The landmark initiative from the AIS aims to provide Australian Elite Athletes with meaningful opportunities to connect and build relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Three Commonwealth Games Australia alumni members, Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games beach volleyball gold medallist Chris McHugh, sprinter Caitlin Sargent and racewalker Rhydian Cowley, are amongst the 14 athletes across 11 different sports who have been selected as ambassadors for this year’s Share a Yarn Program.
As part of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) program, First Nations and non-Indigenous athletes are chosen as ambassadors to undertake cultural training and activities side-by-side, supporting each other to foster reconciliation and improve cultural competency within their own sports.
Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist and beach volleyball star Chris McHugh is honoured to be among the non-Indigenous athletes invited to participate in the AIS Share a Yarn program.
“I have a young son, Jack, now 18 months old and I’ve been thinking about whether some of the young Indigenous kids have the same opportunities he will have,” McHugh said.
“The age expectancy gap is still so big, which is astonishing when you consider we are a first world nation.
“So Share a Yarn for me will be about trying to challenge the thinking and perceptions within my own sphere of influence. For some of us in Olympic and Commonwealth Games sports, the spotlight may shine on us every two or four years and that gives us a voice, so we can use that voice to promote Reconciliation and move our country forward. I’ve been representing Australia for 14 years and every time I step on the court I’m going out representing all Australians.”
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Australian Matildas football representative Kyah Simon recalls playing at the 2015 FIFA World Cup and locating her family in the stands by looking for the Aboriginal flag.
Netballer Gabrielle Coffey recalls accompanying her mother, a nurse, across the red dirt desert roads to the remote Aboriginal communities around Alice Springs to teach basic health prevention.
Boxer Alex Winwood recalls performing cultural dances as a boy at his grandfather’s Indigenous art gallery in Western Australia.
Softballer Janice Blackman, from Queensland’s Mount Isa, speaks emotionally about presenting her Australian Olympic teammates with an Indigenous-designed training jersey, a moment she says made her “feel at home”.
These are some of the personal stories of Commonwealth Games, Olympic and Paralympic athletes who taking part of the 2021 AIS Share a Yarn program as they aim to build more meaningful connections between sport and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Gabrielle Coffey grew up in Darwin and Alice Springs, but moved to Melbourne to pursue netball. She still feels a wonderful connection to the traditional lands of her Wiradjuri people, and studies Indigenous studies and politics.
“My fondest memories as a kid were when my mum, who was a nurse, would take me and my little sister out to the communities,” Gabrielle says.
“Mum used to go out teaching the kids and families about washing their faces to prevent and treat trachoma, an eye infection that can lead to blindness. Australia is the only first world country to have it. Mum and the nurses used to practise lifting up the eyelids of me and my sister too.
“We’d drive up to four hours to communities with no street lights or running water, but that was life as we knew it. We’d have fun playing with the kids on the ovals and the red dirt. They knew how to live off the land, to hunt and gather. I remember once they’d rescued a baby joey and we bottle-fed it for two days.”
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AIS Director of People Development and Wellbeing Matti Clements said Share a Yarn was about creating greater inclusivity and understanding, in sport and Australian.
“Understanding different cultures in the community helps athletes to overcome and prevent racial divisions in sport,” Matti says. “Share a Yarn is about encouraging collaborative, respectful and honest communication between participants. It’s about building trust, fostering accountability and providing a safe place to listen and learn. We want these athletes to be role models for cultural understanding and inclusivity within their communities, which will ultimately lead to a greater sporting experience and life experiences for all.”
Share a Yarn athlete ambassadors
Janice Blackman: Softball, Queensland Academy of Sport
Gabrielle Coffey: Netball, Victorian Institute of Sport
Rhydian Cowley: Athletics, Victorian Institute of Sport
Sarah Gigante: Cycling, Victorian Institute of Sport Alumni
Chris McHugh: Beach Volleyball, South Australian Sports Institute
Jonty O’Callaghan: Snow Australia, Victorian Institute of Sport, Paralympics Australia
Amy Ridge: Water polo, NSW Institute of Sport
Renee Rockliff: Hockey, Western Australian Institute of Sport
Caitlin Sargent: Athletics, Queensland Academy of Sport
Brad Scott: Para-Athletics, Western Australian Institute of Sport, Paralympics Australia,
Kyah Simon: Football, NSW Institute of Sport
Mariah Williams: Hockey, NSW Institute of Sport
Michelle Wilson: Karate, South Australian Sports Institute
Alex Winwood: Boxing, Western Australian Institute of Sport