aussie rules football as catalyst for aboriginal community development
DESCRIPTION
In many remote indigenous communities, Australian Rules Football has become a strong community force and an object of passion. ‘Footy’ offers opportunities for these communities to strengthen their wellbeing, social and economic capital. Its potential for enhancing social cohesion, community health and wellbeing has been recognized for some time, though largely unrealised. So far, the design, execution and evaluation of related projects have impeded their effectiveness. They have tended towards undeliverable grand expectations, unrealistically short timelines, ‘lite’ evaluation methods and questionable claims of effectiveness. This paper reviews recent ‘football-as-development’ projects, analyses their claims of success and outlines possible ways to address their limitations. It argues that attention is needed on salient cultural factors including the need for longer term planning and resourcing. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary research, guidelines are proposed to better plan, deliver and sustain programs that empower indigenous communities with higher levels of control in managing wellbeing. These will enable football to be better utilised as a catalyst for indigenous communities to build capacity to successfully manage their own health and wellbeing.TRANSCRIPT
Aussie Rules for Community Development in Remote Indigenous Australia
Nick Stone n.stone@latrobe/unimelb.edu.au
13th International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations. Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia, 26-28 June 2013
1. Backstory
2. AFL’s gotta be good for Indigenous communities- right? 3. Show me the evidence, please 4. Evaluation Methods & Cultural Context
‘Dear Colleagues,
I have been approached by a colleague
from Deakin who is seeking research
assistance on a project looking at the
impact of AFL football … in
remote Aboriginal communities…’
Mullet No Mullet!
‘Football has been a powerful teaching tool and social incubator on race, because it forces "mainstream Australia" … to confront the Aboriginal question;
… for many, the AFL is their only point of contact with black Australia.’ (Niall, 2013)
www.smh.com.au/comment/giving-racism-the-boot-20130530-2neqj.html
Giving racism the boot Jake Niall- May 30, 2013
The potency of football as a means to tackle intolerance has rarely been more evident. … events of the past week act as a national health check on the issue of race relations. … as Adam Goodes discovered, we're not as healthy as many hoped…
Brian McCoy
The Hidden Culture of Indigenous Football
- The Culture of Pairings
- The Skills of Hunting
- Men's Business overland.166.2002
During the football season in Port Lincoln, offending by Aboriginal
juveniles is virtually nil. Off season, it soars.
There is no incontestable proof that sporting facilities and
competition reduce delinquent behaviour but neither the police
nor the Aboriginal community doubt the relationship.
My study … found sport helps reduce violence,
keeps youth out of serious trouble and is
essential to counter the moral despair of
many Aborigines.
I go further and say all the conclusions about
sport and delinquency apply to suicide.
www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/the-meaning-of-life-is--sport-20091211-kofs.html
The Meaning of Life is ... Sport Colin Tatz
‘A game which Aboriginal men played in the 1800’s:
"One of the favourite games is football in which fifty, or as many as 100 players engage at a time.
The ball is about the size of an orange, and is made of
opossum-skin, with the fur side outwards.
..while a very rough game, they do not hurt each other so much as the white people do".’
Australian Aborigines, George Robertson, Melbourne, 1881, p.85 cited in Brian McCoy: ‘The Hidden Culture of Indigenous Football’
E.g. #1: What’s the score? A survey of cultural diversity and racism in Australian sport
www.humanrights.gov.au
Research conducted by the Curtin University Indigenous Research Centre in 2000, showed that the AFL Kickstart program increased:
• Self-esteem & confidence
• Community cohesion & sense of purpose
• Individual well being and awareness of healthy lifestyle issues &
• School attendance & academic achievement*
Ref: The AFL and Indigenous Australia booklet.
What’s the score? (cont’d)
The research also showed that the program decreased:
• Community level vandalism
• Alcohol and substance abuse &
• Anti-social behaviour & crime at public events & locations.*
*Ref: ‘The AFL and Indigenous Australia booklet’
E.g. #2: ‘The mighty Wadeye Magic a boost for remote NT community’
05 June 2012- Jenny Macklin Media Release
An independent evaluation of a popular AFL program in Wadeye has found that it is helping to build a stronger, more cohesive community, with early signs of:
- Improved engagement with school attendance
- Training &
- Employment.
