A visit to the small town of Borroloola has forever redefined what it means for me to play for Australia, writes PAT CUMMINS.
Playing for Australia is an interesting concept.
We spend most of our lives competing and training, living and interacting in major urban centres and, because of that, we can fall into the trap of thinking that that is Australia in its totality.
But recent experiences have shown me that Australia is much, much more than our big cities and coastal communities. Indeed, we are a country of ideas and knowledge and culture that dates back tens of thousands of years before the first city was conceived.
They are experiences I’ll carry with me to the Ashes in England and for the rest of my life.
They have redefined for me what it means to play for Australia.
Until a few weeks ago, I had never set foot in the interior of our country. Darwin and Alice Springs were as close as I’d got. But the community I visited was a two-and-a-half hour flight from Darwin. It’s a remote place called Borroloola, a town of less than 900 people on the McArthur River near the Gulf of Carpentaria, and home to the Yanyuwa, Marra, Garrwa and Gudanji people.
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Life in Borroloola can be tough and the people are up against it. Access to health care, early education and affordable groceries is extremely limited, so much so that UNICEF Australia, whom you probably more associate with humanitarian crises abroad, are involved. A bad day for those of us in the city might consist of heavy traffic and spotty Wi-Fi. In Borroloola, it can mean not eating.
But to focus only on the hardship is to miss an important point. The world has changed around Borroloola for many centuries but the values of the people have not. Connection to family and land is everything. The wisdom, perspective and sense of kinship passed down through the generations is unique and unlike anything I had experienced before. To have heard some of those stories first hand was profound and, in many ways, life-changing.
For the past couple of years, Becky and I have been fortunate enough to work with UNICEF Australia, the Indi Kindi program and their partnership with the Moriarty Foundation. Indi Kindi is a school program that focuses on the first five years of a child’s life through education, nutrition, healthcare and sport.
This was my first visit on Country and I stayed with John and Ros Moriarty. If you’re not familiar with John’s story, you should be. He went off to school one day as a four year-old and, when his mother came to pick him up, he was gone. She later found out he had been taken away, a member of the Stolen Generation. It wasn’t until he was 15 that he met his mum again and he would go on to represent Australia at football and become a leader in the Indigenous and arts communities.
John is 86 now and remembers everything. He tells his story without any trace of bitterness, but rather a desire to share knowledge and stories, just as his ancestors had to him. He taught me that every bit of land had its own story and that there is no higher calling in life than looking after family and country.
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Working with the Indi Kindi program has a personal connection for me. My mum was a maths and English teacher so education has always been important to our family. And as a dad to Albie, I know that I would do absolutely anything to give him the best chance to succeed in life. Every parent I met in Borroloola feels the same about their kids. To be able to help them, even in a small way, is humbling. I got much more out of the visit than they did.
I have taken with me so many memories: the people and the stories, the land and the history, the areas where our experiences differ and where they converge. On the one hand, the lives and challenges of Borroloola – one of the most isolated communities on earth – is a world away from anything I have known in Sydney. But then you watch the kids playing football, laughter and shouting echoing across the land, and I was immediately transported back to my own childhood, where all you wanted to do was play sport with your mates until the sun went down.
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I felt a real connection to the land, even though it is not the land that I am from, because I was made to feel so welcome by those who have tended to it for millennia. And I realised that, despite the different lives we live from the coast to the interior, we are all bonded together by this ancient country we walk on.
This is what playing for Australia is really about.
It is representing all of us as best we can.
I will carry these lessons with me in the UK as we prepare for the World Test Championship final and the Ashes. Just as we play for the people of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and all the big cities in our country, we also play for Borroloola.
To donate to the Indi Kindi program, and to learn more about the work of the Moriarty Foundation and UNICEF Australia in remote communities, follow this link: www.unicef.org.au/indikindi