First Nations peoples are generally under-represented in leadership, coaching, officiating, and governance positions at the professional or high-performance levels. 1, 2, 3
While various reasons are suggested for why, it seems a series of social, cultural, and sometimes procedural barriers remain. 4, 5, 6, 7
CURRENT STATE - 2018 to 2022





FACTORS THAT IMPACT
The National Agreement on Closing the Gap aims to enable First Nations people and governments to work together to overcome inequality and achieve life outcomes equal to all Australians.
Factors that impact
Closing the Gap
The objective of the ‘National Agreement on Closing the Gap’ is to enable First Nations people and governments to work together to overcome inequality and achieve life outcomes equal to all Australians. 12
The National Agreement has 19 targets across education, employment, health and wellbeing, justice, safety, housing, land and waters, and languages. One of the key targets is 'everyone enjoys long and healthy lives' with the target to Close the Gap in life expectancy by 2031. 13
Role of sport
The eighth report in the Australian Governments ‘Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage’ series (December 2020) provides a high-level view of the wellbeing of First Nations people. Section 5.7 highlights some of the key data, outcomes, and areas for future research relating to sport participation. 14
- Participation in sport and recreational activities has beneficial effects on individuals and contributes to community cohesion. About two in three First Nations people aged 3 years or over participated in sporting and physical recreation activities (in 2014-15).
- Playing in, or training for, organised sport was more common for Australian children overall than for First Nations children, and this pattern is observed across all remoteness areas other than major cities.
- More research was recommended to identify and address gaps in facilitators for, and barriers to, improving participation by First Nations people in community activities, and to help build effective strategies into program design.
While not always highlighted, sport is identified in Closing the Gap progress reports in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. Each report highlights case studies and the ongoing investment that Australian governments have made in sport through different programs to help achieve outcomes such as: 15
- Improving wellbeing and resilience
- Increasing educational attendance and attainment
- Engaging youth
- Developing or upgrading infrastructure facilities
- Helping to provide employment and training opportunities
For many First Nations individuals the desire to be a role model for their community is a key motivator for the decision to become, and remain, a coach.
Factors that impact
Coaching and officiating
The importance of coaches, officials, and leaders in sport, especially as role models and mentors is often highlighted. 4, 16, 17, 18 First Nations role models provide significant value, including improving engagement with the community and individuals. 18, 19, 20, 21 For many First Nations individuals the desire to be a role model for their community is often a key motivator for the decision to become, and remain, a coach. 4, 18, 22
AusPlay survey data shows that in 2022, around 7.5% of First Nations people aged 18 years and over reported participating as a coach (including instructors, trainers, and teachers), and 5.2% were officials. 8 However, these coaches and officials are not transitioning to a similar proportion of pathway and elite positions.
Information relating to First Nations peoples’ participation in pathway and elite sport coaching and officiating, including data on the number of First Nations people in different sports and/or at different levels (e.g., community or elite) is currently limited. However, available reports show that First Nations people are underrepresented in high-performance coaching and officiating roles and pathways. 3, 4, 16, 20, 23, 24, 25
While there has been a growing recognition of the lack of First Nations coaches and officials in pathway and elite positions, and even a growing number of programs targeted at First Nations participants, there remain several barriers to greater participation. 26, 27, 28, 29
- Accreditation courses and other opportunities—particularly at more advanced levels—are often in metropolitan areas, making it expensive and/or time consuming for rural, regional, and remote coaches and officials to attend. 3, 22
- The need for a clear pathway, including mentoring by current and next generation First Nations coaches and officials, from introductory programs to support long-term coaching and officiating careers at both community and elite levels. 4, 16, 22, 30
- Cultural considerations, including community and family commitments, can significantly impact time available for sport coaching and officiating. 22
- First Nations coaches often feel they are not seen to have the same potential as other coaches for more senior coaching and leadership roles, sometimes called the 'cultural ceiling'. 4, 7, 16, 22, 29
Coaching, officiating, and leadership programs should work in and with First Nations communities. 31, 32 They should also promote First Nations role models, and ensure that emerging coaches and officials feel safe, supported, and comfortable as they develop. 4, 31, 33
- Rookie coach floors Boxing Victoria in Aboriginal First, Andrew Mathieson, National Indigenous Times, (20 July 2023). In line with his fighting mantra inside the ring, pint-sized Shaun Thomas continues to pull no punches outside either since Boxing Victoria named its first Aboriginal coach. The 41-year-old, who has leisurely slipped into semi-retirement earlier this year, took on one of the state assistant's jobs with gusto, only two weeks before the opening bell sounded on the Australian Schools Boxing Championships.
- How rugby league can open the door for the next generation of Indigenous NRL stars and coaches, Nick Campton, ABC, (9 February 2023). Around 13 per cent of NRL players identify as Indigenous. Half of the coaches in this year's NRLW season will be Indigenous, including Newcastle's Ron Griffiths, Dragons mentor Jamie Soward, new Broncos coach Scott Prince and Widders himself, who coaches Parramatta. However, Indigenous coaching at the elite levels of the men's game has lagged behind. No club has had a full-time Indigenous head coach since Arthur Beetson led the Sharks in 1993. "Less than 1 per cent of the coaches at the elite level of the men's game are Indigenous," said Widders.
- Why the NRLW is a pathway for Indigenous coaches, Brad Walter, NRL.com, (11 February 2022). Every NRLW team will have an Indigenous staff member in a senior leadership position for the upcoming season in a development that highlights the success of a pathways strategy that is being hailed as a blueprint for other areas of the game. After recognising the need to develop more Indigenous coaches, Brad Donald said he had adopted a similar approach to that which had seen an explosion in female playing numbers. “You can’t be what you can’t see,” Donald said. “We are trying to develop everybody, but this is something that hasn’t had enough focus on it. Since we have focused on it there are now Indigenous coaching staff with every NRLW team. “We have just made sure that we have treated that like the growth for NRLW. We are developing an Indigenous Pathways Strategy. “We will run performance conferences, we will run coaching workshops and stuff in the medical field so that we can ensure that we have got access to the best information for people to come through. We do this in the female space, and we will do it in the Indigenous space too.”
- 'Creating a pathway': Indigenous coach breaking new ground in VFLW, Brendan Rhodes, AFL.com.au, (10 February 2022). Kirby Bentley will become the first Indigenous coach in the competition in the opening round on Saturday. She will become the first Indigenous coach in the VFLW's short history, joining Xavier Clarke, who led Richmond's VFL team last year before being promoted up the AFL club's coaching staff, as Indigenous mentors at state league level – and it is a feat she is extremely proud of as she aims to blaze a trail for her people.
- Wests Tigers assistant Ronnie Griffiths, the NRL’s only Aboriginal coach [paywall], Nick Walshaw, The Advertiser, (18 June 2021). The NRL’s only Aboriginal coach has earned his position the hard way, initially working for free and driving 350km a day, but it beats being overlooked because of the colour of his skin. The problem is not limited to rugby league, with the AFL also boasting just two coaches of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background — Richmond VFL coach Xavier Clarke and Western Bulldogs development coach Travis Varcoe. Elsewhere, a 2017 Western Sydney University study revealed across all sports, Indigenous Australians make up just 0.8 per cent of the coaching ranks.
- The numbers highlighting Indigenous players' immense impact on Australian rules football, Cody Atkinson and Sean Lawson, ABC, (20 August 2020). On the eve of this year's Indigenous Round, let's delve into some of the numbers that illustrate their contributions.
- 87 Indigenous Australians are currently on AFL lists — which is about 11 per cent of the entire playing cohort. 22 Indigenous players during this year's AFLW season, or 5 per cent of the competition.
- There's only been one Indigenous umpire in VFL or AFL football: Glenn James. James umpired the 1982 and 1984 VFL Grand Finals.
- 2 per cent - the number of Indigenous coaches in the AFL system badly trails the participation rate of players. There have only been two Indigenous senior coaches in the VFL/AFL, and none since 1984 — when Barry Cable left North Melbourne.
- Reconciliation and the Anglo-Australian Football League, Professor Barry Judd, University of Melbourne, (27 August 2020). Each year, the Australian Football League (AFL) holds the Sir Douglas Nicholls Round to highlight the contribution Indigenous people have made to the sport of Australian Rules Football. In my view, structural changes similar to those that have already commenced in higher education need to occur. The Australian Rules Football industry remains a bastion of white middle-class male power. The AFL lacks Indigenous voices at the most senior levels of its operations. AFL clubs continue to be similarly bereft of Indigenous administrators and support staff. The AFL also has an abysmal record of recruiting and retaining Indigenous coaches – whether they be senior or assistant coaches. As long as Indigenous people remain locked out of off-field leadership roles – the extent to which the AFL claims to support reconciliation and anti-racism must remain a question mark.
- Racial stereotypes stymie Aboriginal leadership in sport, research finds, University of NSW, (28 September 2016). Patronising racial stereotypes that laud Aboriginal peoples' natural sporting prowess are impeding the development of Aboriginal leadership in sport and its many flow-on benefits, a UNSW researcher has found. Although Aboriginal athletes are commonly portrayed as innately physically gifted, and are often actively sought after to play sport, such positive assessments do not extend to leadership, intellectual or management skills. Aboriginal candidates are consequently often frustrated if they seek to build coaching careers, regardless of their own sporting achievements.
- Here’s to coaches, unsung heroes and role models for social change, Andrew Bennie, Nicholas Apoifis, The Conversation, (22 August 2016). Our research with Aboriginal coaches in Australia shows that coaching has the potential to play a significant role in shaping an individual and community’s identity, culture, and knowledge. Many of the coaches we spoke to embraced their leadership role and used it to engage in broader forms of social and community development. Off the field, they were involved in the lives of players, alongside actively promoting positive messages about healthy living, social responsibility and education. It’s disappointing, then, that coaches have largely been excluded from the narrative about sport and social development.
- Why are so few professional sport coaches from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities? Andrew Bennie, Demelza Marlin, Nicholas Apoifis, The Conversation, (13 June 2016). there has been little research into Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander coaches – what they do, why, and the kinds of barriers they face in progressing their careers. For this reason, in 2015 we listened to the stories of 26 Aboriginal coaches from various team and individual sports. They worked in remote, rural, and metropolitan settings, from the community level to high-performance athletics.
- Study reveals severe lack of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander coaches, Western Sydney University, (19 May 2016). A new study conducted by Western Sydney University is the first of its kind to explore why there are so few Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander coaches in full-time professional roles. Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicates that around 173 full-time sport coaches are from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds – less than one per cent across all sports – compared to 21,133 coaches from other backgrounds.
- Aboriginal Sports Coaches, Community, and Culture, Marlin, Demelza, Apoifis, Nicholas, Bennie, Andrew, Springer, (2020). This book is the first to celebrate the stories of this group of Aboriginal mentors and leaders and present them in a form that is accessible to both academic and general audiences. In this book, Aboriginal sport coaches from all over Australia share stories about their involvement in sport and community, offering insight into the diverse experiences of Aboriginal people in settler colonial Australia.
