Darkness and a little light: 'race' and sport in Australia.

Tatz, Colin ; Adair, Daryl

Abstract: Despite "the wonderful and chaotic universe of clashing colors, temperaments and emotions, of brave deeds against odds seemingly insuperable', sport is mixed with 'mean and shameful acts of pure skullduggery', villainy, cowardice, depravity, rapaciousness and malice. Thus wrote celebrated American novelist Paul Gallico on the eve of the Second World War (Gallico 1938 [1988]:9-10). An acute enough observation about society in general, his farewell to sports writing also captures the 'clashing colors' in Australian sport. In this 'land of the fair go, we look at the malice of racism in the arenas where, as custom might have it, one would least want or expect to find it. The history of the connection between sport, race and society--the long past, the recent past and the social present--is commonly dark and ugly but some light and decency are just becoming visible.

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Sport is neither sacred nor isolated from society at large. Sport, race and ethnicity have long been entwined, often at very close quarters. 'Mixed' boxing is but one example. Pierce Egan, 'the Plutarch of the Prize Ring', wrote most admiringly of Tom Molineaux, 'the Black Ajax', a former American slave who fought in Britain. 'The Black', he wrote, 'naturally had a taste for gaiety--a strong passion for dress--amorously inclined, and full of gallantry, it is not surprising that the charms of the softer sex should warmly interest the attention of the lusty Moor' (Egan 1812 [1976]:102-3). At the time of his two fights against Tom Cribb near London in 1810 and again in 1811, 'he was as famous in England as Napoleon' (Fraser 1997:1). Almost a century later, on 26 December 1908, the 'Doomsday' fight for the world heavyweight championship between American Jack Johnson and the much smaller and celebrated white Canadian Tommy Burns took place at Rushcutters Bay in Sydney. Like Molineaux, Johnson had a predilection for white women, something that was barely acceptable in England but quite intolerable in American and Australian society at that time. This was the first time that a black man had been able to take on a white man for an official pugilistic title. In doing so, Johnson, the 'Bad Nigger', continentally cursed and rabidly reviled by the Australian public and fight fans, effectively helped end the colour bar in American boxing, though not the discriminatory attitudes that underpinned this sport and sport in general. In part as a centenary commemoration of the fight that was meant to sustain and maintain white supremacy, the Sport, Race and Ethnicity Conference, subtitled 'Building a global understanding', was held in Sydney in November-December 2008.

The Sport, Race and Ethnicity Conference

This conference was hosted by the School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism, University of Technology Sydney, in partnership with the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. The forum enabled debate and discussion in an emerging, global field of research. In 'The Johnson-Burns 100th Anniversary Forum', Canberra's David Headon explained the significance of this prize fight in white Australia, while American scholar Randy Roberts dealt with the legacy of the emphatic Johnson victory for 'Jim Crow' America. Colin Tatz's plenary address examined the often elusive concepts of race, ethnicity, identity and Aboriginality in sport and society, the expanded paper of which appears in this journal. John Hoberman (University of Texas at Austin)--whose compelling 1997 publication Darwin's Athletes: How sport has damaged black America and preserved the myth of race established his position as an intellectual luminary in global debates about sport and race--examined theories of 'black athletic aptitude' in the context of the evolving area of medical genetics, whether such 'scientific' assumptions of 'racial' capability are actually convincing, and the likely nature of 'race politics' in light of the science-race discourses on sport. John Sugden (University of Brighton, United Kingdom) examined the role of sport in conflict resolution, reconciliation and peaceful coexistence between rival ethnic and religious groups in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. These regions now have innovative sport programs as part of challenging yet promising initiatives to try to break down longstanding hostility between segments of historically antagonistic communities. (1) Kevin Hylton (Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom) emphasised the value of theoretically informed practical efforts to address problems associated with racial discrimination in sport. Specifically, he considered how critical race theory can contribute to a better understanding and theorising about race, racism and anti-racism in sport. (2)

Several conference themes were devoted to the experiences of minorities in sport and in society: Canadian Aborigines, New Zealand Maori, Pacific Islanders, black South Africans, and Australian Aboriginal, Tortes Strait and South Sea Island communities. Seven papers from the Australian segment have been written for this thematic edition of Australian Aboriginal Studies. (3)

Sampson revisits the famous 1868 cricket tour, with an emphasis on the ugly and exploitative aspects of that venture--a sharp contrast to the Mulvaney-Harcourt verdict of that tour as a 'dignified episode in race relations' (Mulvaney and Harcourt 1988:4). Nelson analyses the views of Aboriginal school children, allowing their voices to articulate their sporting aspirations. Edwards reviews what is known of traditional Aboriginal games, citing the nature of play both before and after white settlement in Australia. Bruce and Wensing analyse the debate about Cathy Freeman as the symbol of reconciliation at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Stephen examines the history of colour bars in Northern Territory Australian football in the late 1920s. Norman looks at racist hostility to Aboriginal-run football competitions in New South Wales. Klugman and Osmond analyse the iconic 'pointing-to-the-colour-of-his-skin' photograph of Australian footballer Nicky Winmar and the outcomes of that episode in 1993. Together these papers provide timely original research, correctives to previous scholarship and suggestions for further analysis.

