Football's Indigenous Engagement
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FOOTBALL’S INDIGENOUS ENGAGEMENT: STATE OF PLAY A report by Professional Footballers Australia on behalf of John Moriarty Football INTRODUCTION Engagement between the major sports and Aborigi- opment Strategy: a five-year plan with ambitious objec- nal and Torres Strait Islander Australians provides a tives across the three priority areas of participation, elite significant opportunity for mutual benefit. For sports, talent and social development outcomes. there is a pool of talent to be tapped, and a community of potential supporters to be embraced. For Indigenous Momentum has been lost. The initiatives were barely communities, sport has the power to enhance social, pursued and outcomes of these plans were never education and health outcomes, and provide a pathway assessed, at least publicly. In FFA’s Whole of Football In the absence of a coordinated strategy, and in re- to rewarding professional careers, in turn developing Plan, its 109-page 2015-2035 vision document, the sponse to the inertia within football towards Indigenous inspirational role models. word “Indigenous” appears just twice, both times under participation, the void has been partly filled by indepen- sections outlining challenges the game faces. In three dent organisations such as John Moriarty Football and In addition, most national sport organisations have years, the FFA went from striving to make football the passionate individuals doing great work in isolation. But embraced their responsibility as significant Australian “sport of first choice” for Aboriginal and Torres Strait that is not enough. Meanwhile, other sports have been cultural institutions to promote inclusivity of Indigenous Islander people to releasing a 20-year strategy for making significant collective progress. communities and cultures and contribute towards football in Australia which practically ignores Indigenous reconciliation. Australians. The governing bodies of Rugby League, Rugby Union and Cricket all have a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Football has pursued this opportunity and duty in the This shift in focus coincides with a reduction in govern- in place. The AFL has completed a RAP and now every past. In 2009, Football Federation Australia (FFA) ment funding for FFA’s Indigenous football development AFL club has its own RAP. announced a 10-year Indigenous Football Development activities. The failure to secure this funding represents State of Play Program including targets to have 5% Aboriginal and a failure to effectively tell the story of football’s power to The purpose of this document is to benchmark the Torres Strait Islander representation in the national unite and uplift those from disadvantaged backgrounds progress being made by other sports to highlight foot- teams. John Moriarty was announced as Patron. In in particular, and a failure by the custodians of our sport ball’s missed opportunity, and to call for a reignition of 2012, FFA launched its first Indigenous Football Devel- to fulfil its duty to activate that power. football’s Indigenous engagement. Football’s Indigenous Engagement: Football’s 2 RESEARCH APPROACH To compare engagement and investment in Indigenous A sport’s engagement includes many subjective quali- Australia by different sports is not a straightforward ties that cannot be captured in a graph or chart, like the task. Each sport is operating at a different scale, with breadth and authenticity of its approach, its attitudes unique historic ‘starting points’ and structural differenc- and respect. So the intention of this document is to es to consider. Different sports make different informa- provide a fair and accurate high-level summary of each tion available regarding Indigenous participation and national sporting organisation’s strategies to engage representation, staffing and financial commitments. with, include and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Each sport has differently structured elite teams and Islander people. The interpretation of the data will be professional leagues. For these reasons, the scope for left to the reader. a direct side-by-side comparison of quantitative metrics is limited. In this spirit, the stories of Indigenous athletes have been included throughout these pages to further illus- It is also not in the scope of this document to provide an trate the benefits of engagement at a human level and exhaustive account of every last program and initiative highlight the missed opportunities on both sides. undertaken across each sport. It should be noted that State of Play there is commendable work being done at a state and regional level in the various sports, but from a cursory analysis, this is not at a scale to act in place of a struc- tured national approach. Football’s