Tigers building on dreamCaroline Wilson
May 19, 2011It's not all good news for Richmond ahead of the indigenous round.
PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has baulked at opening Richmond's Indigenous Institute on the eve of Saturday's MCG Dreamtime game, as the multimillion-dollar public project emerges from a three-year thicket of messy football and Aboriginal politics.
Richmond had hoped Ms Gillard would mark the AFL indigenous round by officially opening the training and employment centre which, since its inception, has often drawn the ire of the federal government and Victorian indigenous community for its lack of direction and consultation.
Tigers chief executive Brendon Gale confirmed the plan to open the institute had been tentatively shelved until the end of the season. Ms Gillard and her Richmond-supporting partner, Tim Mathieson, are also unable to attend Saturday night's clash with Essendon, citing a previous engagement.
''The fact is we've had a progress report in Canberra last week and we've started to make some really steady progress in the last three months,'' Gale said.
''We've developed a road map forward. The institute isn't fully completed and when it is it will be officially opened.''
The federal minister for Sport and Indigenous Employment, Mark Arbib, said the government was satisfied the Tigers had ''turned the corner'' in the Punt Road project, adding the Prime Minister's non-appearance this week was purely ''a scheduling issue''.
''We have had issues, there's no secret about that,'' Senator Arbib said. ''Brendon [Gale] and his team have worked hard to get this up and I think they've turned the corner. There's probably just a few little things they still have to do.
''When problems occur in the planning stages with projects like these or there is a lack of planning if they don't connect with the community, you can face more problems pretty quickly.
''Establishing indigenous centres like this one is a huge task in the planning stages, as we've seen with the project in Redfern, and for communities and sporting organisations who haven't worked with government before, it is a culture shock for both sides.''
In a climate in which the Gillard government remains under fire for squandering millions of dollars on poorly-planned projects, Richmond - having pushed for $120,000 of additional funding this year - has now provided a detailed long-term business plan to the Education Department.
Next month the club will install a full-time director, Belinda Duarte, a respected administrator from AFL SportsReady's indigenous employment program, who will join the club's executive team.
Ms Gillard's office did not return calls from The Age yesterday and Gale could not explain why Ms Gillard had decided against opening the centre this weekend.
Symbolic but unrelated, according to the club, is the sensitive fact of Richmond's poor recent record of retaining indigenous footballers.
There is no suggestion that this issue is anything but bad luck for the club, but the fact remains the Tigers will not field one indigenous footballer in Saturday night's Dreamtime game. Of the five indigenous players on Richmond's list, only the injured Shane Edwards remains at the club.
Richard Tambling - a frontman in the Tigers' successful push for federal funding three years ago - has been traded to Adelaide; Alroy Gilligan has gone from the club's rookie stocks, and Relton Roberts and Troy Taylor have left, unable to conform to the demands of professional sport.
Equally symbolic, if unrelated in the eyes of the AFL's indigenous community, was the Tigers' attitude towards the 2011 pre-season game against the indigenous all-stars team, which was ultimately cancelled due to a dangerous weather forecast.
Most of Richmond's stars were left out of the team and Jake King was named as captain. Richmond has not been invited to compete in next year's game and is expected to be replaced by Greater Western Sydney.
Senator Arbib said the club's determination to establish a successful indigenous institute should provide long-term benefits. ''They've learned their lessons and I'm satisfied they'll deliver,'' he said.
The club's long-term future at Punt Road was guaranteed at the Dreamtime fixture three years ago when Ms Gillard, then deputy prime minister, announced a $6.75 million injection of funds into the development of Richmond's landmark home ground. The contribution was in addition to $2 million of federal funding for the redevelopment.
But the project drew cynicism from the local aboriginal community and was hampered by an initial lack of planning and administrative change at the club.
While the funding came from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, the Tigers were seen to have been the latest recipient of indigenous funding - a national $2 billion industry - with no real practical or sustainable objective.
But in recent months Gale and his community lieutenant Simon Matthews - who with Kevin Sheedy established the concept of the Dreamtime game - have dedicated significant time and money to what has been named the Korin Gamadji Institute (Koori words meaning Grow and Emerge), with the establishment of a series of forums and will soon launch a Reconciliation Action Plan named in honour of the late Maurice Rioli.
Richmond's push for more funding in January brought a demand from the federal government for the club to deliver a three-point platform. To date the Tigers have established the first two of those - leadership camps for indigenous Australians and a pre-employment program which is being overseen by Linfox.
The club is yet to establish a certificate training scheme, but as Matthews said yesterday: ''We are open for business.''
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/tigers-building-on-dream-20110518-1et7a.html#ixzz1MipTy5JS