- 'Race', Ethnicity and Racism in Sports Coaching, Steven Bradbury, Jim Lusted, Jacco van Sterkenburg (eds.), Routledge, (2020). In recent years there has been a steady increase in the racial and ethnic diversity of the playing workforce in many sports around the world. However, there has been a minimal throughput of racial and ethnic minorities into coaching and leadership positions. This book brings together leading researchers from around the world to examine key questions around ‘race’, ethnicity, and racism in sports coaching. Case studies from Australia include:
- Finding the ‘natural’ Talent identification and racialisation in sports coaching and selection practices in Australia, Brent McDonald, Ramón Spaaij, Chapter 6, (2020).
- From freedom to oppression? A Freirean perspective on coaching and indigenous players’ journeys to the NRL and AFL, Richard Light, John Evans, Chapter 7, (2020). This chapter draws on findings from a study that inquired into the journeys of Indigenous Australian athletes from their first touch of the ‘footy’ to reaching he highest levels of their sport as a process of culturally situated learning. Drawing on the work of Paulo Freire we contrast the dialogic pedagogy of learning to play up to around the age of twelve, characterized by playing informal, self-regulated games free of adult interference with the highly regulated, monitored and individualized anti-dialogic approach of professional Australian football and rugby league that the participants had to adapt to.
- Coaching Unlimited. A national coaching education program that provides sport-specific coaching accreditation, and research-based health promotion workshops, to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples become sport coaches and community leaders.
- Coaching Unlimited: Empowering generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, A research report commissioned by Netball Australia and Netball New South Wales, (2017). This report discusses the delivery and evaluation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ netball coaching workshop delivered in August 2017. Based on the survey and interview results, the workshop was enjoyable and well delivered; included useful information, skills, and resources; and provided coaches with practical ideas for future coaching and leadership roles within their communities. All coaches either agreed or strongly agreed that the Coaching Unlimited workshop included useful resources; increased their interest in, and understanding of, the workshop topics; and, enhanced their ability to implement strategies relating to the workshop.
- Garnduwa Amboorny Wirnan Aboriginal Corporation. We believe that Aboriginal led programs play an important role in meeting community defined targets through decision making, and empowering Aboriginal peoples to tackle our own social issues. Programs tend to be more successful where there is community leadership. Garnduwa delivers leadership programs throughout the Kimberley to encourage students to further enhance their qualities and potential as strong community organizers and persons of influence. The programs are crucial to the development of Kimberley Youth as our future leaders and foster and empower Kimberley people and their communities.
- AOC, Indigenous Basketball Australia and Toyota Announce Indigenous Coaching Scholarships, Australian Olympic Committee, (April 2022). The AOC has today announced a partnership with Olympian Patty Mills' Indigenous Basketball Australia (IBA) and Toyota Australia to create scholarships for Indigenous coaches, using Olympic sport to power positive change in communities. The program will guide two female and two male coaches through developmental and experiential learning. The holistic schedule, which includes an Indigenous Leadership workshop, will cover key themes including The Science Behind Resilience and Keeping Girls in Sport, delivered in collaboration with Basketball Australia, The Centre for Healing and Justice through Sport and The University of Canberra. Upon completion of the comprehensive program, the coaches will be accredited to deliver ongoing coach development courses in targeted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the country.
- Black Diamonds Report, Glass Jar, (April 2022). The Black Diamonds Project reviewed Western Australian netball service delivery to ensure that the policies and systems are transformed to better facilitate the engagement and retention of Aboriginal people in netball. The dominant method of data collection was Yarning Circles, a uniquely Aboriginal methodology, with four stakeholder groups, across two phases. Report highlights that many participants enjoyed coaching, mentoring, or being a role model (fifth most common motivator for participation), and that they were inspired by role models in netball (sixth most common motivator). The majority of participants who spoke about role models talked about Indigenous or familial role models, whether that was in reference to growing up on the side of the court watching their mum or aunties play, being exposed to other Indigenous players or coaches, or watching/interacting with elite level Indigenous athletes. Several participants talked about the part that role models play in terms of advocacy, and the importance of representation in terms of achievability or courage (she can do it, so can I), and safety. A lack of role models, especially at the elite level of netball, was also referenced as a barrier. The lack of Indigenous representation at the elite level of netball was compared with footy, which was described as having a more welcoming culture that respected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes. The lack of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander coaches and umpires was discussed not just at the elite level but across the board.
- Reconciliation Action Plan 2018-2022 [Elevate], Australian Rugby League Commission, (2018). 2018 marks the start of our fourth Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP_ - the hightest level of RAP, with our game becoming the first National Sporting Organisation to develop an Elevate RAP. Some highlights include:
- NRL has grown our First Nations workforce from employing our first Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander staff member in 2011 to now making up over 5% of our total workforce (2018).
- Aim to assist 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to participate in targeted programs aimed at officiating and coaching at the elite level.
- ‘We were made to feel comfortable and … safe’: co-creating, delivering, and evaluating coach education and health promotion workshops with Aboriginal Australian peoples, Andrew Bennie, Demelza Marlin, Nick Apoifis, et al., Annals of Leisure Research, Volume 24(1), pp.168-188, (2021). This paper outlines the processes for co-creating and delivering Coaching Unlimited, a coach education and health promotion workshops series providing specific opportunities for Aboriginal Australian coaches to develop their capacity as future leaders in leisure settings. We used the Ngaa-bi-nya framework – an Aboriginal health and social programme evaluation framework. Using the four domains of Ngaa-bi-nya, we were able to confirm the importance of co-creating and delivering the workshops in a culturally safe and inclusive environment. Reflecting on our own processes of doing research and working with Aboriginal communities, we learnt that hosting workshops in and with community, is central to the programme’s accessibility and success. The paper concludes by considering the utility of the framework and what researchers can learn about their own practice in the space of Aboriginal sport and health programmes.
- Cultural connections and cultural ceilings: exploring the experiences of Aboriginal Australian sport coaches, Andrew Bennie, Nicholas Apoifis, Demelza Marlin, et al., Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, Volume 11(3), pp.299-315, (2017). This is one of the first studies to specifically explore Aboriginal Australian peoples’ experiences in sport coaching roles. We share the insights of 28 Aboriginal Australian sport coaches from a variety of team and individual sports as they describe an array of factors that facilitated and impeded their sport coaching journeys. By shedding light on these narratives this paper performs two main tasks. First, taking a qualitative approach, it gives agency and voice to Aboriginal people, long-neglected in academic sports scholarship. Second, it provides insights for coaches, athletes, academics, policy-makers, and sporting organisations interested in enhancing opportunities and developing pathways for Aboriginal people in sport coaching roles. The article also provides some insights that could inform conversations between Aboriginal communities and organisational stakeholders to enhance opportunities for Aboriginal sport coaches. Some of the examples may include Aboriginal-specific coaching clinics that feed into mainstream opportunities, formal mentoring programmes, and promoting the achievements of current coaches.
- Noble athlete, savage coach: how racialised representations of Aboriginal athletes impede professional sport coaching opportunities for Aboriginal Australians, Nicholas Apoifis, Demelza Marlin, Andrew Bennie, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Volume 53(7), pp.854-868, (2017). In this paper we examine how racialised representations of Aboriginal athletic ability affect Aboriginal coaches. Premised on interviews with 26 Aboriginal Australian coaches, we argue that representations of Aboriginal athletes as naturally suited to speed and flair, rather than leadership and sporting-intellect, help maintain an environment that limits opportunities for Aboriginal Australians seeking to move into sporting leadership roles, such as coaching. This paper sheds light on the ways in which racialised representations of Aboriginal athletes feed into a settler colonialist narrative that stymies opportunities for aspiring Aboriginal professional coaches, and speculates on the limitations of this approach, in challenging the political hegemony of settler colonialism.
- Sistas’ and Aunties: sport, physical activity, and Indigenous Australian women. Stronach, Megan, Maxwell, Hazel, Taylor, Tracy, Annals of Leisure Research, Volume 19(1), pp.7-26, (2016). Indigenous women have alarmingly low rates of participation in organized sport and physical activity (PA) in contemporary Australian society. To gain a better contextual and cultural understanding of the issues involved, we discussed the life experiences and the place of sport and PA with 22 Indigenous women. A complex amalgamation of cultural beliefs and traditions, history, gendered factors, and geography are presented in the women's stories. Sport and PA were highly regarded, providing the women with opportunities to maintain strong communities, preserve culture, and develop distinct identities as ‘enablers’. The women called for culturally safe spaces in which to engage in PA and noted the need for Indigenous females to act as role models.
- Māori Culture Counts: A Case Study of the Waikato Chiefs, Jeremy Hapeta, Farah Palmer, in 'Enhancing Mātauranga Māori and Global Indigenous Knowledge', New Zealand Qualifications Authority, (March 2014). This chapter examines how mātauranga ā-iwi and mātauranga Māori were integrated into the Chiefs’ team culture and values, and provides examples of how this was perceived to contribute toward a winning team culture and effective leader-follower relations. From an outsider’s perspective, obvious changes that have occurred since 2012 have been a change of coaching staff and a subsequent change in team culture that appears to embrace things Māori in the way the team prepares for games, strategises prior to and during games, and celebrates after games. Situating their Chiefs’ team culture within the local landscape and tūrangawaewae (place of standing/belonging), and priding themselves on Chiefs’ mana (respect for their franchise and brand) is symbolic of the approach taken in 2012 and 2013.
- Recommendations for the development and transition of Indigenous athletes into high performance programs, Australian Sports Commission, (2011). The review presented in this document was conducted to detail and critique the Indigenous sport programs supported and delivered through the NTID program. Aims included to evaluate the effectiveness of these Indigenous-centric programs in identifying and supporting the development of Indigenous athletes, as well as to provide recommendations to improve high performance Indigenous programs. Key recommendations relating to coaching included: All coach/support staff and any personnel involved with an Indigenous sport program should have a willingness to understand and respect Indigenous culture (that is, awareness and respect of Indigenous custom, partake in cultural awareness training and continuing education, etc.). Similarly, an increase in identification, support and development opportunities for Indigenous coaches should also be considered; and to incorporate Indigenous mentors within the program.
- First Nations Rugby - Camp Coaching Clinic, Rugby Australia, (2020). Rugby Australia held its largest ever First Nations Level 1 Coaching Accreditation Course this week, delivered by a qualified First Nations Coach, Jarred Hodges.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sports Coaching Forum, Western Sydney University/Vimeo, (10 May 2016). Expanding on conversations with researchers from Western Sydney University's School of Science and Health in 2015, this forum brought to the fore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives about facilitators and barriers to coaching pathways. The forum aimed to collaboratively produce initial recommendations that may enhance opportunities in sport coaching roles for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Hosted by Dr Andrew Bennie, panel members included: Marcia Ella-Duncan, Jarred Hodges, Phil Duncan, Bou Ovington, and Darren Allie. [note: session actually starts at the 46-minute mark].
