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.

1. 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

2. 1. Backstory
2. AFL’s gotta be good for Indigenous
communities- right?
3. Show me the evidence, please
4. Evaluation Methods & Cultural Context

3. ‘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…’

4. Mullet No Mullet!

6. ‘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

9. 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…

11. Brian McCoy
The Hidden Culture of Indigenous Football
- The Culture of Pairings
- The Skills of Hunting
- Men's Business
overland.166.2002

12. 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

13. ‘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’

16. 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.

17. 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’

19. 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.

21. 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

23. 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

24. [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.”’

25. ‘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’

26. • Malaria is caused by
miasmas
• Measuring heads can prove a hierarchy
of humanity

27. • The atom is the smallest unit of matter
• Bushfires can be prevented

28. 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

29. 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

31. 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

32. 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

39. 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

40. Sandoval J A et al. Health Educ. Res. 2012;27:680-690

41. Community-Based Participatory Research Model
Sandoval J A et al. Health Educ. Res. 2012;27:680-690