Indigenous Sport Month: Brave voices call out the bias and racism within netball

Little more than a decade later, the proud Dunghutti and Gumbaynggirr woman became just the second – and most recent – Indigenous netballer to play for the Diamonds. Finnan-White spoke to JOCELYN AIRTH about her experiences as an elite athlete.

Tell me about your heritage – what Indigenous nation or nations are you connected with? Dunghutti and Gumbaynggirr nations form the mid north coast of NSW.

What does your Indigenous heritage/culture mean to you? I am proud to be a First Nations Australian, I feel honoured to be able to use my profile in netball to make a difference in how First Nations athletes, coaches, umpires and administrators are included, appreciated and acknowledged in netball at all levels.

What are your favourite Indigenous customs?

I love the meaning behind the smoking ceremonies which is to acknowledge ancestors, ward off evil spirits, and heal and cleanse the place where you meet and the participants. Some of the Suncorp Super Netball teams are involved with these ceremonies during Indigenous Rounds.

Tell me about your family – how have they helped you along your sporting journey and what do they mean to you?

My family have been very supportive of my netball journey, especially my father (Gerald Finnan) who taught me to never give up when things get tough.

Who is your inspiration and why? Can be family, a mentor, a sporting role model, etc. My father is my inspiration as he has always been there to motivate and encourage me in life and in sport. Marcia Ella-Duncan is my sporting role model as the first Indigenous woman to play for the Diamonds.

Which moment in Australian sport is most significant for you?

Cathy Freeman winning the gold medal in 400m final at the 2000 Olympics.

When did you start playing netball? Was it a game you always wanted to play? Do you remember your first game?

I started playing netball at the age of 9. It was a sport that I loved because I got to play with my friends and then realised I was pretty good at it. I don’t remember my actual first game but I do remember playing when I was 9 for my club Oatley RSL at the St George District netball courts in Rockdale NSW.

Who gave you your “break”? Was there a coach, teammate or family member who really backed you/helped you succeed?

There are a number of coaches who contributed to my success. My very first coach for the 9A’s team, Dot Lloyd was very supportive of me and would always be there if I needed a ride to training or games. Maria Lynch my representative coach for St George persisted with me even when I was not as committed as I should have been as a teenager. Margaret Corbett and Carole Sykes were very encouraging of me as my long-term state and national league coaches and Joyce Brown (Diamonds coach) and Norma Plumbe

r (Australian B team coach) always made me feel like I was a valued member of the team. A former partner of mine who was a triathlete was instrumental in my re-selection into the Australian team after 7 years on the outer and he guided and mentored me to regaining the fitness and form that I needed to be reselected.

What’s the best advice you have received?

Never give up and always train like you are trying to make the team.

What advice would you give your teenage self?

To not be influenced by people who are trying to bring you down, don’t worry about what people think of you and to be more discipline with my diet.

If you never played netball, what would your life look like?

I think I would have played a different sport, possibly basketball or tennis and hopefully would have been as successful as I have been in netball.

Did you have any sporting superstitions? (E.g. bowl of pasta before game day, a warm up song, etc.)

I always wore the same socks for test matches, I would always sit it in the same seat in the team bus on way to the stadium and had a particular order for how things were arranged on the bench.

Tell us something about yourself that not many people know?

I have a brother who is a very successful business man who is doing great things for the Indigenous community and my mother was a member of the Stolen Generation.

What are the biggest challenges for Indigenous netballers at a grassroots/club level? Unconscious bias from coaches, selectors and administrators, cost of registration fees and uniforms, stereotyping our people, feeling unwelcome at netball clubs/associations, racism, family/cultural obligations that can take you away from the game, understanding the netball pathway and lack of culturally appropriate pathways, developing trust.

What are the biggest challenges for Indigenous netballers at the elite level?

Mentoring support, lack of understanding from coaches and netball administrators regarding cultural considerations for Indigenous athletes, leaving family/community to pursue a career in netball and lack of support when moving from a regional or remote area to the city, family/cultural obligations that can take you away from the game.

How do we improve support networks for Indigenous athletes coming through the ranks of professional sport? (E.g. the AFL are trying to put an Indigenous liaison officer at every club)

Create a platform for Indigenous athletes to communicate and share stories, concerns etc, employ/volunteer Indigenous liaison/mentoring officer and identify mentors in their community, involve the families in any decision making, high-performance camps and opportunities for Indigenous players in the performance pathways, greater promotion of athletes in the media, engage with their families, understand family structures and values, financial and living away from home considerations.

What was it like being an Indigenous netballer?