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First Nations athletes have a higher than population average representation in certain sports, but in others their representation is below the population average.
Factors that impact
Athlete pathways
The benefits of regular sport and physical activity are numerous and supported by a broad body of research and evidence. 34 Participation in sport and physical activity generally varies significantly across an individual's life course. 35
First Nations participation in sport and physical activity is often difficult to analyse. Adult participation at a grass-roots level is often lower than the broader community, but First Nations children may be more active, or more involved in organised sport, depending on age, gender, socio-economic factors, or where they live. 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41
First Nations people represent an estimated 3.8% of the total Australian population. 42 At an elite level, First Nations athletes have a higher than population average representation in certain sports (e.g., around 12% of the total mens’ and womens’ National Rugby League (NRL) 2021 playing group were First Nations representatives), but in other sports their representation is significantly below the population average. 9, 43, 44, 45
First Nations players often develop their skills through more informal games before being introduced to a more directive, coached approach when they enter the traditional Australian sport talent pathway or elite sport system. This may be a challenging cultural transition or effect for both First Nations players and traditional sport organisations and coaches. 46, 47, 48, 49
While First Nations individuals come from a broad variety of communities and backgrounds, for some, moving from small to larger communities may be the first time they have left their home community. English may be their second language, and they may have never used systems such as public transport before. Additional support and understanding may initially be required. 30, 50
Several reviews and guidance documents have provided recommendations to help First Nations athletes adapt and thrive in high performance environments.
Creating culturally safe organisations and environments
- All industry stakeholders investing in programs and opportunities to address cross-cultural awareness and provide support to First Nations individuals. 50, 51
- Having cultural training, liaison officers, and/or First Nations mentors available to provide advice to non-Indigenous coaches, officials, athletes, and staff. This can help improve cultural awareness and empathy and provide practical advice and actions to develop culturally safe environments. 30, 50, 51
Talent identification and athlete pathways
- Developing parallel pathways for First Nations players which link to mainstream opportunities, including supporting First Nations’ leagues, clubs, competitions, including On Country opportunities. 4, 23, 52, 53, 54
- Providing more development opportunities for First Nations players within regions, with specialist coaches travelling more frequently to regions and staying for longer durations. 4
- Making selection criteria more transparent; having scouts visit the regions to identify talent; having a First Nations representative on selection bodies; and providing a code of conduct for selection. 4
Once players are selected
- Having club officials visit and understand the home community and culture of the player. 50
- Discussing important cultural traditions (e.g., ‘Sorry Business’, cultural leave, and significant dates on the First Nations calendar). 50
- Considering individualised approaches to relocating athletes, possibly in stages, e.g., if a person is from a remote area, maybe move to a regional centre first, rather than straight to a capital city to allow more time to adjust to urban environments and situations. 30
- Connecting the player to local First Nations community and support networks, including mentors and contacts, where possible such as current or former First Nations players or coaches, or local community Elders. Ensuring these supports are available across a long period, not just at camps or special events. 30, 50, 51
- Helping to mitigate home sickness by planning home visits or arranging for family and friends to visit the athlete. 50
- Creating a family-like environment or team culture within each squad/team. Possibly having younger athletes stay with First Nations or other compatible families. 30, 50
Ongoing development and support
- Providing education and personal development opportunities for First Nations athletes, such as managing finances, building self-confidence, and public speaking. 30, 50, 51
- Organising regular (e.g., annual or biannual) First Nations forums. 30, 50
- Include cultural aspects within program delivery. 30, 50, 51
Many available reviews and guidelines focus on specific sports, and primarily on athlete experiences. However, they may also be a valuable starting point for discussion and development for other sports, clubs, schools, or organisations who want to provide a safe, and culturally supportive environment for First Nations people, and for other participants, such as coaches and officials. 50, 55
High performance participation
There is limited consistent data available on the number of First Nations athletes in high performance sport (e.g., Olympic and Paralympic teams, professional leagues, etc.). Statistics are often reported in media style articles, based on manual counting, and may not be updated frequently. Some examples include:
- AFL is alert, not alarmed, at fall in Indigenous representation, AAP, AFL.com.au, (13 May 2024). THE AFL is pushing for greater Indigenous representation in official roles but isn't alarmed at a drop in the number of First Nations players at the elite level, chief executive Andrew Dillon says. The number of Indigenous players in the AFL has dropped to 71 this season from 87 four years ago.
- Two years on from the Jemma Mi Mi incident, Super Netball is in a better place to celebrate First Nations Round, Brittany Carter, ABC, (25 May 2022). The number of First Nations players in Super Netball has risen to three this season, with Donnell Wallam making her debut at the Queensland Firebirds alongside Mi Mi, and Melbourne Vixens training partner Gabby Coffey appearing for the Collingwood Magpies under COVID protocols.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Team members history, Commonwealth Games Australia, (accessed 17 May 2023). It was in 1962 that we first saw Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes compete at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games on home soil in Perth. Eddie Barney, Adrian Blair and Jeff Dynevor represented Australia in boxing and Percy Hobson in athletics (high jump).
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Players, Rugby Australia, (accessed 17 May 2023). Provides a list of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders players in order of debut including in the Wallabies, Wallaroos, Men's, and Women's Sevens teams.
- History of Indigenous Athletes in Australia, Jake Stevens, Jump Media and Marketing/Athletics Australia, (accessed 21 May 2024). Provides a brief history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in athletics including identifying several significant athletes.
- Indigenous Australian Olympians, Australian Olympic Committee, (accessed 17 May 2023). Australia has been represented by 59 Indigenous athletes at the Summer Olympic Games and by one Indigenous athlete at the Winter Olympic Games.
- Indigenous map showcases NRL, NRLW players' heritage, NRL.com. (accessed 17 May 2023). More than 70 NRL and NRLW players are Indigenous Australians and, in conjunction with the NRL, they have charted their family backgrounds from the many First Nations territories of the nation's first inhabitants dating back 60,000 years. Indigenous representation within the NRL and NRLW competitions makes up 12% of the overall playing group.
- AFL Players Indigenous Map 2022, AFL Players Association, (2022). The 2022 AFL Players’ Indigenous Map celebrates the 81 Indigenous male players and 20 Indigenous female players on an AFL or AFLW list in season 2021. The map also highlights the cultural diversity amongst this group with 73 cultural and language groups represented.
- In 2020 the ABC reported that there were 87 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players in the Australian Football League (AFL), and 22 in the women's AFLW competition. This is approximately 11 and 5 per cent of the entire playing cohorts, significantly higher than their population representation. 2
- In 2017 the John Moriarty Foundation identified that there were a total of 40,493 Indigenous participants in football (soccer), approximately 3.3% of the overall total participants. 426 registered coaches, and 143 referees identified as Indigenous. There was no specific information on the number of players at the elite level. 56
- In 2021/22, Water Polo Australia highlighted that 1.74% of all members identified as First Nations peoples, and there have been three known First Nations Olympians (Nathan Thomas, Dean Semmens, and Joel Swift). 11
- Wikipedia provides several lists of Indigenous Australian sportspeople, Indigenous Australian Paralympians, and Indigenous Australian Olympians.
- AFL system failing to engage Indigenous players amid slump in numbers, Andrew Mathieson, National Indigenous Times, (22 May 2024). Proud Wiradjuri man Professor John Evans believes there is a range of factors behind the recent figures that have calculated AFL-listed Indigenous players in the competition slide from 87 to 71 players, and has found the policy of the code's administrator is disengaging Aboriginal players.
- Why these Olympic heroes are pleading for ‘clear pathways’ for today’s Indigenous athletes [paywall], Robert Craddock, Herald Sun, (19 May 2024). When Patrick Johnson and Nova Peris rose to stardom, there were no clear pathways for the champion Indigenous Olympians. Now, they are creating avenues so young athletes don’t have to go through what they did.
- Indigenous football to increase post-World Cup?, Matt Pearson, DW.com, (8 November 2023). The World Cup has captured the public imagination in Australia, but the country's indigenous communities have been deprived of opportunities to play. Nevertheless, there are places where things are changing.
- The Indigenous crisis that is ringing alarm bells at the AFL, Caroline Wilson, The Age, (29 July 2023). A disturbing trend is emerging in the AFL with a decline in the number of Indigenous players and coaches at the elite level. The concern has prompted new AFL boss Andrew Dillon to examine strengthening the league’s diversity policies and reverse its decision to weaken the rules around Next Generation academies.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Team Members History, Commonwealth Games Australia, (accessed 1 May 2023). It was in 1962 that we first saw Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes compete at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games on home soil in Perth. Eddie Barney, Adrian Blair and Jeff Dynevor represented Australia in boxing and Percy Hobson in athletics (high jump).
- Faith Thomas, Australia’s pioneering Indigenous cricketer, dies aged 90, Dan Walsh, The Age, (17 April 2023). Thomas (nee Coulthard) passed away on Saturday and is remembered as the first Aboriginal woman to represent her country in any sport. Schooled in fast bowling by Victor Richardson, the South Australian icon and grandfather to the Chappell brothers, Thomas played her only Test in 1958 against a touring English women’s side in Melbourne.
- ‘On Country’ football league an opportunity to bring communities together – but we need more government funding, Anna Dunn, Terence Abbott Tjapanangka, The Conversation, (5 April 2023). In Papunya, a remote Luritja and Pintupi community, the red earth football field is the centre of social activity every weeknight from March to September. Against the backdrop of Ulumbaru, the Northern Territory’s second-highest mountain, men and young people train into the night. Alice Springs Town Council’s decision in March to withdraw its support for Central Australia’s remote football competition leaves the rhythms of life for community football players in the lurch this year, as coaches scramble to put together a league of their own. Possibilities to revitalise On Country leagues turns the spotlight on a larger issue with basic infrastructure in remote communities. “It’s really sad for the young talented players. They’ll be missing out. I feel sorry not just for my community but everybody. Every team has talented players. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
- How rugby league can open the door for the next generation of Indigenous NRL stars and coaches, Nick Campton, ABC, (9 February 2023). Around 13 per cent of NRL players identify as Indigenous and the likes of Latrell Mitchell, Jack Wighton, Josh Addo-Carr and Cody Walker are among the game's top players. But NRL Indigenous Pathways Manager Dean Widders believes both the league and the 17 clubs could be doing more when it comes to Indigenous pathways systems. Where up-and-coming players could once drop into NRL clubs straight from the country, the decline of the game in rural and remote areas means the gap is greater than ever before. Half of the coaches in this year's NRLW season will be Indigenous, including Newcastle's Ron Griffiths, Dragons mentor Jamie Soward, new Broncos coach Scott Prince and Widders himself, who coaches Parramatta. However, Indigenous coaching at the elite levels of the men's game has lagged behind. No club has had a full-time Indigenous head coach since Arthur Beetson led the Sharks in 1993. "Less than 1 per cent of the coaches at the elite level of the men's game are Indigenous," said Widders.