Racism and sport

For socio-cultural analysts, sport is a deceptively rich area for the investigation of community attitudes, values and power relations. It is a public domain within which social divides and hierarchies are visibly played out. WEB du Bois, the early-twentieth century black American civil rights activist, once famously declared that 'the color line would be the key problem of the twentieth century' (Lake and Reynolds 2008:1). In his country, the major sports were segregated along racial lines. Baseball had racially mixed teams until the 1860s, but the backlash from the Civil War resulted in black exclusion from the 1880s to 1947 (Orr 1969:55-6). While Johnson had broken the colour barrier in boxing in 1908, it took until the early 1940s and 1950s for top-level football, basketball and baseball to begin involving black players. Inclusion was one thing, acceptance quite another. 'Non-white' athletes, whether in America or elsewhere, have been subject to racism on and off the field. In 1988 black historian Jeffrey Sammons published a germinal work --Beyond the Ring--that pointed sharply to where we need to look to see the role of boxing as a litmus test of an overtly racist American society. In the same genre, one could as well revisit what is probably the most significant book about sport and society--Beyond a Boundary--the 1963 classic by Trinidadian historian, journalist and social theorist CLR James.

The history of Aboriginal exclusion from organised competitive sport has now been well documented, albeit in lesser depth and breadth than the black American experience (Callaway 2004; Colman and Edwards 2002; Tatz 1995). For every act of inclusion one can find a corresponding exclusion, even as this is written (Tatz in press). History is littered with exclusions based on spurious, racist grounds: they 'smelled', they 'always won', they were 'uncivilised', 'they don't pay their dues', their cheer squads 'cause fights', they 'abuse and assault' referees and judges, 'they lack sufficient intelligence', 'they lack character', they 'bring the game into disrepute', 'we can't have an uneven number of teams in a competition' and, since the days of the unacceptability of apartheid in South Africa, 'we can't have racially segregated teams', even those organised voluntarily in that way.

There has been a major turnaround in some domains. Between 1897, when the Victorian Football League was formally launched, and 1980, only 20 Aboriginal players played senior football in that competition--despite their demonstrated ability in other sports, such as boxing and athletics, where defensive and aggressive skills, as well as speed and agility, were also required. In 2009 there were 82 Aboriginal players in the 16-team Australian Football League competition: in several clubs, as many as 25 percent of the players were Aboriginal (Sydney Morning Herald, 25-6 July 2009). Some 2.2 percent of the population, Aborigines today comprise 17 to 18 percent of senior Australian footballers in the national competition. Aboriginal representation in rugby league, at between 11 and 13 percent, is fast approaching that same point.

Inclusion in teams is offset by gross episodes of racial vilification. Until recently, and particularly in Australia, corrosive behaviour on the integrated sports fields has been ignored or excused, condoned and even promoted as 'part of the game'; players are sometimes encouraged to 'sledge' (vilify or insult) opponents to gain a competitive edge. In recent decades, codes of conduct have been introduced to thwart or penalise racism, whether among players or fans. Campaigns in European football (soccer), such as 'show-racism-the-red-card' and 'football-against-racism', have made the point that openly expressed colour prejudice is no longer acceptable in either sport or society. While 'private' prejudice will undoubtedly continue, overt public racism is now increasingly illegitimate in both domains.

In ethnographic terms, sport is both a physical display and a public performance. It is something witnessed, as well as played. Sport profiles and accentuates the movement of bodies and interactions between them. Athletic bodies have varying shapes, sizes and capacities. Within those milieus of divergence there is an intriguing constant: the widespread assumption that skin colour (commonly but erroneously referred to as race) is a fundamental explanation for performance excellence (or failure). In short, there is a belief that skin colour predisposes people to have different athletic capacities. As Tatz examines in this journal, that notion grossly simplifies what is actually complex, for physicality is a combination of genetic attributes and environmental influences. Jack Nicklaus once made the naive statement that blacks were not good at golf because they had 'different muscles' (Hatfield 1996). Enter Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh. Just as foolish was OJ Simpson's assertion that he had a natural biological advantage over white men on the football field. His compatriot Lynn Swann was equally blunt: 'If I said that Blacks were not athletically superior [to whites] ... I think I'd be kidding myself' (Time 1977). This racial typecasting is not only flawed, it has the effect of tending to pigeonhole by skin colour an individual's physical capacities (Hoberman 1997). It is as incongruous as pseudo-scientific claims that some 'races' are born more intelligent than others (Gould 1981; Kamin 1974).

