recreation to have a range of social benefits. These included opportunities to make friends and socialise; opportunities for personal development and personal time (including time away from husbands or children); self-development; mixing with other cultures and retaining one's cultural identity.
Friendship
Making friends was a commonly identified benefit of participating in sport and recreation. Some of the women deliberately became involved for this reason, like Susanne, a young German woman who described: 'I started to play touch football because of that - to meet people.' Susanne found the social aspects of her sport helped maintain her motivation to attend 'because you're meeting the same people every time'.
Meeting people was something that Elene (a Sudanese-Australian) missed about the competitive sports she used to do (she now found it easier to find time to attend the gym than to attend organised team sports):
I like being involved with a group of people and you meet a lot of people and it is a lot more fun than I think just going to the gym by yourself. (Group 6)
Josephine, an older Filipino woman in regional NSW also appreciated the social benefits of sport and recreation:
I like company! Aside from sport making you fit and it's good for your body, you also socialise, you get to enjoy it. You know, the laughter and everything, so after the sport and everything you feel more, ah lighter, relaxed, happier when you get home. (Group 10)
Some women who were not involved in sport aspired to join to make friends. As Roza, a young Iraqi woman in regional Victoria (group 2) explained,
'When I see people [playing together] it makes me envious... I just want to practice with them... it will help even just having friends, and making friends'.
Personal time
While some found sport and recreation an opportunity to make friends, others saw these activities as opportunities for personal time. For Linda a Maltese Australian in western Sydney, regular organised activities gave her personal time away from her husband:
It gives me two days away from [my husband] because we're both retired ... he does his own thing on a Monday and Wednesday, and I do my own thing which is great. It gives us our own time. (Group 4)
Time out from family and other responsibilities was also an issue for Nadia, a Lebanese-Australian in her early twenties in South Australia:
Even though you're out playing in a team it's different from your studies and your family life. When you play sport, it's free time for yourself. (Group 7)
Personal development
As well appreciating it as an opportunity to make friends and have some personal time, the women believed sport and recreation helps with personal development. Shikha, an Indian woman in Adelaide, commented:
Sport is a good leveller, and more than actually the skills of playing those games you are involving yourself with other people and management of people, group skills, how to keep your ego under control, trying not to control, playing with other teams, playing with people and of course the competitive spirit at an individual sports level, and to be a good loser rather than winner. (Group 7)
In other groups, participants also mentioned that sport could help their personal development, especially their confidence. Vailea, a Cook Islander in regional New South Wales felt her non-playing role (as a referee) helped her to grow:
I think you learn more as well, like you watch other teams play and you can see like their tactics or whatever so you try and bring it into your own skills and grow as a person. (Group 11)
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Mixing with people from other cultures
For the older women who participated in Western Sydney and regional NSW, sport and recreation activities offered opportunities to mix with people from other countries. Linda, a Maltese Australian saw mixing with other cultures as a direct benefit of the sport and recreation activities in which they participated. In seeing sport as a way to experience diversity and gain confidence she articulated a sentiment shared by others:
When you're mixing with other cultures you feel that outgoing; you're not as reserved as before you started mixing with people. And I think that's very important because people [who] don't participate in sport or don't participate in anything, they get very reserved, 'Oh will I be able to do it?' They haven't got confidence ... You get to know other cultures by mixing in. And you know, we're just like a happy family, like you know their customs and things like that ... I don't like mixing with just my culture. I like mixing with other people, because you broaden everything. You're learning all the time by mixing with other people and I think sports is a wonderful way of doing that. (Group 4)
Catarina, an older Italian woman in regional NSW, also cited meeting people from other cultures as a social aspect of sport and recreation:
You have a lot of fun, and you exchange recipes or lot of things and that's what make the fun... it's very important at our age, and in your community, you meet people from different cultures, your views change, it's very good, you grow, and you see things. (Group 12)
Maria shared the sentiment that mixing with others was a reason to participate. However, she felt that by participating she had transgressed cultural norms for women, and had to sacrifice friendships with other women from her community. She felt excluded from her Italian community because of her choice to be physically active:
Do you know how criticised I am for the way I dress, the way I move? I am criticised. Do you know how many Italian friends I have? Two. (Group 5)
Retaining cultural identity
While the women identified how sport could help integrate different cultural groups, they also found sport played a role in helping them retain cultural identity. As discussed in Stage One of the project, the retention of cultural diversity can be a positive aspect of sport and leisure, with Taylor and Toohey (2002) for example advocating:
Leisure activities that occur in the context of family and friendship groups with few social limitations serve to provide a supportive environment for the expression and transmission of subcultural identity, that is, the retention of certain core cultural or religious traits.
Figure 1: Maintaining Identity Through Cultural Dance
Sadia was born in Sierra Leone and arrived in Australia when she was thirteen. Recalling her childhood, she describes the role of dance:
In our culture like every part of your life you dance about something. Somebody dies, you dance in a certain way, somebody gets married, you dance in a certain way, or if it rains, with farmers you dance in a certain way just to thank god or something. The dance we do is a celebration of womanhood. ... Every holiday there was dancing competitions [laughing]. We're Muslim and we have like the eve after the fasting we have the big celebration and then on the day of course we have visitors and we just put music on and all the kids in the house would have a dance off.
Sadia continued to participate in cultural dance in Australia:
I chose to do the dancing because it's cultural. And I help coach the younger ones to do it properly because they don't really know how to do it since they didn't grow up in the environment of the African culture ... I love it - one part of it is it's practicing my culture, something that's cultural, that's important to me; on the other hand it keeps you very fit ... I just love that part of dance, for me being in Australia I still maintain that part of my culture. I take it further by encouraging the younger ones who are born here to keep it going. (Group 7)
Sadia's story (Figure 1) reflects how sport and recreation (in this case, cultural dance) can help maintain identity.
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Under Representation
Despite the benefits of sport and recreation, women from CALD backgrounds are underrepresented participants. As Stage One found:
- Women born in countries other than the main English speaking countries are less likely to participate in sport and recreation than Australian born women, especially if they are not proficient in spoken English (ABS, 2006);
- In 2002, 64 per cent of Australian born women participated in sport and recreation compared to 46 per cent of females born in a non-English speaking countries (ABS 2003); and
- Women born in North Africa or Middle Eastern countries were least likely to participate. Only one in five of these women, compared to three in five Australian born women participated in sport and recreation (ABS 2006: 10).
Many of the women who participated in the focus groups were amongst the minority of CALD women who do participate in sport and/or physical recreation. All of the participants except for the 8 Arabic-speakers in regional Victoria reported currently engaging in moderate to vigorous sport or recreation activity at least once a week (although for many this was informal activity, like walking). It is important to understand the benefits they perceive, as these facilitate their participation. The next section of the report deals with the diverse range of sport and recreation activities these women engage in and the importance of recognising not only the important role organised sport plays in women's lives, but also the importance of physical recreation and informal physical activity