- Forgotten Indigenous All Stars finally awarded green and gold honour, Dan Walsh, Sydney Morning Herald, (6 February 2023). Fifty years ago a collection of shearers, labourers and footballers boarded a plane at Mascot airport for rugby league’s version of cricket’s fabled 1868 Indigenous tour of England. Unlike their cricketing counterparts, the 1973 Aboriginal All Stars went largely sight unseen in wider rugby league circles, both at the time of their landmark tour to New Zealand and in the decades since. Half a century after being emphatically denied the chance to wear green and gold by the ARL, and offered just $190 in tour funding by the governing body, the original Indigenous All Stars will finally have the red carpet rolled out for them. Surviving members and families of the touring party — which included famous names like Mundine, Tallis and Widders — will finally be presented with commemorative green and gold jerseys this year.
- Games changers, Domini Stuart, Australian Institute of Company Directors, (1 September 2022). With the 2032 Brisbane Olympics as a long-term goal, the Indigenous Advisory Committee is building opportunities for increased inclusion and participation of First Nations Olympians. A total of 4315 athletes have represented Australia at a modern Olympic Games. Just 60 are known to be First Nations people — and Patrick Johnson is one of the few. A proud Kaanju man, he was the first Australian to break 10 seconds for the 100 metres (9.93) — a national record that still stands — and represented Australia at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. Johnson feels the Olympic Games has the potential to bring the country together by advocating equity, better health services, social justice, economic sustainability, innovation and a fair go for all. “My personal vision is that the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) and the Olympic movement in Australia can embrace and walk together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through increased understanding and recognition of our cultures, histories, knowledge and rights.”
- You can’t be what you can’t see: the benefits for and the pressures on First Nations sportswomen, Michelle O'Shea, Hazel Maxwell, Robyn Newitt. Sonya Joy Pearce, The Conversation, (11 August 2022). A record number of female Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander athletes represented Australia at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. While embracing their role model status, it is worth considering the weighty expectations and costs that accompany this visibility. On top of the pressures of representing Australia at the elite level, First Nations sportspeople also have to contend with the politicisation that still surrounds their very identity.
- FULL LIST: record First Nations cohort to represent Australia at Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Jarred Cross, National Indigenous Times, (28 July 2022). Ten Indigenous stars will head to Alexander Stadium for the opening ceremony on July 28 before displaying their talents across a range of disciplines from the track to the pool, ring, sand, pitches and courts. In 1962 eventual gold-medallist high jumper Percy Hobson and boxing trio Eddie Barney, Adrian Blair and Jeff Dynevor became the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander athletes to compete at the games when Perth played host city, paving the way for a decorated history of athletes to follow. In 1990, while still a teenager, Cathy Freeman became the first Indigenous woman to win gold at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, setting herself towards a path of three Olympic games.
- Martu Youth Festival brings Indigenous sporting talent together from remote communities in WA, Samantha Goerling, ABC Pilbara, (16 July 2022). An annual festival of sports and culture, which brings together remote Western Desert Communities in Western Australia's north, has wrapped up it biggest year yet. The Martu Youth Festival, which was held in Nullagine, grew to around 800 people this year, with organiser Ngurra Kujungka welcoming the Yandeyarra community for the first time.
- Two years on from the Jemma Mi Mi incident, Super Netball is in a better place to celebrate First Nations Round, Brittany Carter, ABC, (25 May 2022). In the aftermath of netball's missed opportunity to showcase real representation of First Nations people in the sport, many other former Indigenous players went public with their stories, exposing the ways the sport they loved had also let them down. In the two years since Mi Mi could not get on the court, Netball Australia has introduced its Declaration of Commitment and various states have taken that pledge a step further by implementing reconciliation action plans and officers, and in some cases, introducing Indigenous advisory committees. The number of First Nations players in Super Netball has risen to three this season, with Donnell Wallam making her debut at the Queensland Firebirds alongside Mi Mi, and Melbourne Vixens training partner Gabby Coffey appearing for the Collingwood Magpies under COVID protocols.
- Indigenous Sporting Firsts, news.com.au, (22 May 2022). To celebrate Indigenous Sport Month, News Corp is looking at 50 sporting firsts achieved by athletes through history. From Cathy Freeman becoming the first track athlete to win Commonwealth Gold in 1990 to Joe Johnson becoming the first Indigenous AFL/VFL premiership player in 1904.
- New doco looks at Indigenous culture’s deep links to NRL footy, Craig Mathieson, Sydney Morning Herald, (19 January 2022). There’s no denying the central role Aboriginal players have come to hold in rugby league in this country. For former great Dean Widders, a forward who played in the 2000s, that same Indigenous All-Stars match is a wasted opportunity. What he wants is for the players to have a traditional dance to perform – as New Zealand’s All Blacks do with the haka – before that match, one that can eventually be adopted by the national team. Directed by the writer, filmmaker and legal academic Larissa Behrendt, Araatika: Rise Up! follows Widders’ quest. The documentary is not slavish to his goal – it moves from one related idea to the next, so that history and contemporary politics, community pride and personal strength are laced together through a narrative that is never rushed. Widders isn’t trying to kick the door in, instead he’s trying to show why it makes sense for those in charge to graciously open it.
- The Torres Strait taxi driver who made Paralympic history, International Paralympic Committee, (4 August 2021). Harry Mosby - The Toronto 1976 Paralympic Games silver medallist, a modest man, who kept his achievements very quiet, even from his family. Mosby spent four years in rehabilitation and occupational therapy during which he was introduced to sport and became adept at the former Paralympic sport of dartchery, as well as wheelchair basketball, in which he excelled. Mosby turned his focus to athletics and after just a few months of training was selected in Australia’s 46-person team for Toronto, where he won the silver medal in the men’s discus IC classification. Yet, after returning to Thursday Island, he never spoke about his sporting success.
- Freeman review: documentary relives the time Cathy Freeman flew, carrying the weight of the nation, Heidi Norman, University of Technology Sydney, The Conversation, (11 September 2020). Two dramatic narratives arc through this documentary, which marks 20 years since the triumph: Freeman’s personal reflections as an elite athlete, and our experience as a nation of spectators.
- The numbers highlighting Indigenous players' immense impact on Australian rules football, Cody Atkinson and Sean Lawson, ABC, (20 August 2020). The colossal impact of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander footballers is difficult to put in words. So, on the eve of this year's Indigenous Round, let's delve into some of the numbers that illustrate their contributions.
- 87 Indigenous Australians are currently on AFL lists — which is about 11 per cent of the entire playing cohort. 22 Indigenous players during this year's AFLW season, or 5 per cent of the competition.
- There's only been one Indigenous umpire in VFL or AFL football: Glenn James. James umpired the 1982 and 1984 VFL Grand Finals.
- 2 per cent - the number of Indigenous coaches in the AFL system badly trails the participation rate of players. There have only been two Indigenous senior coaches in the VFL/AFL, and none since 1984 — when Barry Cable left North Melbourne.
- The long and complicated history of Aboriginal involvement in football, Roy Hay, Honorary Fellow, Deakin University, The Conversation, (24 May 2019). Clearly, Indigenous players have made huge inroads in professional Australian football leagues. In fact, to mark this year’s Indigenous round, the AFL Players Association recently updated its map celebrating the 84 male Indigenous players and 13 female players in the league and showing where they come from. But in order to understand how we got to this point, it’s important to know the full history of Indigenous involvement in the sport, including the discrimination faced by players like Adam Goodes, and all those who came before him.
- A history of hurdles in the celebration of Aboriginality in sport, Colin Tatz, Plus61, (19 March 2018). Provides a brief overview of some of the experiences of Aboriginal sportspeople throughout Australian history, leading up to the current era.
- In Harley Windsor, Australia has its first Indigenous Winter Olympian – why has it taken so long? Andrew Bennie and Keith Parry, Western Sydney University, The Conversation, (14 February 2018). Many Indigenous athletes have represented Australia at the Summer Olympics. But, in Pyeongchang, figure skater Harley Windsor is set to become Australia’s first Indigenous Winter Olympian. While Windsor’s selection deserves celebration, it’s surprising it has taken until now for an Indigenous Australian to compete at a Winter Olympics.
- Indigenous Paralympians recognised for NAIDOC week, Australian Paralympic Committee media release, (6 July 2017). The APC initially unveiled the Indigenous Paralympian honour board, recognising 11 athletes dating back to Kevin Coombs at the first Paralympic Games in 1960, at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) in December 2015. Australia’s Indigenous Paralympians formally recognised include: Kevin Coombs OAM; Peter Kirby; Warren Lawton OAM; Tracy Barrell OAM; Karl Feifar OAM; Donna Burns OAM; Ben Austin OAM; Tahlia Rotumah; Kayla Clarke; Amanda Fowler, Torita Isaac; and Ray Barrett.
- The Aboriginal Soccer Tribe, 2nd edition, John Maynard, Fairplay Publishing, (2019). A celebration of the journey of taken by Aboriginal sportsmen and women who forged the way for the current crop of talented players, which details the previously untold history of Aboriginal involvement with the ‘world game’.
- Stories of Indigenous Success in Australian Sport: Journeys to the AFL and NRL, Richard Light, John Robert Evans, Palgrave Macmillan, (2018). This book presents journeys of sixteen Indigenous Australian athletes from their first touch of a ‘footy’ to the highest levels of Australian football and rugby league, conceptualized as a process of learning. The authors challenge simplistic explanations of Indigenous success in Australian football and rugby league, centered on the notion of the ‘natural athlete’. The book traces the development of Indigenous sporting expertise as a lifelong process of learning situated in local culture and shaped by the challenges of transitioning into professional sport. Individually, the life stories told by the participants provide fascinating insights into experience, culture and learning. Collectively, they provided deep understanding of the powerful influence that Aboriginal culture exerted on the participants’ journeys to the top of their sports while locating individual experience and agency within larger economic, cultural and social considerations.
- Reviewing the AFL’s Vilification Laws: Rule 35, Reconciliation and Racial Harmony in Australian Football, Sean Gorman, Dean Lusher, Keir Reeves, Routledge, (2018). This book is the outcome of an Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded project titled Assessing the Australian Football League’s Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to Promote Community Harmony, Multiculturalism and Reconciliation, which investigated the impact of the Australian Football League’s anti-vilification policy since its introduction in 1995. With key stakeholders the Australian Football League, the AFL Players’ Association and the Office of Multicultural Affairs (previously the Victorian Multicultural Commission), the book gauges the attitudes and perspectives of players and coaches in the AFL regarding Rule 35, the code’s anti-vilification rule. The overarching themes of multiculturalism, reconciliation and social harmony in the AFL workplace have been the guiding ideals that we examined and analysed. The outcomes from the research vectors look at and engage with key issues about race, diversity and difference as it pertains to the elite AFL code, but also looks at the ongoing international conversation as it pertains to these themes in sport. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.