Indigenous Engagement: Football’s 3 WHAT IS A RECONCILIATION ACTION PLAN? According to the Reconciliation Australia website, a the vision is crafted and lay out a detailed roadmap of RAP “provides a framework for organisations to support desired outcomes and specific actions, timeframes and the national reconciliation movement”. For workplac- responsibilities. es, a RAP is “a strategic document that supports an organisation’s business plan” which “includes practical RAPs focus on building relationships, respect and op- actions that will drive an organisation’s contribution to portunities. In a sports context, that means looking be- reconciliation both internally and in the communities in yond representation targets and considering structures which it operates”. that include an Indigenous voice in decision-making, for example, or cultural education for non-Indigenous staff There are four types of RAP – Reflect, Innovate, and the broader fanbase. Stretch, Elevate – to cater to organisations at different stages of their reconciliation journey. More than 500 A RAP is not a prerequisite for an organisation to take organisations across Australia have a RAP. a proactive and effective approach to Aboriginal and State of Play Torres Strait Islander engagement. But since the other RAPs are both visionary and practical. They articulate major national sporting bodies have used RAPs to un- an organisation’s desire to engage with and contribute derpin their strategies, it makes to cover them in detail to Indigenous Australia in an authentic and meaningful for the purpose of this cross-code comparison. way. They illustrate the collaborative process by which Football’s Indigenous Engagement: Football’s 4 IN 2017 IN INDIGENOUS 40,493 PARTICIPANTS 3.3% 63.8% SNAPSHOT: OF TOTAL PARTICIPANTS OF CLUB-BASED FOOTBALL IDENTIFY AS ABORGINAL OR INDIGENOUS PARTICI- TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PANTS PLAY IN NSW REGISTERED IDENTIFY AS 426 COACHES INDIGENOUS IDENTIFY AS State of Play 143 REFEREES INDIGENOUS Football’s Indigenous Engagement: Football’s 5 Indigenous Australians have made a long and by five, ten, or fifty times as many Charlies, Jades Reconciliation Action Plans, this was a good start. storied contribution to Australian football, weaving a and Lydias. thread through the game’s history from the pioneer- According to FFA, these commitments proved to be ing efforts of Charlie Perkins, John Moriarty and FFA has stated that football can, should and will do financially challenging and ultimately unsustainable. Harry Williams to the modern-day heroics of Lydia better. In a submission to this report, the national body said Williams and Kyah Simon. Indigenous players such it shifted its strategic focus to growing revenues so as Jade North and Travis Dodd have captained The recent history of football’s Indigenous journey that it can better fund these and other priorities, and their A-League clubs to success and joined the could be described in three phases: emergence, that its revenues are a fraction of the likes of AFL ranks of Aboriginal Socceroos. Emerging stars such stagnation, and renewal. and NRL, which are compared in these pages. as Jada Whyman and Shay Evans promise to write the next chapter. A structured, national approach first emerged a de- This diversion of focus has resulted in FFA being cade ago, around the same time as other sports. In the only national sporting body of those analysed These and other players embody the opportunity May 2011, FFA held an Indigenous Planning Forum without a dedicated Indigenous page on its website, for mutual benefit between football and Indigenous to generate ideas which would underpin its 2012- and FFA’s 20-year strategic plan containing no Australia. Their clubs and national teams have 2017 Indigenous Football Development Strategy, Indigenous component. achieved greater things for their involvement, while titled Football Dreaming. This Strategy contained football has been a gateway to new experiences specific targets for increased participation by Indig- FFA outlined recent activities which speak to the or- and opportunities for each of them. In addition, foot- enous players (25% increase targeted), coaches ganisation’s positive intentions towards Indigenous ball has enhanced these players’ standing as role (25%) and referees (5%), increased Indigenous engagement, despite the admitted relative lack of models and activists in their communities. representation in elite pathway programs and youth investment, including: national teams by 10% and senior national teams Any admission that football can do better in its and professional leagues by 5%. • Partnering with JMF to advocate for federal State of Play engagement with Indigenous Australia is not to funding to expand JMF’s activities and ignore or diminish such heroes and their achieve-