The challenge and opportunity of indigenous football
Updated
One of the rising stars of indigenous football in Australia is about to make a very big leap. Melbourne Football Club has welcomed into its ranks Liam Jurrah, a traditional man from thousands of kilometres and an entire lifestyle away in the central Australian desert.
Presenter: Linda Mottram
Speakers: Liam Jurrah, Yuendumu Magpies and Melbourne football player; Shaun Cusack, Clontarf Foundation Centralian Football Academy; Warren Snowdon, Australian government minister and indigenous football enthusiast.
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MOTTRAM: SFX....Indigenous children play hard in the dirt and between the trees at the game that has grown to symbolise opportunity, community and hope for many Aboriginal people.
MOTTRAM: SFX... Psyching themselves for a match are the Yuendumu Magies, Liam Jurrah's team and several times premiership winners in the Central Australian Football League.
Now Liam Jurrah, a tall elegantly athletic 20-year-old whose natural affinity with the football is obvious is on a path that could lead him to national greatness.
ONLINE RADIO ANNOUNCEMENT: "The Yuendumu player, Liam Jurrah, has been drafted to the AFL through Melbourne. He was picked up as Number one in the latest draft."
MOTTRAM: The announcement of Jurrah's destiny by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media's Association's Sport Online Service.
It's a big move for Jurrah. He's a traditional Walpurri Man from Central Australia. Yuendumu itself is 290 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs and from there, it's a 3,400 kilometre drive to Melbourne.
This softly spoken man of few words, who did play in Melbourne for a time this year has very ably cited his most obvious challenge.
JURRAH: The hardest thing is living away, going away without no family.
MOTTRAM: But Jurrah says he believes in himself. He believes he can do it, and his supporters plan to have Jurrah's proud father, Leo, one of a line of good players from the family, his grandmother and his partner living in Melbourne with him.
Also helping Jurrah, is Shaun Cusack, from the Centralian Football Association.
CUSACK: It's a big move for Liam. They are getting a young man from the bush and that's basically what it is. He doesn't live in town, he lives 300 kilometres out at Yuendumu and it's going to be a big step for Liam.
MOTTRAM: In one sense, Jurrah's selection by Melbourne is a story for Australian Football aficionado . He's just one of hundreds of players who vied for places with the country's biggest football teams.
In another, it speaks volumes about football and indigenous Australians.
Warren Snowdon is an Australian member of parliament and government minister whose from the Northern Territory, whose passion for indigenous football began in the 1970s.
SNOWDON: You saw then and I saw then communities from all over the Western Desert, coming together to play footy and they still do it and it's an activity which gives status to people, but it's a team thing. It's a lot of community pride and it's very, very important to the lives of people who live in the bush, whether in the southern part of the Northern Territory or anywhere else in the Northern Territory, and indeed any part of northern Australia.
MOTTRAM: How have opportunities for Aboriginal footballers changed over the years?
SNOWDON: We've now got schooling being organised around sport. The Clontarf Foundation which was developed by Gerard Nisham is using footy as the drawcard and catalyst to get kids to stay at school.
MOTTRAM: So the model is if you come to school and do your schooling, then we will support you in your football?
SNOWDON: And they reinforce that by having mentors at the school, by putting in special programs, making sure the kids are fed, making sure they get a good experience at school, but also out of school. And it's not about just footy, it's about using football to lead people to an education and ultimately a job. Football happens to be the instrument. This is a great initiative and it's now been rolled out and recently the Federal Government announced an extension of $10 million dollars in funding for the Clontarf Foundation, so they could role out six new academies from 2009 and 2010. But that's one example of how football is being seen as the way in which you can stimulate kids to be engaged in other activities, in this case education. And clearly the objective there is to make good citizens out of people. Yes, good sportsmen, enjoy the footy, but ultimately this is about giving kids an opportunity for education and a job.
MOTTRAM: And next season the competition in Queensland will have a new addition, with a Northern Territory team that is set to be made up of mostly indigenous players.