- Black pearls : the Aboriginal and Islander sports hall of fame, Colin and Paul Tatz, Aboriginal Studies Press, (2018). 269 sporting greats, from 26 sports, across a period of 150 years, are showcased in this third edition of the Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame. The book also reveals a history of inclusion and exclusion, about Aboriginal determination in the face of enormous obstacles, and resilience in overcoming remoteness, discriminatory laws, incarceration on isolated reserves, and opponents in a variety of sports arenas.
- Native Games: Indigenous Peoples and Sports in the Post-Colonial World, Chris Hallinan and Barry Judd (eds.), Research in the Sociology of Sport: Volume 7, Emerald Publishing, (2013). Research on Indigenous participation in sport offers many opportunities to better understand the political issues of equality, empowerment, self-determination and protection of culture and identity. This volume compares and conceptualises the sociological significance of Indigenous sports in different international contexts. The contributions, all written by Indigenous scholars and those working directly in Indigenous/Native Studies units, provide unique studies of contemporary experiences of Indigenous sports participation. The papers investigate current understandings of Indigeneity found to circulate throughout sports, sports organisations and Indigenous communities. by (1): situating attitudes to racial and cultural difference within the broader sociological processes of post colonial Indigenous worlds (2): interrogating perceptions of Indigenous identity with reference to contemporary theories of identity drawn from Indigenous Studies and (3): providing insight to increased Indigenous participation, empowerment and personal development through sport with reference to sociological theory.
- Indigenous People, Race Relations and Australian Sport. Chris Hallinan, Barry Judd, Routledge, (2011). This book investigates the many ways that Indigenous Australians have engaged with Australian sports and the racial and cultural readings that have been associated with these engagements. Questions concerning the importance that sports play in constructions of Australian indigeneities and the extent to which these have been maintained as marginal to Australian national identity are the central critical themes of this book. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society, volume 15, issue 7.
- Indigenous athletes at the Australian Institute of Sport, text by Mick Fogarty, Australian Sports Commission, (2005). The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) opened its doors to its first scholarship intake in January 1981. The catalyst for the Australian Government's decision to establish the AIS was Australia's disappointing performance at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, at which Australia failed to win a single gold medal...In the first ten years of the AIS, 16 indigenous athletes received scholarships. The majority of these were in two team sports - basketball (six) and netball (four). the first Indigenous scholarship athlete was netballer Marcia Ella from Matraville in NSW.
- Black gold : the Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame, Tatz, C, Canberra Aboriginal Studies Press, (2000) In 1995, 129 athletes were selected for the inaugural Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame. Since then, 43 new stars have been inducted and Black Gold features all 172 members, from thirty sports. Some of the people in this book are members of the Stolen Generations who were raised in ‘assimilation’ homes but pursued their dreams against all odds. Many grew up in remote, impoverished settlements where ‘sports facilities’ were bumpy dirt tracks, scrubby pitches or dustbowl ovals with sticks for goalposts. Black Gold honours all who have leapt the twin hurdles of racism and competition to realise their talents in the elite arenas of national or international sport.
- Black diamonds : the Aboriginal and Islander sports hall of fame, Colin and Paul Tatz, Allen and Unwin, (1996). Australians love sport: playing it, watching it, talking it, reading about it. In one area - Aboriginal and Islander sport - we know only a fraction of the real achievements. A few outstanding men and women are household names: Lionel Rose in the ring, Evonne Goolagong-Cawley on the court, Cathy Freeman on the tartan track, Mal Meninga and 'Polly' Farmer on the league and Aussie rules ovals. But there is so much more greatness and triumph out there, much of it buried in history or known to only a handful of fans. Black Diamonds brings together, for the first time, the 129 indigenous Australians who comprise the first Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame. Representing 25 sports, from athletics and Aussie rules to tennis and woodchopping, their achievements are part of Australia's sporting history. Their stories are great stories: sometimes tragic, they are all triumphs over adversity.
- Many Stories, One Goal – Supporting Indigenous Footballers, AFL Players Association, (updated in 2016). Developed by the nine-member Indigenous Advisory Board and built from the stories and experiences of every Indigenous player in the game and key stakeholders within the industry. The aim of these guidelines is to: Ensure all Indigenous players are supported consistently, regardless of the club to which they are drafted. Assist clubs to understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture through the eyes of players and Indigenous Australians. Provide the support required to retain Indigenous players in the AFL system and maximise their careers. The policy is built around four key pillars; Induction, Professional Development, Personal Support and Our Culture – areas identified as vital to developing an environment that best supports Indigenous footballers throughout every stage of their playing career and beyond.
- Indigenous Map, AFL Players Association, (2022). The 2022 AFL Players’ Indigenous Map celebrates the 81 Indigenous male players and 20 Indigenous female players on an AFL or AFLW list in season 2021/22. The map also highlights the cultural diversity amongst this group with 73 cultural and language groups represented.
- Black Diamonds Report, Glass Jar, (April 2022). The Black Diamonds Project reviews the netball service delivery to ensure that the policies and systems of netball in Western Australia are transformed to better facilitate the engagement and retention of Aboriginal people to the sport of netball. The dominant method of data collection was Yarning Circles, a uniquely Aboriginal methodology, with four stakeholder groups, across two phases.
- In the history of Australian netball, there have been two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) players at the highest level of the game. The systems, policies, and procedures of netball in Australia do not nourish and support Aboriginal athletes from grassroots through to the elite.
- The top three most popular solutions in relation to Parallel Pathways and Selection Criteria were to develop parallel pathways for ATSI players which link to mainstream opportunities, including Aboriginal All Stars Camps; to support an ATSI WANL Club; and to provide more development opportunities for Aboriginal players within regions, with training provided by specialist coaches in Perth who travel more frequently to regions and stay for a longer duration.
- The solution to the discrimination and “purple circle” experienced and witnessed by many participants were to make selection criteria more transparent; have scouts from Perth visit the regions to identify talent; and providing a code of conduct for selection, particularly to Associations. Some participants also suggested having an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander representative on selection bodies. Participants also linked these talent identification processes with development opportunities and pathways.
- Do Better - Independent review into Collingwood Football Club’s responses to Incidents of Racism and Cultural Safety in the Workplace, UTS for Collingwood Football Club, (2021). The Report is an independent review that challenges Collingwood to take a leadership position in Australian sport by confronting racism. It also urges Collingwood to use its past to inform its future and to drive change in our game and, more broadly, our nation. These challenges Collingwood accepts without qualification. The club has adopted all 18 recommendations in the CFC DO BETTER REPORT and has begun the process of implementing them. Full Report. Recommendations relating to employment and recruitment include:
- That the Collingwood Football Club Board ensure the development and implementation of an employment strategy that values diversity and reports against KPIs. This includes the player group and the coaching staff.
- That the Collingwood Football Club develop a clear pipeline for the development of talent from diverse communities into the Club and which proactively supports First Nations and people of colour into post-playing positions within the Club and AFL, particularly coaching.
- Racial Equality Review of Basketball Australia, Australian Human Rights Commission, (2021). In August 2020, the Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) was engaged by Basketball Australia to undertake an independent Racial Equality Review (‘the Review’) of the sport at a national level. In conducting the Review, the Commission sought to engage with current and former national players and their families, coaches, administrators, and Basketball Australia staff by way of interviews, focus groups and written submissions. The Commission also undertook a ‘desktop audit’ of Basketball Australia’s relevant policies and procedures. The purpose of this engagement and audit was to examine and report on: Existing structural barriers to achieving racial equality within organisational policies, pathways, programs, leagues, governance, and culture within Basketball Australia; and the experiences of current and former national players and their families, coaches, administrators, and Basketball Australia staff about the organisational culture at Basketball Australia, in particular as it relates to racial equality. The report highlighted that many national players reported concerns that they were not considered or encouraged to take up roles at Basketball Australia, limited pathways for career advancement and a lack of visibly diverse role models. It therefore recommended that Basketball Australia enhance opportunities for greater representation specifically for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples and people from racial, ethnic, and/or ethno-religious minority groups into coaching and other on and off-court roles within the organisation. Key recommendations relating to employment, recruitment, and pathways include:
- Establishment of targets to diversify Board membership and broader recruitment and selection.
- Introduce scholarships for underrepresented groups to encourage greater national player representation.
- Broaden partnerships with communities to increase pathways for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples and people from racial, ethnic, and/or ethno-religious minority groups to progress through the sport in on and off-court roles.
- Create opportunities for specific development such as mentoring and sponsorship for national players from underrepresented groups who aspire to become coaches.
- Football's Indigenous Engagement: State of Play, Professional Footballers Australia on behalf of John Moriarty Football, (November 2018). Engagement between the major sporting codes and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians provides a significant opportunity for mutual benefit. This report benchmarks the progress being made by sporting codes to highlight football’s missed opportunity and to call for a reignition of football’s Indigenous engagement. Engagement between the major sports and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians provides a significant opportunity for mutual benefit. For sports, there is a pool of talent to be tapped, and a community of potential supporters to be embraced. For Indigenous communities, sport has the power to enhance social, education and health outcomes, and provide a pathway to rewarding professional careers, in turn developing inspirational role models.
- Physical activity across the life stages, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, (2018). This report presents information on the physical activity and sedentary participation rate of Australians across the life stages, reported against Australia’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines. According to the available data, Indigenous children aged 5–12 and young people aged 13–17 were more likely to meet the physical activity guideline, compared with non-Indigenous children: 60% of Indigenous 5–12 year-olds, compared with 45% of their non-Indigenous counterparts. 33% of Indigenous 13–17 year-olds, compared with 19% of their non-Indigenous counterparts. Among young children aged 2–5, similar proportions of Indigenous (64%) and non-Indigenous (69%) children met the physical activity guideline. Indigenous adults aged 18–64 and Indigenous women aged 65 and over were less likely to meet the physical activity guideline, compared with their non-Indigenous counterparts: 38% of Indigenous adults aged 18–64, compared with 46% of non-Indigenous adults of this age; non-Indigenous women aged 65 and over (38%) were twice as likely to meet the physical activity guideline, compared with Indigenous women of this age (16%). However, the proportions were similar for: Indigenous men (41%) and non-Indigenous men (44%) aged 65 and over who met the physical activity guideline. Indigenous adults (9.4%) and non-Indigenous adults (10%) aged 65 and over who met the
strength-based activity guideline. - Indigenous Australians' Participation in Sports and Physical Activities: Part 1, Literature and AusPlay data review, ORC International for the Australian Sports Commission, (March 2017). The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) engaged ORC International to conduct a research project on Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s participation in sport and physical activities. The AusPlay data analyses found that, in keeping with previous research findings, Indigenous people were less likely than non-Indigenous people to have participated in sports or physical activities in the last twelve months. However, the AusPlay data suggested that Indigenous adults who did participate tended to participate more frequently and for longer session times.