I felt proud to represent my family and the Indigenous community however I also felt the pressure of being the only Indigenous representative in the Diamonds team to educate the netball system on how to be more inclusive and there was no support from the peak netball bodies for the programs I was delivering across the country for Indigenous players.

Did you ever encounter racism or unconscious bias against you in your sporting career?If you feel comfortable, can you tell us about these?

I have never encountered racism in netball and it is difficult to determine if unconscious bias played any part in my netball career.

Did you ever encounter racism or unconscious bias against you outside of the sporting context? If you feel comfortable, can you tell us about these?

Ihave only ever once been called a racist name by an uneducated person.

What advice would you give to young Indigenous netballers who are pursuing the sport at an elite level?

Don’t be afraid to ask for help or support when you need it, find a mentor who can help guide you through your journey, be disciplined and accountable to your training and diet and other netball commitments, don’t compare yourself to others as you are unique, don’t let others influence you in a negative way – stay on track with your goals, it’s ok to be selfish and do things for yourself when you are an elite athlete.

THE DAMNING REALITY THAT NETBALL CAN’T HIDE FROM

Only two Indigenous netballers have played for Australia.

That’s the damning reality for a code which prides itself on being the no. 1 participation sport for girls. A game played by more than 1.2 million Australians.

Sharon Finnan-White, Australia’s second and last Indigenous Diamond, said that decades of unconscious bias and racism have made it almost impossible for First Nations netballers to excel through elite pathways.

“A lot of our players haven‘t been able to get into the pathway because of unconscious bias and stereotyping and racism. You know, we can’t hide that fact anymore because it’s true. That is what’s happening. We’re hearing people tell us these stories,” proud Dunghutti and Gumbaynggirr woman Finnan-White said.

“Until people have a better understanding of our culture, things aren’t going to change, people’s perceptions of us aren’t going to change, because unfortunately, there’s too many negative stereotypes out there and that’s impacting on our kids making teams.”

Last year, Super Netball’s shocking underrepresentation of First Nations athletes was highlighted during Indigenous Round, when the league’s only Indigenous player Jemma Mi Mi was denied any court time.

The incident rocked the netball community.

It prompted Netball Australia to announce a Declaration of Commitment, signed by 20 organisations, pledging to bring “the change required to increase participation in netball’s performance pathway for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander players, coaches, umpires and administrators”.

Months later, The State of the Game Review noted that this Declaration would be “hollow, tokenistic” unless First Nations players were attracted to and retained by grassroots netball – through strong relationships between netball associations and communities.

A Steering Group of First Nations women – including Finnan-White, Stacey Campton, Josie Janz-Dawson, Ali Tucker-Munro, Marj Kerslake and Aunty Roma Pregarc – was formed to help Netball Australia achieve meaningful long term change.

“The first thing that needs to happen in general, is a real education piece around cultural understanding and netball,” Finnan-White said.

“Coaches, umpires, administrators, even players in our game need … how a lot of those past things that have happened affect us today and how we participate in a sport, or how we can’t participate in the sport.

“The second thing is, netball needs to develop trust. They need to get our trust. We need to feel like we can trust that what they’re going to say, is what they’re going to do.

“And develop those real, genuine relationships between them and our First nations people … listen to our concerns, listen to our ideas.”

To make elite pathways more accessible, Finnan-White said that coaches, selectors and players require urgent education on the kinship responsibilities that many First Nations players hold.

“The cultural obligations of our girls, having to look after family, having to go to sorry business, women‘s business, men’s business, what have you,” Finnan-White said.

“It‘s something that I guess a lot of people don’t quite understand, what that means to us and how that impacts us as an Indigenous person.

“Again, that goes back to that education around cultural awareness and understanding us better. And that all cultures have different ways of doing things and we‘re no different.”

Finnan-White stressed that engagement with family and community is vital.

“It‘s about engaging the whole family, not just the athlete. You need to bring the whole family into the conversations, there needs to be financial considerations put in place for our players if they’re living away from home,” Finnan-White said.

“What support networks are around them, if they’re moving from a regional or remote area to a big city? Will we just move them there and then dump them?

“I think it‘s expected that we understand policies and procedures and pathways, but it’s not really explained properly to the athlete and to the family.“

Stacey Campton is Chair of the Steering Group and Netball Australia’s Performance Umpire coach.

The proud Gungarri woman called for Netball Australia to make various governance changes in order to ensure the sport is a safe cultural space for First Nations players, coaches, umpires, administrators and fans.

“They have agreed in their current resolutions to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person on their board. That won’t come into effect until 2022 … we have asked them to reconsider that and we have not heard anything from that request,“ Campton said.