During the twentieth century, therefore, sport was transformed from an arena in which participants were 'racially' segregated or marginalised to a much more cosmopolitan ethos wherein athletic performance has come, albeit very slowly, to matter more than skin colour. Nonetheless, sport remains race conscious and ongoing antiracism campaigns are now developing significant momentum. But, more problematically, race remains a cornerstone of debates--whether folkloric or scientific--that athletic performances can be explained by ancestry and skin colour (Entine 2000; Hoberman 1997).

The literature

In 1987 Tatz ventured a short sketch, Aborigines in Sport, as a response to Aboriginal friends who insisted that they had nothing to celebrate in the forthcoming 1988 bicentennial commemoration. Bret Harris extolled the achievements of The Proud Champions in 1991. In 1995 Tatz published an extensive work, Obstacle Race: Aborigines in sport, which discussed achievements in 40 sports and described, in varying degrees of detail, 1200 athletes between 1850 and 1995. The Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame, with 129 members initially, was inaugurated and published in that book; an up-to-date list of Hall members, from 1868 to 2008, appears as an appendix at the end of this paper. (The tough criteria for selection to the Hall and the panel of voters are explained in the listing below.)

In 1995 the literature on Aborigines and Islanders in sport was thin, and fewer than 20 books of varying quality had been published--on all-rounder Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls (Clark 1965), the rugby union Ella brothers (Harris 1984), Australian footballer Graham (Polly) Farmer (Hawke 1994), amateur cyclist Phillip Pepper (Pepper and Araugo 1980), lawn bowler Bob Appo (Appo 1992), soccer player Charles Perkins (his autobiography, 1975, and a biography by Read 1990), tennis player Evonne Goolagong (two works, Goolagong et al. 1975, and Goolagong-Cawley and Jarratt 1993), South Sea Island rugby league legend Mal Meninga (McDonald 1990), and boxers Lionel Rose (1969), Keith Saunders (1992) and the Sands brothers (Mitchell 1965). Several were of the 'as-told-to' variety: the Appo and Saunders publications and one Perkins book were self-authored. Historians Peter Corris (1980) and Richard Broome (1980) celebrated boxers in their books and articles, while Ray Mitchell wrote lovingly about his black boxing heroes, especially the Sands brothers. John Mulvaney's Cricket Walkabout, about the 1868 Aboriginal tour to England, won great praise in 1967 and was revised with Rex Harcourt in 1988. Ken Edwards' 1993 doctoral thesis on cricketer Eddie Gilbert showed what could be done with the contextual history of a sportsman. Genevieve Blades (1985) provided an in-depth resource in her Bachelor of Arts Honours thesis on Aboriginal professional runners and cricketers in Queensland and New South Wales. She trawled through decades of the Referee, once the premier sporting newspaper, bringing to light and to life some remarkable stories, especially of sprinter Charlie Samuels and cricketer Jack Marsh.

Missing from this emerging corpus was a perspective on Aboriginal inclusion and exclusion from mainstream sport during the nineteenth century. (4) However, since the mid-1990s the literature has become much richer. The references and the further reading list at the end of this paper attest to the significance of Aborigines and Islanders in the world of sport. The number of books has almost trebled in the past decade, and the AIATSIS subject thesaurus on sport now holds a special catalogue on books, articles, theses and manuscripts, with a total of 728 entries. The papers in this journal reflect the diversity of research now taking place. Some scholars are beginning to move away from detailing one era or sporting episode to more wide-ranging analyses. For example, Matthew Stephen's recent doctoral work at Charles Darwin University provides an important regional study on sport and race in the Northern Territory from 1869 to 1953 (Stephen 2009).

There are still significant research gaps. Who or what precisely kept Aboriginal players out of Australian football for so long following the emergence of well-supported leagues in several colonies? Apart from Harry Williams, John Moriarty, Gordon Briscoe and Charles Perkins for a brief period, why have Aborigines and Islanders taken comparatively little interest in the round-ball game, the 'real' football? How was it that so many athletes were able to achieve while suffering, all too often, malnutrition and debilitating illnesses like tuberculosis? Can we learn more than the little we do know about the attitudes to sport of the administrators of the 'assimilation homes' to which children were taken ? Why didn't missionaries embrace the nineteenth-century British high fashion of 'muscular Christianity' and sport as a form of moral education? Can we learn something from the efficiency with which Aborigines and Islanders run their own sport competitions on pathetically small budgets and often amid constant interference or harassment, as Heidi Norman explains in this volume? Can we explain the strong kinship factor that runs so strongly through Aboriginal family sporting achievements? Why are some sports administrations so adamant about not having all-Aboriginal teams in competition? Can we find the sports issues that are specific to each of the diverse Aboriginal populations--very remote, remote, rural, urban--and to Torres Strait Islander and South Sea Islander communities?