- Recommendations for the development and transition of Indigenous athletes into high performance programs, Australian Sports Commission, (2011). The review presented in this document was conducted to detail and critique the Indigenous sport programs supported and delivered through the National Talent Identification (NTID) program. Aims included to evaluate the effectiveness of these Indigenous-centric programs in identifying and supporting the development of Indigenous athletes, as well as to provide recommendations to improve high performance Indigenous programs. In addition, a comparative analysis was conducted with the AFL to identify what it does in relation to the identification and development of Indigenous athletes. The sport of AFL was chosen due to its extensive work in this area. It is envisaged that the insights gained from this comprehensive review will inform practical and meaningful recommendations for supporting current and future Indigenous athletes. This information is of critical importance for NSOs and other key stakeholders such as the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) and Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).
- Similarities and differences in male and female First Nations hockey players’ experiences of moving away from their home communities to play elite hockey in the Canadian mainstream context, Jaime Carpenter, Audrey Giles, Sport in Society, (30 November 2023). There is a dearth of research that has explored the differences and similarities in First Nations male and female hockey players’ experiences while playing elite hockey in the Canadian mainstream. I used tribal critical race theory, Indigenous feminisms, Indigenous methodologies, and interviews with 10 male and 10 female First Nations elite hockey players to understand the differences and similarities in their experiences of moving away from home to pursue hockey in the mainstream. I produced two main themes: the challenges that the athletes experienced, which included new languages, culture shock, and racism; and the benefits, which were athletic and personal growth and support from their home community. There were important differences between male and female participants, which included the males facing more violent and overt racism than the female players, and the female players needing to travel farther away from home due to a lack of opportunities to play hockey.
- Long term trends in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth sport participation 2005–2019, Wilson, R., Evans, J., Macniven, R., Annals of Leisure Research, Volume 26(1), pp.89-99, (2023). Physical activity is essential for good health and sport participation is an important contributor to physical activity. Sport can achieve many health and broader social benefits for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Indigenous Australians). Children’s physical activity typically declines during teenage years. This study examined 14-year sport participation trends among youth aged 15–19 years based on the annual Mission Australia Youth Survey (MAYS) between 2005 and 2019. Indigenous youth sport participant levels were lower than non-Indigenous levels. The highest sports participation level was 80.1% (non-Indigenous males, 2016); the lowest was 56.8% (Indigenous females, 2018). Lower sport participation was reported by females compared to males in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups in each survey year with the lowest levels found among Indigenous females. These findings challenge current discourses of high Indigenous sport participation. A comprehensive understanding of the factors related to sports participation is required to inform future strategies and programmes to increase participation and contribute to closing health and broader equity gaps.
- Where are the Indigenous and First Nations people in sport event volunteering? Can you be what you can’t see? Tracey Dickson, Stirling Sharpe, Simon Darcy, Tourism Recreation Research, (9 September 2022). Mega-sport events (MSE) are frequently cited for their developmental and legacy potentials for host communities, including tourism, sport participation and volunteering. MSE volunteer research has demonstrated the potential to develop volunteers who may contribute to the host community’s social and human capitals. However, little research considers how marginalised groups, such as First Nations or those with disability, may be co-providers of MSE experiences. This paper differs from a dominant quasi-scientific approach to empirical journal articles in that it begins with a reflexive posture drawing upon First nations pedagogy of storytelling. Reflecting upon the volunteers’ social context and drawing upon a dataset of volunteers across 6 MSE in 5 countries (2009–2016), this research explores to what extent First Nations volunteers are considered and included in MSE research and practice, and what differences may exist between First Nations volunteers and others regarding their motivations and future volunteering intentions. The results indicate that significantly more can be done to include First Nations people equitably and respectfully across the design, delivery, and legacy potential of MSE. The results inform a novel framework that provides a map for theory and practice, and thus praxis, for incorporating marginalised groups as full partners across the MSE journey.
- Bending the Ball: Racial Policy and 1930s Sport on Thursday Island, Gary Osmond, Australian Historical Studies, Volume 53(1), pp.5-25, (2022). In 1933 the Kookaburra Football Club, a ‘half-caste’ team on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, attempted to negotiate a tour of major Queensland centres. The trip did not occur, in part because of resistance from the Chief Protector of Aboriginals who prohibited some players from travelling and investigated others. Beyond simply challenging the protectorate’s control, the episode offers insight into the arbitrary nature of race, the mechanics of racial categorisation and extrajudicial governmental intervention in the context of Thursday Island and the Torres Strait, and extends understandings of official attitudes to sport in Indigenous Queensland.
- From assimilation to recognition: Aboriginal participation in rugby league in New South Wales, Heidi Norman, Sporting Traditions, Volume 38(1), pp.3-28, (May 2021). Since at least the 1920s, Aboriginal men have been lauded and celebrated rugby league players. This paper charts the history of Aboriginal participation in rugby league highlighting a central transition from the encouragement of participation in rugby league by the state as they pursued policy ambitions of containment and later assimilation, to participation in rugby league in an era of self-determination. Tracking these two distinct periods, colonial and postcolonial, I seek to show the continuities and discontinuities in relation to participation in rugby league over a period of at least 100 years. I draw on a range of archives including government records and newsprint media, ethnography of Aboriginal participation in rugby league, critical discourse analysis and Indigenous standpoint. I analyse the first year of Dawn, a government magazine and the official voice of the Aborigines Welfare Board (AWB) in its first year of publication (1952) and over 20 years of research and documentation of Aboriginal participation in rugby league. I argue Aboriginal people have negotiated and interpreted their participation differently to state ambitions and shaped their participation in rugby league to further recognition as a people, community history and autonomy. This work therefore contributes to the body of work documenting Aboriginal participation in rugby league and to the field of Aboriginal history and politics.
- Footprints in Time: Physical Activity Levels and Sociodemographic and Movement-Related Associations Within the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children, Rona Macniven, Rachel Wilson, Tim Olds, et.al., Journal of Physical Activity and Health, (10 February 2021). Emerging evidence suggests that Indigenous children have higher physical activity levels that non-Indigenous children, yet little is known of the factors that influence these levels or how they may be optimized. This study examines correlates of achieving ≥1 hour/day of physical activity among Indigenous Australian children aged 8–13 years. Data were collected through parental self-report in the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. Proportions of children achieving ≥1 hour/day physical activity, approximating the Australian aerobic physical activity recommendations, were calculated, and associations with sociodemographic, family composition, and movement-related factors were quantified using multiple logistic regression analyses. Half of the 1233 children achieved ≥1 hour/day physical activity. Children from families with low parental education and unemployment, remote residence, low socioeconomic status, and without a father in the household were more likely to meet the recommendations. Achieving ≥1 hour/day of physical activity was also associated with low levels of playing electronic games and total screen time. Sociodemographic correlates of physical activity among Indigenous Australian children run counter to those typically found in non-Indigenous Australian children. Further longitudinal examination of the predictors of these associations would provide a greater understanding of Indigenous physical activity determinants, to inform strategies to facilitate participation.
- The long road from local communities to professional sport and the culture of the global sport industry for Indigenous Australians, Light R, Evans J, Lavallee D, Sport in Society, Volume 23(10), pp.760-772, (2021). This article draws on the findings of a three-year, inter-disciplinary study conducted on the journeys of sixteen Australian Indigenous sportsmen from their first touch of the ‘footy’ to the most elite levels of Australian football and rugby league and the central role of culture in these journeys. The first stage of their journeys involved the development of expertise and a distinctively Indigenous approach to their sport from early childhood to around the age of around thirteen. The second stage involved dealing with the challenges of cultural transitioning from small, local communities and practices to professional sport and the global culture of the sport industry.
- Tensions, Complexities, and Compromises: Sharing Australian Aboriginal Women's Sport History, Murray Phillips; Gary Osmond, Journal of Sport History, Volume 48(2), pp.118-134, (2021). Researching and writing about Aboriginal sport history is one of the most challenging, and rewarding, opportunities of our scholarly careers. It is challenging because non-Aboriginal people must engage with ontological, epistemological, theoretical, empirical, and methodological issues and ideas that often exist outside traditional Western conventions. Challenges for male scholars escalate in attempting to represent the experiences of Aboriginal sportswomen. Not only do we need to engage with racial theories and gender analysis, as Susan Birrell has done throughout her career, but it involves consciously creating narratives from the outside as non-Aboriginal men with all the boundaries and limitations this situation imposes. The final layer of complexity is that Aboriginal history-making involves appropriate recognition of, and involvement with, Aboriginal people, and creating reciprocal relationships and practices that are community-driven. We address these issues through a case study of the Marching Girls from the Aboriginal settlement of Cherbourg in Queensland, Australia.
- Time's Up! Indigenous Australian Sportsmen and Athlete Transitions, Megan Stronach, Chapter 11 in 'Athlete Transitions into Retirement', Deborah Agnew (ed.), Routledge, (2021). Over many decades, Indigenous athletes have demonstrated abundant sporting prowess, becoming high-profile performers in Australian sporting culture. Athletic identity (AI) as a concept is said to be the degree to which an individual identifies with the athlete role and can be defined as ‘the degree of importance, strength, and exclusivity attached to the athlete role that is maintained by the athletes and influenced by environment’. The athletic role is an important social dimension of self-concept influencing experiences, relationships with others, and pursuit of sport activity. Sport is, from an early age, the only life that many professional and elite Indigenous athletes know.
- From freedom to oppression? A Freirean perspective on coaching and indigenous players’ journeys to the NRL and AFL, Richard Light, John Evans, Chapter 7 in ''Race', Ethnicity and Racism in Sports Coaching', Steven Bradbury, Jim Lusted, Jacco van Sterkenburg (eds.), Routledge, (2020). This chapter draws on findings from a study that inquired into the journeys of Indigenous Australian athletes from their first touch of the ‘footy’ to reaching he highest levels of their sport as a process of culturally situated learning. It identified two major stages of development in their development which were (1) the development of the foundations of expertise and a distinctly Aboriginal style of play up to the age of twelve to thirteen years of age and, (2) meeting the challenges of cultural transitioning toward and into professional sport with Aboriginal culture playing a central role in both stages. Drawing on the work of Paulo Freire we contrast the dialogic pedagogy of learning to play up to around the age of twelve, characterized by playing informal, self-regulated games free of adult interference with the highly regulated, monitored and individualized anti-dialogic approach of professional Australian football and rugby league that the participants had to adapt to.
- Physical activity and sport participation characteristics of Indigenous children registered in the Active Kids voucher program in New South Wales, Rona Macniven, Bridget Foley, Katherine Owen, et al., Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Volume 23(12), pp.1178-1184, (2020). In 2018 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.
- Skilfulness on country: Informal games and sports exposure, John Robert Evans, Richard Light, Greg Downey, Chapter 6 in 'Perspectives on Game-Based Coaching', Shane Pill (ed.), Routledge, pp.57-66, (2020). This chapter reports on a 3 year ARC study which examined the pedagogical influences on elite Indigenous players in Australian Football League and the National Rugby League (NRL). Indigenous athletes currently account for 14% of the elite player population in the AFL and NRL and this success far exceeds that of any other cultural group (Light and Evans 2018). Indigenous players display a unique style characterised by high order decision making and athleticism. Indigenous players often develop their skills in the absence of a directive approach from coaches and participation in sport occurs within a sociocultural context where sport is highly associated with local culture. The research involved interviewing eight players in both codes (n = 16) to understand how they learnt to play sport. The results from the analysis of interview transcripts link skilfulness to participation in informal games and exposure to a range of sports in the sampling phase.
