160 aspiring First Nations players gather in Darwin
To Darwin now Larrakia country where 160 aspiring first nations tennis players have gathered for the National Indigenous tennis carnival. Opened by 14 grand slam champion and Wiradjury woman, Evonne Goolagong Cawley the four-day event is for every level, but organisers say it's as much about culture and connection as it is about tennis.
Transcript
00:00 So I started playing tennis at the age of eight and met Yvonne at quite a young age
00:05 and was lucky enough to receive a racket from her, my very first Dunlop racket, as that
00:10 was one of her sponsors.
00:12 But tennis has really developed over the years and now we have the National Indigenous Tennis
00:16 Carnival here on Larrakia Country in Darwin.
00:18 Yeah, and I mean this has continued all through your career, your love of tennis and with
00:23 your role now with Tennis Australia, this must be pretty special to now see these young
00:28 kids meet the trailblazers and also participate in the sport.
00:32 Oh, it's so important that we have this pathway for these young Indigenous kids.
00:37 As you mentioned earlier, we had some leading events, everyone across the country got to
00:42 participate in a state event.
00:44 They selected participants from that and they got to be here on the journey with Yvonne
00:49 and myself and a lot of the other Tennis Australia staff.
00:51 So it's so great that kids have the opportunity to be here and yeah, we might just see the
00:57 next Yvonne or Ash Barty come out of this program.
01:00 Yeah, indeed.
01:01 And how are the cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people celebrated at
01:05 the carnival through tennis?
01:07 Yeah, so obviously we have an on-court department where they play tennis, but we have off-court
01:13 cultural activities.
01:14 So there has been some weaving, some spear throwing, some painting and some really cool
01:20 designs and some painting of some tennis rackets, which will be gifted to some of the other
01:24 participants in the program.
01:26 And of course, it's very much about tennis as well.
01:29 How do you cater for all levels of skill at the carnival?
01:32 Yeah, this program is really great because we do have Red Ballers, which is a grassroots
01:38 right through to the elite level.
01:39 So we have a few different categories here.
01:41 So under 18s, which is 14 to 18 year olds of the best UTR rankings across the country,
01:48 then another category from 12 to 14 year olds.
01:50 Then we have a Future Stars, which is a teams event and then a Red Ballers, which is really
01:56 the beginners of our game, which are more the remote NT community members that have
02:00 been participating in that category.
02:03 And getting to the point again, you've got the finals starting tomorrow, I understand.
02:08 It definitely is.
02:09 They're just about finished their semi-finals.
02:12 So I believe we do have most of our champions coming through and really excited to watch
02:18 the finals tomorrow.
02:20 And what do you hear from the kids about what they get out of this tournament and what matters
02:25 most to them in it?
02:27 Oh, it's a really great question, actually.
02:30 Some of the kids just love being here, surrounded by other people that are like themselves,
02:35 Aboriginal kids that are in tennis.
02:37 But the friendships and the connections that come out of this program is really important
02:42 to them.
02:43 And obviously to me as well, that they're making these friendships and tennis for me,
02:48 I still have friends from when I played as a junior.
02:51 So yeah, that's a really important part of that.
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