An additional area for research is the question of the relationship between Aboriginal studies and sport studies. Has the analysis of Aborigines and Islanders in sport contributed to Aboriginal studies and has this latter field given any insights into sports history? We have to conclude, both from the selected bibliography below and the papers in this journal, that the sporting arenas have told us more about the experiences of Aboriginal and Islander societies than the other way round. It appears that until very recently the vast majority of academics in the Aboriginal studies fields have not considered sport worthy of serious analysis. They are not alone in this outlook: most academics in Australia--unlike the United States and the United Kingdom--have treated sport, both generally and until recently, as 'Saturday afternoon fever', a weekend activity that enhances beer and relaxation time, relegated to the back pages by journalists or, rather, by reporters, often of no great quality. Yet sport has long been a key aspect of Aboriginal cultures and societies.

However, as reflected by the papers in this volume, the essence of Aboriginal and Islander sport is racism in varying degrees. Almost all of the achievements of Aboriginal and Islander athletes have been suffused with, and affected by, that issue. With perhaps a dozen exceptions among the current 224 members of the Hall of Fame, all endured levels of racism, ranging from physical segregation, denial of access to clubs and facilities, commercial exploitation, verbal abuse and school bullying to non-selection at some point. Even in an allegedly 'post-racism' era, one in which Aborigines and Islanders are sought after, adored and venerated in some sports, the meta-physical metaphors are constant: as a race they are said to have 'peripheral vision', 'eyes in the backs of their heads', a 'special clairvoyance' and are 'born to play football'. Some observers and media critics, especially the television and radio commentators, are even willing to articulate that this 'biological' advantage is somehow unfair in this land of equality (see Tatz, this volume).

Yet some progress is clear. The Sport, Race and Ethnicity Conference is testament to how central these issues have become. Perhaps an even more telling milestone is that this journal, once much devoted to traditional aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, has focused this edition on the sports domain. Having appeared, the way can only be forward.

The critical role of sport

Within widespread and often shocking conditions of life, sport is not merely a diversionary leisure activity at the end of an arduous working week. For youth in many dispossessed communities--Aboriginal, Inuit, Native American, Canadian Aboriginal, 'non-white' South African--it enables a sense of group membership and a feeling of coherence. Sport is arguably more important to Aborigines and Islanders than it is to any other segment of Australian society (Tatz 2004; 2005a:154-5). Participation in sport lessens the likelihood of delinquency and, in an era in which Aboriginal suicide rates are grossly abnormal, it gives youth a sense of belonging, something to stand for. It provides what the late Holocaust camp survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl called meaning and purpose, without which life is not worth living. Frankl (1984:133) identified three ways to discover meaning and purpose in life: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by enduring and taking an attitude to unavoidable suffering. Aborigines and Islanders have no shortage of (3), and sport, however transient, is effective in enabling (1) and (2). Even if sport does not actually prevent suicide, it may help to defer that action, often allowing a timeout period alongside peers to reconsider life's chances (Tatz 2005a). It offers an opportunity for a period of wellness. It is a powerful weapon in the fight against rampant diabetes; and many of today's illnesses, especially of the cardiac, renal and respiratory systems, are better controlled by physical regimens, including sporting competition. In many ways, therefore, sport is survival for many Aborigines and Islanders: it provides purpose in life, an activity of real meaning, a reason for being, a sense of power and empowerment, and a feeling of autonomy--however brief.

There are a number of reports, inquiries and books that point to the value of sport in struggling communities and those labelled 'minorities' in mainstream societies; that is, peoples who by custom or law, or both, have been deemed a separate racial or cultural group and subjected to differential treatment by having their human and legal rights diminished or extinguished (Smith and Waddington 2004; Tatz 1994:505). Empirical evidence points to sport programs, especially soccer in many countries, as a means of 'keeping the kids away from crime', a 'diversionary' strategy that deflects seemingly predestined (short or bad) lives (Chioqueta and Stiles 2007). It may even be the first step on the pathway to reconciliation or peace between political or religious antagonists.