Wadeye Evaluation
• < 2 weeks in community
• One-off interviews, asked whether the program was working
• Looks at some school attendance & crime stats = inconclusive
www.abc.net.au/site-archive/rural/nt/content/201202/s3440610.htm
Bill Gammage:
‘The book covers the whole of Australia & Tasmania … I didn’t feel able to wander up to Aboriginal people that I didn’t know and say:
“Righto, you’ve got 20 minutes, give us your basic secrets and I’ll be out of here…”
you just can’t do it.’
www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/2013-03-27/4558684
[On learning from Aboriginal place names]: ‘Two explorers pointed out across the country & asked “What do you call that?”
‘They wrote down the answer (given in local language) … Many years later they found that what they were told was:
“That’s your finger.”’
‘Any hypothesis is unavoidably loaded with cultural and personal assumptions. Objectivity … does not eradicate this. It produced [scientific] notions that: • The Earth is flat, or began in 4004BC’
• Malaria is caused by miasmas
• Measuring heads can prove a hierarchy of humanity
• The atom is the smallest unit of matter
• Bushfires can be prevented
E.g.’s of Cultural Factors that Need Attention
1. Communication Style: ‘Gratuitous Concurrence’
2. Short/Long Term Time Orientation (CST Syndrome)
3. Literacies: Linear textual vs Visual
Gratuitous Concurrence: ‘over agreeing’
An Aboriginal person may gratuitously agree with a questioner as a means of … cooperative interaction:
“Aboriginal English speakers often agree to a question even if they do not understand it. That is, when Aboriginal people say “yes” to a question it often does not mean
“I agree with what you are asking me”.
Instead, it often means “I think that if I say ‘yes’ you will see that I am obliging, and socially amenable and you will think well of me, and things will work out well between us.”
Eades, Diana (2007) ‘Telling and Retelling your story in court: Questions, assumptions, and intercultural implications’. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, v.20, no.2, Nov 2008: 209-230
Country LTO China 118
Hong Kong 96 Taiwan 87 Japan 80
South Korea 75 Brazil 65 India 61
Thailand 56 Singapore 48
Netherlands 44 Sweden 33 Australia 31 Germany 31
New Zealand 30
United States 29
Pragmatic values oriented towards rewards, including • Persistence • Saving & • Capacity for adaptation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede's_cultural_dimensions_theory
Factor
Monochronic
Polychronic
Actions Do one thing at a time Do many things at once
Focus Concentrate on the job at hand
Are easily distracted
Attention to time
Think about when things must be achieved
Think about what will be achieved
Priority Put the job first Put relationships first
Respect for property
Seldom borrow or lend things
Borrow and lend things often and easily
Timeliness Emphasise
promptness Base promptness on relationship factors
http://changingminds.org/explanations/culture/hall_culture.htm
Yet sport is not a luxury or a leisure activity at the end of an arduous week. In many communities, it provides a sense of belonging and a feeling of coherence. It gives youth a sense of belonging, something to stand for. It provides meaning and purpose, without which life is not worth living.
Sport uniquely can lay down rules and places of engagement, codify its conduct and spell out the sanctions that referees and umpires can administer. It can establish a body of lore, ritual, anecdote, mythology. It can become a cultural icon and a social institution; it can attract attention, gain adherents among players and supporters and elicit loyalty across racial, caste and class barriers.
Sport fills lives that are meaningful and those that are empty. These qualities give it such a significant role as a protector, perhaps even a prophylactic, against self-destruction. (Tatz, 2009)
www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/the-meaning-of-life-is--sport-20091211-kofs.html
Sandoval J A et al. Health Educ. Res. 2012;27:680-690
Community-Based Participatory Research Model
Sandoval J A et al. Health Educ. Res. 2012;27:680-690
