Richmond and Essendon give voice to Indigenous VictoriansPeter Ryan
The Age
June 4, 2021 — 5.51pmRichmond president Peggy O’Neal feels privileged at the opportunity football has given her to hear people’s stories.
Those she hears from Indigenous players, coaches and staff and people who pass through Richmond’s now decade-old Korin Gamadji Institute are ones however O’Neal admits were unlikely to reach her ears if she had not ventured far from the legal world where she practised her profession.
That’s one reason why the Tigers’ president wants the stories Indigenous Victorians tell as part of the
Deadly & Proud campaign to be heard by as many people as possible as Victoria embarks on a truth-telling process through the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission and the work of the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria to progress towards a treaty.
Richmond support the process and hopes both they and Essendon - who are also promoting the program - will help the campaign reach a wide and receptive audience.
“We are taking this next step to show our commitment to helping everyone understand the truth about what has happened so we can all have a future together. Deadly & Proud is an opportunity for Indigenous voices to be heard,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal says the annual Dreamtime match, to be played in Western Australia this season, is the perfect time to highlight such a venture.
“We are taking this next step to show our commitment to helping everyone understand the truth about what has happened so we can all have a future together. Deadly & Proud is an opportunity for Indigenous voices to be heard,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal says the annual Dreamtime match, to be played in Western Australia this season, is the perfect time to highlight such a venture.
Essendon, their opponents on the field, are just as engaged having joined forces with the Tigers off-field to promote the campaign.
O’Neal said listening to Tiger assistant coach Xavier Clarke, who hails from Darwin, speak over Zoom on Friday morning about his journey as an Indigenous man was memorable, just one example of a the types of stories Indigenous Victorians have told and will continue to tell in the future.
“Xavier Clarke is a wonderful storyteller,” O’Neal said.
Aaron Clark, a descendant of the Tjap Whurrung people who is employed at the Tigers as the director of KGI, says that Richmond “have been the beneficiaries on and off field of Aboriginal excellence”.
But the stories Aboriginal people should be proud of go way beyond sport, says Clark, which is why Deadly & Proud is so important.
“Any opportunities we have to have these honest conversations with Aboriginal people at the forefront of the conversation can only be a good thing,” Clark said.
Clark says the connections football clubs create between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can be a template for other organisations willing to diversify and listen to other stories.
“With this journey we have been on with the KGI and Indigenous Australia, this seems like the next logical step,” O’Neal said.
The stories can be found on deadlyandproud.vic.gov.au
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-and-essendon-gives-voice-to-aboriginal-victorians-20210604-p57y7f.html