The anti-crime proposition is so obvious as to be trite, and yet so trite as to be unobvious. In 1989 a Criminology Research Council grant funded Tatz to examine the relationship between sport and Aboriginal delinquency, the results of which were presented in a 1994 report as Aborigines: Sport, violence and survival (Tatz 1994). While rarely cited in current reports on 'diversionary programs' from the same funding body, the conclusions nonetheless remain valid 21 years later:

* sport provides a centrality, a sense of loyalty and cohesion that has replaced some of the 'lost' structures in communities that so recently operated as Christian missions and government settlements

* sport has become a vital force in the very survival of several communities now in danger of social disintegration

* sport has helped reduce the considerable internalised violence--homicide, suicide, attempted suicide, rape, self-mutilation, serious assault--prevalent in some disordered communities

* sport is a cheap enough option in the way it assists in reducing the second-highest cause of Aboriginal deaths, namely, from external or non-natural causes

* sport has been effective in keeping youth out of serious (or mischievous) trouble, especially during the football and basketball seasons

* sport has given communities and regions an opportunity for some autonomy and sovereignty when they organise sport and culture carnivals--such as at Yuendumu and Barunga in the Northern Territory

* sport takes place despite the absence of facilities, equipment or money for travel, and discrimination against teams and/or access to regular competition

* sport in remote communities takes place in dire environmental circumstances and with limited resources

* sport is essential to counter the low morale and moral despair of many Aborigines.

These conclusions were sustained by Tatz, with further field research in 1995, in his study of Aboriginal youth suicide in New South Wales from 1996 to 1999 and among Inuit communities in Nunavut, Canada, in 2003 (Tatz 1999, 2004).

Findings such as these raise a difficult but pertinent question about socio-economic and environmental research: what is the purpose of research in domains such as these? A great many research projects have been undertaken about the Aboriginal condition since the early 1970s. Yet there has been no random, let alone systematic, analysis of the fates of these exercises. While the researchers and their institutions gain brownie points for their efforts, what do the 'researched people' gain? In the art of governance, policy making and administrative implementation are meant to be a continuum, each informing the other, and changing, as experience dictates. There is also an ideal that research informs both policy and administration arms. Do bureaucrats read journals, digest the materials presented and take any action derived from that knowledge? It looks and feels good when we see progress from darkness to a little light. But if there is no examination of what made things so bad in the first place, and of the inertia and obfuscation that has had to be overcome to reach a few rays of light, there is no learning transfer involved. There is much in Aboriginal policy that has sounded different since the Second World War, but there has not been much difference in practice (Tatz 2005b).

As well as providing purposes, meaning, confidence and a sense of belonging, sport for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, especially, has other (and more significant) roles: it allows organising talent to emerge; it enables moments of real autonomy; it produces both self-respect and respect from a critical public; and it is all too often the only arena in which a youth can pit his or her skills in competition without having to finish school, serve an apprenticeship of some kind and climb a steep ladder to some social mobility (see Tatz, this volume). In this journal, Heidi Norman illustrates how sport has been a social cement enabling community focus, coherence, togetherness and moments of real control in the organisation and operation of a major rugby league carnival. Her case study is in stark contrast to the manipulation and exploitation of the Aboriginal cricket team in 1868, described by David Sampson. And while the annual New South Wales Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout is a triumph over racism, we need to remember that even at this time of writing at least three all-Aboriginal rugby league teams are excluded from country football competition, and the controllers of that sport steadfastly reject the entry of an all-Aboriginal nations competition in northern New South Wales (Tatz in press).

Sport produces respect or a modicum thereof. Nancy Cato, biographer of her grandfather Daniel Matthews, the man who founded the original Cummeragunja Mission on the Murray River in 1874, described his dislike of sport for Aborigines: he saw it as 'an uncivilising activity'. Cato commented: 'They had discovered that their prowess in sport, particularly in cricket and running, gave them a passport to the white man's world, even to his respect and friendship' (Cato 1993:128). The truth is both yes and no. There is no doubt that men like Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls survived the disdain and turbulence of black-white politics in Victoria because of his Australian football career with the Fitzroy team. Men like Premier Sir Henry Bolte and his chief lieutenant Sir Arthur Rylah in the Victorian Parliament excoriated the Aborigines Advancement League and its grievances but gave Pastor Doug the time of day as they reminisced together about football matches (which Tatz observed at firsthand). Boxer Dave Sands' funeral in Maitland was one of the best attended in New South Wales history, further testimony to his status as the most popular sportsman in Australia (in polls by Sports Novels in 1949 and 1950). He was competing with the likes of cricketers Keith Miller and Neil Harvey and rugby league legend Clive Churchill.

Respect in this sense is double-edged. It allows for a deep-seated dislike of all things Aboriginal to be tempered by admiration for an individual, and to accord that person full social acceptance, even if only for a moment or a short period. Even so, some Aboriginal and Islander athletes have been able to overcome that 'dualism' by passing into history yet remaining in (fond) social memory: Johnny Mullagh, Jack Marsh, Jerry Jerome, George Green, Eddie Gilbert, Doug Nicholls, Ron Richards, Dave Sands, Evonne Goolagong, Darby McCarthy, Lionel Rose, Charlie Perkins, the Ella brothers, Polly Farmer, Artie Beetson, Nicky Winmar, Michael Long, Steve Renouf, Sam Backo, Nova Peris and Cathy Freeman, among others.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sports Hall of Fame