“I’ve also suggested the opportunity to think about a cultural governance board, that sits alongside the Netball Australia board, and that is made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who can strategically and visionary-wise provide support to NA on what they need to do, to make the changes to ensure we get the next Diamond, coach, umpire, even the first Chair of NA who is First Nations.

“(NA) need to visibly start to include or engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people in their workforce. There is not one person who is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in their workforce, unless they count me at the moment, because I’m working part time as a High Performance Umpire Coach.

“Our constitution at NA, the preamble recognises us as First Nations people, that’s it. It says nothing else about how we are represented, what our voice looks like, what role NA needs to play to ensure that we are welcomed and engaged in the process of decision making.“

Campton said that NA urgently needs to rethink these current systems which, intentionally or not, preclude First Nations from having a seat at the table.

“My aspiration is, can we have a conversation about systems change and what that looks like, and we’re not there yet. I think they want to be, but they‘re not there yet” Campton said.

Many member organisations around the country have shown a genuine desire to create change.

Initiatives like Shooting Stars, run by Netball WA and Glass Jar Australia, uses netball to engage with Aboriginal girls living in WA’s remote and regional towns.

Overall, Campton said that greater investment is needed to support First Nations athletes take the step from grassroots to elite netball.

“I think in some ways, naively, (NA) believed that because Aboriginal girls play at a very, very large numbers in the grassroots … that would naturally fold up into high performance and senior level players, coaches and all the rest of it” Campton said.

“It‘s also a case of, you know, what you can’t see, you can’t be. We have to actually show the diversity of players in netball because they can’t all be blonde and blue eyed Diamonds players. And that’s currently what we’ve got.

“We have to be really careful that the sport is projecting that cultural, multicultural and diverse group. Because if we can‘t even get our First Nations girls in there, then we’ve got no hope of getting any other diverse group in there as well.”

Since retiring from netball, Finnan-White has dedicated her time to setting up programs and pathways for Indigenous netballers across the country.

She hopes that the sport is finally ready to back such initiatives.

“The Sharon Finnan Cup that I initiated in Cairns about five or six years ago, that’s been running on the smell of an oil rag, Cairns Netball had to find their own funding to keep that happening,” Finnan-White said.

“I‘ve been talking to Netball Queensland about how we can link that in as a pathway for kids coming from the Torres Strait through the Cape and then linking that into their Diamond Spirit Program.

“Finally this year, they‘re actually saying: yeah, that’s great, let’s do that. Because after what happened last year with Jemma Mi Mi, we put pressure on Netball Queensland in that media conference.

“I feel like a broken record. I feel like a lot of these things have been talked about for so long.”

Finnan-White said that the expectations that come with being Australia’s second Indigenous Diamond were, and at times still are, exhausting.

“I think I certainly felt pressure back then as the only Indigenous athlete because I was pulled from pillar to post and answering questions and some of the questions I couldn‘t answer because of not really knowing myself,” Finnan-White said.

“If netball is genuine about making changes in this space, then it‘s everybody’s responsibility to find out about our history and to understand our history and to understand how it impacts us. So we don’t have to be the ones always educating people about our barriers and our challenges.

“It does get a bit emotionally draining after a while, what happened with Jemma last year, I had so much media contacting me and I got to a point where I burst into tears … I only can imagine how Jemma felt afterwards.”

Ultimately, both Finnan-White and Campton are driven by their desire for equality and passion for a sport they love.

They are hopeful that recent momentum will ensure that Netball Australia listens to the Steering Group and takes meaningful action.

“(Netball Australia) have these people in this room for a very short period of time and they need to listen to us and respect what it is that we‘re trying to bring to the table to help them, to help us” Finnan-White said.

“This is one of the best times in Australian history to start saying this is where we want to be. There‘s a lot more of us now that are educated in a Western way. There’s a lot more of us that have a voice and a platform. There’s a lot more of us that come from strong black families that want to see change,” Campton said.

“We all need to start stepping up and doing that because there‘s still a lot of us that suffer from trauma every day, from poverty, from disadvantage of any sort, whether it be education economically or culturally. And we need to be those people that support others in that space.”

Netball Australia interim CEO Ron Steiner said that the national body is committed to do better.

“For us to make meaningful change, we know it‘s a long process. It’s a long process of listening and consultation, and it’s also a long process to ensure that we build the right structures into existing programs … tokenism just won’t cut it” Steiner said.

Finnan-White emphasised that the main goal is to achieve equality for First Nations netballers.

“It‘s important that the general netball community understand that we’re not asking for a handout. We’re asking for equal opportunity and a hand up, really, because we’ve been disadvantaged for too long,” Finnan-White said.

“(Netball) has been my life and it‘s just something that I feel, for our girls in particular, that sense of belonging is really, really important to them. And that’s what netball has given me.”