- Strait talking: A call for Torres Strait sport history research, Gary Osmond, Sporting Traditions, Volume 37(1), pp.47-64, (2020). Indigenous sport history in Australia focuses almost exclusively on Aboriginal people and ignores the Torres Strait Islands. Based on sheer neglect alone there is a clear need for inclusion of the Strait, and there are also compelling sport histories yet to be explored. Indeed, sport has been a popular pursuit in the Strait and several Islander athletes have been prominent nationally and internationally. Sport history research in and with the Strait has the potential to differentiate this region's history from that of Aboriginal Australia, with which it sometimes is conflated. This article surveys the sparse research on the sport history of the Torres Strait Islands, offers a critique of that literature, considers reasons for the overall neglect, and suggests possible areas for research as well as source and methodological considerations for such research efforts.
- The cultural transition of Indigenous Australian athletes’ into professional sport, Richard Light, John Evans, David Lavallee, Sport, Education and Society, Volume 24(4), pp.415-426, (2019). This article reports on a study that inquired into the journeys of sixteen Indigenous Australian athletes from their first touch of the footy to the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) that identified two distinct stages of their journeys. These were: (1) the development of expertize and of a distinctly Aboriginal style of play from their first touch of a footy to around the age of thirteen and, (2) a process of cultural transitioning toward and into the AFL and NRL. This article takes an interdisciplinary approach to focus on the second stage of transitioning into the world of professional sport and sport as business. Identifying this as a process of cultural transitioning from local Aboriginal culture to the culture of professional sport provided insight into this transitioning process while illuminating the profound importance of culture in this process. It also helped identify the ways in which tensions between local approaches to ‘footy’ as play and cultural expression and professional sport as work, within the global culture of sport-as-business, were manifested in the challenges that the participants had to overcome. This article thus contributes to knowledge about Indigenous development of sporting expertize, of the specific challenges they face in transitioning into the global culture of commodified sport and how they succeed from a cultural perspective.
- Understanding physical activity patterns among rural Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young people, Rona Macniven, Justin Richards, Nicole Turner, et al., Rural and Remote Health, Volume 19(3), (2019). Physical activity across the lifespan is essential to good health but participation rates are generally lower in rural areas and among Aboriginal Australians. Declines in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) commence before adolescence but descriptive epidemiology of patterns of physical activity among Aboriginal children is limited. MVPA variation by season, setting and type at two time points among rural Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian children was examined. While overall physical activity declines occurred between 2007–2008 (T1) and 2011–2012 (T2) in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal rural-dwelling children, declines in particular components of physical activity were greater among Aboriginal compared to non-Aboriginal children. A multi-strategy, holistic approach to increase physical activity during the critical time of adolescence is necessary.
- Physical activity among indigenous Australian children and youth in remote and non-remote areas, John Robert Evans, Rachel Wilson, Clare Coleman, et al., Social Science and Medicine, Volume 206, pp.93-99, (June 2018). Sport and physical activity (PA) hold particular significance in Australian Indigenous communities, and have the potential to address many of the health and education challenges faced by Indigenous communities. Optimal levels of PA are an important foundation in efforts to build healthy communities and reduce social disadvantage experienced to date. Yet little evidence relating to the current levels of PA within these communities, or the relationship between PA and outcomes, has been available.
- Learning as Transformation in the Development of Expertise by Elite Indigenous Australian Athletes, Richard Light, John Evans, Sport Mont, Volume16(2), pp.93-96, (2018). This article addresses the lack of attention paid to research on the development of Indigenous sporting expertise from a socio-cultural perspective. It inquires into the role that informal games played in the development of Australian Indigenous AFL and NRL players up to the age of thirteen. The study adopted a combined narrative inquiry and constructivist grounded theory methodology. The study highlighted to central role that informal games played in the development of expertise and a distinctive Aboriginal style of play shaped by Indigenous culture. This article suggests the central role that informal games shaped by Aboriginal culture played in the development of expertise and an Aboriginal style of play. It also suggests the need for coaching beyond Indigenous players to consider the use of games in training regimes.
- Indigenous sporting pasts: Resuscitating aboriginal swimming history, Gary Osmond, Australian Aboriginal Studies, Issue 2, pp.43-55, (2017). This paper explores swimming as an area of sport and physical culture in which Aboriginal involvement historically is little understood. Although colonial reports and contemporary historiography comment on Aboriginal swimming practices, detailed evidence is fragmentary and much has been forgotten. Through three case studies - of stroke development in mid-nineteenth century Sydney; a swimmer in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, who swam on equal terms with white competitors; and a commended surf life-saver on the Gold Coast, Queensland - this paper offers a partial redress of this forgotten past and recognises the unknown overlap of Aboriginal swimming with the development of 'modern' swimming cultures in Australia.
- Socialisation, culture and the foundations of expertise in elite level Indigenous Australian sportsmen, Richard Light, John Evans, Sport, Education and Society, Volume 22(7), pp.852-863, (2017). This article reports on an ongoing study that investigates the development of expertise in rugby league and Australian football by Indigenous Australians as a socially and culturally situated process of learning. Focused on the sampling phase of the Development Model of Participation in Sport (6–12 years of age), it combines narrative inquiry and grounded theory methodologies to identify the important role that participation in a range of different sports and in informal games plays in the participants’ development of expertise, as a process of socialisation.
- “When you're coming from the reserve you're not supposed to make it”: Stories of Aboriginal athletes pursuing sport and academic careers in “mainstream” cultural contexts, Amy Blodgett, Robert Schinke, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Volume 21, pp.15-124, (November 2015). Mandala drawings and conversational interviews were employed as open-ended data collection processes that enabled the participants to share their stories and meanings through their own cultural perspectives. Vignettes were then used to present their accounts. The participants' careers as athletes and students were precariously navigated within larger cultural tensions to: (a) deal with a loss of belonging in the Aboriginal community; (b) break down negative stereotypes and attitudes that Aboriginal people are not able to “make it”; and (c) give back to the Aboriginal communities they relocated away from.
- To play Papunya: the problematic interface between a remote Aboriginal community and the organization of Australian Football in Central Australia, Barry Judd, Tim Butcher, Sport in Society, Volume 18(5), pp.543-551, (2015). This paper outlines issues arising from engagement with the remote Aboriginal community of Papunya. Researching the relationship between the community's football club and the organization of competitive fixtures in the Central Australian Football League (CAFL), we found that contrary to popular discourse the well-being of men in Papunya may be damaged by their participation in ‘town football’. We outline the nature of the current relationship between Papunya and the CAFL and the efforts of Elders to reshape the organizational interface via the establishment of an ‘on-country’ football league. We highlight that organizational rhetoric about reconciliation and cross-cultural awareness is not enough to warrant effective working relationships with Papunya people. We argue that there is a need to move beyond recognition of difference that is embodied in such agendas to develop strategies of interface inclusive of Aboriginal understandings of football
- Where are all the Koorie football players? The AFL and the invisible presence of Indigenous Victorians, Jess Coyle, Sport In Society, Volume 18(5), pp.604-613, (2015). Authenticity plays a central role in the construction of invisibility. Framed within the colonial mindset, the ‘authentic Aborigine’ narrative deems Indigenous Victorians as invisible within mainstream Australian society. This article presents the argument that Indigenous football players residing in Victoria function as invisible and are therefore not ‘seen’ as contenders for recruitment into the Australian Football League.
- Navigating the insider-outsider hyphen: A qualitative exploration of the acculturation challenges of Aboriginal athletes pursuing sport in Euro-Canadian contexts, Amy Blodgett, Robert Schinke. Kerry McGannon, et al., Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Volume 15(4), pp.345-355, (July 2014). Mandala drawings were used to facilitate conversational interviews with 21 Aboriginal athletes about their experiences relocating off reserves and the acculturation challenges they faced as they attempted to pursue sport within Euro-Canadian contexts. The acculturation challenges of Aboriginal athletes coalesced into two major themes: (a) culture shock (which occurred in relation to the host culture), and (b) becoming disconnected from home (which occurred in relation to the home culture). These themes illustrated how the athletes’ sense of identity and place were challenged and changed, as they (re)negotiated meaningful positions for themselves in and between two cultural realities.
- 'Game over': Indigenous Australian sportsmen and athletic retirement, Megan Stronach; Daryl Adair; Tracy Taylor, Australian Aboriginal Studies, Issue 2, pp.40-59, (2014). This paper investigates the retirement experiences of Indigenous Australian sportsmen; in doing so, it explores a significant gap in knowledge. There is no body of research into the athletic retirement of elite Indigenous athletes, thus very little is known about how they have prepared for and adjusted to a life after competing in sport. The study analyses the roles and responsibilities of sport organisations in terms of athletic retirement planning, since these bodies arguably have a duty of care to their employees and, in the case of player associations, to their members. The study concludes that Indigenous Australian sportsmen face complex pos-tsport challenges due to (a) the primacy of their athletic identity, (b) assumptions about their 'natural' acumen as athletes, (c) the impact of racialised stereotypes, and (d) profound commitments to extended families and communities. Athletic retirement is therefore likely to be particularly challenging for Indigenous sportspeople. Consequently, providers of athlete career and education programs need to develop policies and provide resources that cater for the complex transition needs of Indigenous athletes.
- Moving beyond words: exploring the use of an arts-based method in Aboriginal community sport research, Amy Blodgett, Diana Coholic, Robert Schinke, et al., Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, Volume 5(3), pp.312-331, (May 2013). The purpose of the current project was to explore an arts-based method as a tool to facilitate participatory action research (PAR) and generate locally resonant knowledge about the sport experiences of Aboriginal community members in north-eastern Ontario, Canada. Mandala drawings were used to embrace an Indigenous epistemology and open up a culturally affirming space for Aboriginal athletes to share their experiences of sport relocation. Conversational interviews were then used to facilitate deeper understandings of the athletes’ mandalas. The images contributed towards community action on two levels: (1) they affirmed a need for athletes to feel connected to their cultural community during relocation, therein reinforcing local efforts to support relocated athletes; and (2) they served as a resource for educating and inspiring other aspiring young athletes.
- Sport career transition : stories of elite Indigenous Australian sportsmen [thesis], Megan Stronach, University of Technology Sydney, (2012). While many Indigenous Australians have assumed high profile careers in sport, little is known about their transition to a life after sport, or their experiences of retirement. To address this research gap, the thesis explores the sport career transition (SCT) experiences of 30 current and former male Indigenous athletes from three sports: Australian Rules football (i.e., AFL), rugby league (i.e., NRL), as well as professional and amateur boxing. The thesis concludes that although elite sport provides Indigenous Australian athletes with many opportunities for a secure life beyond sport, these athletes remain vulnerable and at risk due to: 1) the primacy of Indigenous athletic identity; 2) assumptions about their ‘natural’ acumen as athletes; 3) the perpetuation of racialised beliefs and behaviours; 4) the sense of Indigenous responsibility for, and commitment to, extended families and traditional community networks, and 5) a perceived Indigenous invisibility that tends to reduce the range career choices thought available to Indigenous athletes after sport.