The Hall of Fame, initiated in 1995, recognises the great achievers from 1868 to 2008. Like most honour lists, it is a 'paper' hall but with two essential differences: it covers a multitude of sports over a period of 140 years and the members from 1868 to 2000 are to be found in book form, Black Gold, published by Aboriginal Studies Press. The updated Hall appears in the appendix below. It includes names many readers will not know. This is partly due to the reality that racist attitudes across the decades caused some sports people to hide their ancestral identities, or their sports administrations deliberately suppressed these origins (Tatz 1995). Champion woodchopper Leo Appo could not get a place as an Aboriginal Australian in Sydney's Royal Easter Show in the 1920s. Advised to enter as a New Zealander, he won enough events, including a major competition in 1928, to enable him to 'come out'. High-jumper Percy Hobson was chosen to represent Australia in the 1962 Commonwealth Games but was told by the athletics body to be quiet about his 'background'. He won the gold but always regretted the way he succumbed to this pressure. At the same Games, the Aboriginality of three boxing boys from Cherbourg--Jeff Dynevor, Adrian Blair and Eddie Barney--was all too overt: they needed government permission and chaperones to travel to Perth. The late Frankie Reys, winner of the Melbourne Cup on Gala Supreme in 1973, was president of the Victorian Jockeys' Association for a decade--a position, he said, that was impossible to achieve as an Aborigine but one he could attain by identifying as a Filipino, which, in part, he was. Some adopted or stolen children did not know until adult life that they were Aboriginal, as in the case of swimmer Samantha Riley.

Aboriginal organisation of sport has become more coherent, continental and, where necessary, combative for resources and recognition. Several non-Aboriginal bodies have moved beyond mere recruitment of players to a greater sense of civic care and responsibility by establishing development programs in several communities. Competitions, conferences and curricula attest to a sense of care and consideration--even amid continuing calumnies and exclusionary practices. Yet there remains a steadfast refusal by those in the health industry generally to see the connections between sport, leisure and recreation and the presence and prevalence of illness, to join the elementary connecting dots leading to what we now call 'wellness'. A number of health programs that involve sport in their provision are currently being delivered by Aboriginal organisations to Aboriginal people. Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, for example, has worked closely with the Fitzroy Allstars (Murray 2009), while Brian McCoy (2008) has examined masculinity, the wellbeing of desert men and the reality that football is more than a game. Aborigines see the connections; the non-Aboriginal bureaucrats tend not to. We have yet to find a federal or state health department ready to embrace, rather than merely acknowledge, sport as integral to either preventive or curative health, and they persist in assigning sport to departments of that name. Matthew Stephen has described his visit to Milingimbi in Arnhem Land in April 2008 (Stephen 2009:305): an 'intervention' team arrived to 'examine' the total community (thought to be dysfunctional and at risk from all manner of sexual and alcohol- or drug-induced misdemeanours and mayhem). The team was there for a working week but left on the Friday before the Saturday Australian football grand final, a celebration of the game involving the whole cultural and spiritual thrust of the population. It seems that the team saw neither the ball nor the dots, either because it didn't want to or didn't know how to. The allocation of functions to governmental agencies has always been the major impediment to the achievement of well-intentioned and often sensible policy goals. Yet integration of functions and holistic commonsense has always taken second place to political and administrative 'convenience'.

Unlike issues of health, poverty and land rights, sport appears to be a 'good news' story for Aborigines and Tortes Strait and South Sea Islanders. Despite a history of racism in sport, Aboriginal people now feature as highly respected celebrities in the mainstream sports of boxing, athletics, Australian football and rugby league. There is, one might say, less to feel 'guilty' about for liberal whites when they gaze on Aboriginal success stories in these professional sports (Adair 2006).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank the following people for reading drafts of papers for this special issue of the journal and for providing expert feedback to both authors and the editors: Douglas Booth (University of Otago), Christopher Merrett (Natal Witness, South Africa), Ian Warren (Deakin University) and Carl Currey (Indigenous Sport Unit, Australian Sports Commission). We are grateful to Bruce Wolpe, former head of Corporate Affairs, Fairfax Holdings, Aimee Majurinen and Catherine Reade of Fairfax Photos for their generous gift of the image of Adam Goodes on the front cover, and of Leigh-Anne Goodwin and Lloyd Walker on the back cover. Thanks to Lorraine Landon of Basketball Australia and Kangaroo Photos for the picture of Rohanee Cox on the front cover.

Appendix: The Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame 1868-2008

Members of the Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame were elected by three panels (in 1995, 2000 and 2008) comprising voters Artie Beetson, Carl Currey, Ken Edwards, Ted Egan, Gary Ella, Mark Ella, Sharon Finnan, Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, Alick Jackomos, Syd Jackson, Lloyd McDermott, Nova Peris, Charles Perkins, Colin Tatz, Paul Tatz and Faith Thomas. The panels were assisted by George Bracken (boxing), John McGuire (cricket and Australian football), John Maynard (soccer and horseracing), Dick Kimber, Max Krilich and statisticians Colin Hutchinson (Australian Football League), David Middleton (National Rugby League) and John Hogg (boxing).

