Legendary Indigenous athletes taking on elite coaching
Many First Nations Australians line the halls of Australia's sporting history.especially when it comes to the Olympic Games. Yet very few Indigenous stars of the past have gone into elite coaching.
Transcript
00:00 Precision at practice. Shanna Ann Casimiro has always played to win. Now she's learning
00:08 to pave a new path.
00:10 Not just playing on the field but being behind the scenes and coaching and bringing them
00:15 through the ranks.
00:16 The R&A woman from Alice Springs is part of a group of 12 First Nations coaches from around
00:22 the country, levelling up to elite coaching.
00:27 Under the tutelage of some of the best Olympians to ever wear the green and gold.
00:32 First it's around mentoring but it's also actually changing the system to actually ensure
00:36 they're welcomed. So you create the cultural awareness training but also understanding
00:41 what it means.
00:42 Australia's fastest man says the Australian Olympic movement still has some ground to
00:47 make up on improving First Nations representation.
00:51 The Olympic movement for everyone and you need to create culturally safe practices,
00:55 education and awareness and that's part of the role we play here.
00:58 And more Indigenous coaches could mean more participation.
01:03 There's not much Indigenous hockey players. Being out in the community now will just get
01:08 more people into the sports.
01:11 The program here runs for 18 months. Catherine is just the first stop before these coaches
01:17 and training head to other parts of the country to skill up and train the next generation.
01:23 From classrooms to the community where Olympians have visited this week, spreading the spirit
01:28 of the Games.
01:30 How far these children go could well be in the hands of their newly minted mentors.
01:37 [CHEERING]
01:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]