- Voices from the boundary line: The Australian Football League's Indigenous Team of the Century, Sean Gorman, Sport in Society, Volume 15(7), pp.1014-1025, (2012). By engaging with all the members of the Australian Football League's (AFL) Indigenous Team of the Century named in August 2005, I provide an overview of Indigenous participation in Australian football, sport and Australian society in general. These players have been interviewed for an oral history project undertaken by the author. I discuss some of the specific themes and issues that Indigenous footballers have had to face and overcome, and the progress that the AFL has made in bringing Indigenous Australians into a mainstream consciousness. Further, I illustrate and demonstrate that, through Australian football, the marginalized history of Indigenous people can be told, understood and appreciated.
- Natural-Born Athletes? Australian Aboriginal People and the Double-Edged Lure of Professional Sport, Daryl Adair, Megan Stronach, in 'Sport and Challenges to Racism', Jonathan Long, Karl Spracklen (eds.), Springer, pp.117-134, (2011). In contemporary Australia, Indigenous people feature as highly respected performers in the mainstream sports of boxing, athletics, Australian Rules football and rugby league. Many of them are now both sports stars and celebrities, such as Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman, whom Colin Tatz describes fondly as a ‘national treasure’ (Tatz, Chapter 7). Widespread public appreciation of Indigenous athletes is, however, a quite recent phenomenon. As Tatz explains, Australian sport history has been riven by laws, rules and customs that have excluded, marginalised or at best complicated Aboriginal involvement in white-organised sport. The contemporary adulation of Indigenous athletes should, therefore, be balanced by an awareness about long term disregard, disrespect and dishonesty in the treatment of Aboriginal people in Australian sport.
- The Provision of Social Support for Elite Indigenous Athletes in Australian Football, Matthew Nicholson, Russell Hoye, David Gallant, Journal of Sport Management, Volume 25(2), pp.131-142, (2011). This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study into the perceptions of social support held by elite Indigenous athletes playing in the Australian Football League. Indigenous athletes within the AFL appear to require more culturally relevant and specialized support structures than non-Indigenous athletes. The study illustrates that teammates of a similar cultural background are the most important providers of social support and that Indigenous led and implemented support structures and programs seem most likely to be successful in supporting Indigenous athletes. The study highlighted that the family and community connections held by Indigenous athletes are little understood by their non-Indigenous teammates, their clubs, or the league, yet they form an essential network of social support that provides the foundation for Indigenous participation and individual success.
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- 'Creating a pathway': Indigenous coach breaking new ground in VFLW, Brendan Rhodes, AFL.com.au, (10 February 2022).
- The numbers highlighting Indigenous players' immense impact on Australian rules football, Cody Atkinson and Sean Lawson, ABC News, (20 August 2020).
- Wests Tigers assistant Ronnie Griffiths, the NRL’s only Aboriginal coach, Nick Walshaw, The Advertiser, (18 June 2021).
- Black Diamonds Report, Glass Jar, (April 2022).
- Do Better - Independent review into Collingwood Football Club’s responses to Incidents of Racism and Cultural Safety in the Workplace, UTS for Collingwood Football Club, (2021).
- Racial Equality Review of Basketball Australia Australian Human Rights Commission , (2021).
- Racial stereotypes stymie Aboriginal leadership in sport, research finds, University of NSW, (28 September 2016).
- AusPlay Data Portal: Non-playing roles, Australian Sports Commission, (accessed 15 May 2023)
- Indigenous Australian Olympians, Australian Olympic Committee, (accessed 17 May 2023).
- Indigenous Australian Paralympians, Wikipedia, (accessed 15 May 2023).
- WPA Social Impact Framework: Inclusion, Diversity & Equity, Water Polo Australia, (April 2023).
- National Agreement on Closing the Gap, an Agreement between the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Organisations, and all Australian Governments, (current version July 2020).
- Closing the Gap targets and outcomes, Closing the Gap, (accessed 15 May 2023).
- Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage 2020, Commonwealth of Australia, (3 December 2020).
- Closing the Gap Prime Minister’s Report 2018, Commonwealth of Australia, (2018). Other annual Closing the Gap reports are available from the Closing the Gap website.
- Why are so few professional sport coaches from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities? Andrew Bennie, Demelza Marlin, Nicholas Apoifis, The Conversation, (13 June 2016).
- Indigenous role models make a world of difference, Andrew Ramsay, Cricket Australia News, (25 December 2015).
- Here’s to coaches, unsung heroes and role models for social change, Andrew Bennie, Nicholas Apoifis, The Conversation, (22 August 2016).
- The “ripple effect”: Health and community perceptions of the Indigenous Marathon Program on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, Australia, Rona Macniven, Suzanne Plater, Karla Canuto, et al., Health Promotion Journal of Australia, Volume 29(3), pp.304-313, (2018).
- Study reveals severe lack of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander coaches, Western Sydney University, (19 May 2016).
- Sistas’ and Aunties: sport, physical activity, and Indigenous Australian women. Stronach, Megan, Maxwell, Hazel, Taylor, Tracy, Annals of Leisure Research, Volume 19(1), pp.7-26, (2016).
- Cultural connections and cultural ceilings: exploring the experiences of Aboriginal Australian sport coaches, Andrew Bennie, Nicholas Apoifis, Demelza Marlin, et al., Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, Volume 11(3), pp.299-315, (2017).
- How rugby league can open the door for the next generation of Indigenous NRL stars and coaches, Nick Campton, ABC Sport, (9 February 2023).
- The numbers highlighting Indigenous players' immense impact on Australian rules football, Cody Atkinson and Sean Lawson, ABC News, (20 August 2020).
- 'Race', Ethnicity and Racism in Sports Coaching, Steven Bradbury, Jim Lusted, Jacco van Sterkenburg (eds.), Routledge, (2020).
- Why the NRLW is a pathway for Indigenous coaches, Brad Walter, NRL.com, (11 February 2022).
- Coaching Unlimited: Connecting generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sporting leaders through sport coaching, (accessed 15 May 2023).
- Reconciliation Action Plan 2018-2022 [Elevate], Australian Rugby League Commission, (2018).
- Noble athlete, savage coach: how racialised representations of Aboriginal athletes impede professional sport coaching opportunities for Aboriginal Australians, Nicholas Apoifis, Demelza Marlin, Andrew Bennie, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Volume 53(7), pp.854-868, (2017).
- Recommendations for the development and transition of Indigenous athletes into high performance programs, Australian Sports Commission, (2011).
- ‘We were made to feel comfortable and … safe’: co-creating, delivering, and evaluating coach education and health promotion workshops with Aboriginal Australian peoples, Andrew Bennie, Demelza Marlin, Nick Apoifis, et al., Annals of Leisure Research, Volume 24(1), pp.168-188, (2021).
- Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Sports Coaching Forum, Western Sydney University, (10 May 2016).
- Coaching Unlimited: Empowering generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, A research report commissioned by Netball Australia and Netball New South Wales, (2017).
- The value and benefits of sport, Clearinghouse for Sport, (accessed 17 May 2023).
- Factors influencing sport participation, Clearinghouse for Sport, (accessed 17 May 2023).
- AusPlay Data Portal: Sport-related participation – frequency of participation, Australian Sports Commission, (accessed 3 May 2023)
- Physical activity across the life stages, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, (2018).
- Long term trends in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth sport participation 2005–2019, Wilson, R., Evans, J., Macniven, R., Annals of Leisure Research, Volume 26(1), pp.89-99, (2023).
- Footprints in Time: Physical Activity Levels and Sociodemographic and Movement-Related Associations Within the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children, Rona Macniven, Rachel Wilson, Tim Olds, et.al., Journal of Physical Activity and Health, (10 February 2021).
- Physical activity and sport participation characteristics of Indigenous children registered in the Active Kids voucher program in New South Wales, Rona Macniven, Bridget Foley, Katherine Owen, et al., Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Volume 23(12), pp.1178-1184, (2020).
- Understanding physical activity patterns among rural Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young people, Rona Macniven, Justin Richards, Nicole Turner, et.al., Rural and Remote Health, Volume 19(3), (2019).
- Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, Australian Bureau of Statistics, (June 2021).
- Indigenous map showcases NRL, NRLW players' heritage, NRL.com, (accessed 17 May 2023).
- AFL Players Indigenous Map 2021, AFL Players Association, (June 2021).
- Two years on from the Jemma Mi Mi incident, Super Netball is in a better place to celebrate First Nations Round, Brittany Carter, ABC, (25 May 2022).
- Skilfulness on country: Informal games and sports exposure, John Robert Evans, Richard Light, Greg Downey, Chapter 6 in 'Perspectives on Game-Based Coaching', Shane Pill (ed.), Routledge, pp.57-66, (2020).
- From freedom to oppression? A Freirean perspective on coaching and indigenous players’ journeys to the NRL and AFL, Richard Light, John Evans, Chapter 7 in 'Race', Ethnicity and Racism in Sports Coaching, Steven Bradbury, Jim Lusted, Jacco van Sterkenburg (eds.), Routledge, (2020).
- The long road from local communities to professional sport and the culture of the global sport industry for Indigenous Australians, Light R, Evans J, Lavallee D, Sport in Society, Volume 23(10), pp.760-772, (2021).
- The cultural transition of Indigenous Australian athletes’ into professional sport, Richard Light, John Evans, David Lavallee, Sport, Education and Society, Volume 24(4), pp.415-426, (2019).
- Many Stories, One Goal – Supporting Indigenous Footballers, AFL Players Association, (updated in 2016).
- Reviewing the AFL’s Vilification Laws: Rule 35, Reconciliation and Racial Harmony in Australian Football, Sean Gorman, Dean Lusher, Keir Reeves, Routledge, (2018).
- ‘On Country’ football league an opportunity to bring communities together – but we need more government funding, Anna Dunn, Terence Abbott Tjapanangka, The Conversation, (5 April 2023).
- Martu Youth Festival brings Indigenous sporting talent together from remote communities in WA, Samantha Goerling, ABC Pilbara, (16 July 2022).
- To play Papunya: the problematic interface between a remote Aboriginal community and the organization of Australian Football in Central Australia, Barry Judd, Tim Butcher, Sport in Society, volume 18(5), pp. 543-551, (2015).
- Stories of Indigenous Success in Australian Sport: Journeys to the AFL and NRL, Richard Light, John Robert Evans, Palgrave Macmillan, (2018).
- Football's Indigenous Engagement: State of Play, Professional Footballers Australia on behalf of John Moriarty Football, (November 2018).
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