Membership is restricted to those who have represented Australia or their state or territory; or who have held a national or international record or title; or who have achieved a notable 'first' or some distinguished performance; or who, in the case of Australian football, were acclaimed senior players and/or medal winners; or who had notable success as referees or umpires; or those who through coaching, administration or organisation have helped create Aboriginal teams and a space for them in competitions. A further criterion is contribution to Aboriginal or Islander identity. Abbott, Desmond hockey Ahmatt, Michael basketball Allen, Willie Australian football, shooting, soccer Ambrum, George rugby league Anderson, Sam cricket Appo, Bob lawn bowls Appo, Leo woodchopping Archer, Georgina hockey, vigoro Austin, Ben swimming Paralympics Austin, Laurence boxing (Baby Cassius) Backo, Sam rugby league Barney, Charmaine darts Beetson, Arthur (Artie) rugby league OAM Bennett, Elliott (Elley) boxing Black, Lindsay roughriding Blacklock, Nathan rugby league Blair, Adrian boxing Bowditch, Steve Mangiri squash Bowman, Patrick athletics Bracken, George boxing Briscoe, Gordon AO soccer Brown, Ian darts Brown, Roger cricket Burgoyne, Peter Australian football Burns, Donna basketball Paralympics Butler, Scott international basketball referee Cable, Barry Australian football Callaghan, Jimmy showring riding Campbell, Mabel cricket Carr, Wally boxing Chalker, May golf Chapman, Tommy boxing Choppy, Baedon hockey Christian, Trevor AM boxing, refereeing Clark, Phynea hockey Cochrane, Mal rugby league Collins, Louisa basketball, soccer, hockey Coombs, Kevin OAM wheelchair basketball Paralympics Cooper, Lynch athletics Cooper, Reuben Australian football, cricket, athletics Corowa, Larry MBE rugby league Cowburn, Gary boxing Cox, Rohanee basketball Crawford, Justann boxing Crouch, Edna cricket Crouch, Glen (Paddy) rugby league Currie, Anthony (Tony) rugby league Cusack, Nicole netball Cuzens, Johnny cricket Daley, Laurie AM rugby league Damaso, Rose basketball, netball, softball, hockey Dancey, Tom athletics de la Cruz, Bo touch football Dempsey, William Australian football (Bill) MBE Dennis, Steve boxing Devine, Bernie powerlifting Donovan, Joseph (Joe) boxing, judging Duncan, Leslie (Lance) judo Dunn, Carmelita (Karmi) basketball, netball, softball, soccer Dynevor, Jeffrey (Jeff) boxing Edmundson, Leanne soccer Edwards, Joanne (Jodi) powerlifting Ella, Gary rugby union, coaching Ella, Glen rugby union, coaching Ella, Marcia OAM netball Ella, Mark AM rugby union, coaching Ella, Steve rugby league Farmer, Graham (folly) Australian football MBE Farmer, Jeff Australian football Feifar, Karl athletics Paralympics Ferguson, John (Chicka) rugby league Finnan, Sharon OAM netball, coaching Firebrace, Sharon volleyball Fisher, Frank (Big Shot) rugby league Foster (Wilson), Eileen darts Frederiksen, Shane touch football Freeman, Catherine (Cathy) athletics OAM Geale, Daniel boxing Gilbert, Eddie cricket Gillespie, Jason cricket Goodes, Adam Australian football Goodwin, Leigh-Anne horseracing Goolagong-Cawley, Evonne tennis AO MBE Graham, Michael Australian football Green, George rugby league Hampton, Ivy darts Hampton, Kenneth (Ken) athletics OAM Hassen,Jack boxing Hayden, Alec roughriding Hayward, Maley Australian football, athletics Henry, Albert (Alec) cricket, athletics Hinton, Rollo boxing Hobson, Percy athletics Hodges, Justin rugby league Hunter, Donna softball, hockey, netball, basketball Huntington, Felicity soccer Inglis, Greg rugby league Ivory, Frank rugby union Jackson, Sydney (Syd) Australian football James, Des Australian football James, Glenn OAM Australian football umpire Janssen, Kayleen soccer Jerome, Jerry boxing, athletics Johnson, Allen (Dick) rugby league Johnson, Chris Australian football Johnson, Joe Australian football Johnson, Lindsay (Lin) rugby league Johnson, Patrick athletics Jonas, Billy showring riding Kantilla, David Australian football Kickett, Dale Australian football Kickett, Derek Australian football Kilmurray, Ted (Square) Australian football King, Ian cricket, boxing King, Shane softball Kinnear, Robert (Bobby) athletics Kinsella, John wrestling Krakouer, Jim Australian football Krakouer, Phil Australian football Larkin,Steve hockey Lawton, Warren goalball, athletics Paralympics Lesiputty, Joanne softball Lew Fatt, Bennie Australian football, basketball Lew Fatt, Gympie Australian football Lew Fatt, Terry Australian football, basketball Lewis, Chris Australian football Liddiard, David rugby league, youth sport Long, Michael Australian football Longbottom, Kevin rugby league Lovell, Greg woodchopping Lyons, Cliff rugby league Mansell, Brian cycling Martin, Anthony weightlifting Mason, Andrea netball Mates, Peter Australian football Maynard, Merv horseracing McAdam, Gilbert Australian football McArthur, Wally rugby league, athletics McCarthy, Richard (Darby) horseracing McDermott, Lloyd rugby union McDonald, Norman Australian football, athletics McDonald, Robert (Bobby) athletics McGuire, John cricket, Australian football McKellar, Kelly softball McLean, Michael Australian football, coaching McLeod, Andrew Australian football Meninga, Mal AM rugby league, coaching Menzies, Karen soccer Michael, Stephen Australian football Mills, Patrick basketball Morgan, Lionel rugby league Moriarty, John AM soccer Morrissey, Lorrelle hockey Morseu, Danny basketball Mullagh, Johnny cricket Mullett (Drayton), Cheryl badminton Mullett, Sandra badminton Mundine, Anthony boxing, rugby league Mundine, Anthony boxing, coaching (Tony) OAM Musselwhite, Michelle basketball Narkle, Phil Australian football Nicholls, Sir Douglas Australian football, KCVO, OBE athletics North, Jade soccer O'Loughlin, Michael Australian football Olive, Bruce rugby league Peachey, David rugby league Peden, Robert boxing Peris, Nova OAM hockey, athletics Perkins, Charles AO soccer Pickett, Byron Australian football Porter, Stacey softball Ramalli, Cecil rugby union Renouf, Steve rugby league Reys, Frankie horseracing Richards, Randell (Ron) boxing Riley, Samantha OAM swimming Rioli, Maurice Australian football Roberts, Brian boxing Roberts, Frank boxing Roe, Billy BEM Australian football, basketball Rose, Lionel MBE boxing Ross, Joshua athletics Saddler, Ron rugby league Sailor, Wendell rugby league, rugby union Samuels, Charlie athletics Sands, Dave boxing Schreiber, Adam squash Scott, Colin rugby league Seden, Horrie darts Semmens, Dean water polo Shearer, Dale rugby league Simms, Eric rugby league Sing, Matt rugby league Sinn, Bobby boxing Smith, Delma volleyball St Albans, Peter horseracing Starr, Bridgette soccer Swan, James boxing Tallis, Gorden rugby league Thomas, Faith cricket Thomas, Nathan water polo Thompson, Hector boxing Thurston, Jonathon rugby league Tutton, Mark volleyball Tutton, Reg volleyball Tutton, Steve volleyball, coaching Twopenny cricket [Murrumgunrrimin] Vander Kuyp, Kyle athletics Waite, Billy showring riding Walford, Ricky rugby league Walker, Andrew rugby league, rugby union Walker, Lloyd rugby union Wandin, Robert (Bobby) athletics Wanganeen, Gavin Australian football White, Darryl Australian football Williams, Claude basketball, coaching Williams, Gary boxing Williams, Harry soccer Williams, Jim rugby union, coaching Williams, Jimmy roughriding Williams, RS (Bobby) boxing Wilson, Fred (Mulga Fred) roughriding Winmar, Neil (Nicky) Australian football Wirrpanda, David Australian football

Further reading

Aird, Michael 2001 Brisbane Blacks, Keeaira Press, Southport, Qld.

Austin, Maisie 1992 The Quality of Life: A reflection of life in Darwin during the post-war years, Colemans Printing Pty, Darwin.

Australian Sports Commission 2005 Indigenous Athletes at the Australian Sports Commission (text by Mick Fogarty), Australian Sports Commission, Canberra.

Barwick, Diane 1998 Rebellion at Coranderrk, Aboriginal History Inc., Canberra.

Beetson, Arthur 2004 Big Artie: The autobiography (with Ian Heads), ABC Books, Sydney.

Bonnell, Max 2003 How Many More Are Coming? The short life of Jack Marsh, Walla Walla Press, Sydney.

Broome, Richard and Corrine Manning 2006 A Man of All Tribes: The life of Alick Jackomos, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.

Clark, Banjo (as told to Camilla Chance) 2003 Wisdom Man, Viking, Camberwell, Victoria.

Clarke, Michael 1999 The Fighting History of the Sands Brothers, Topmill Pty Ltd, Marrickville, NSW.

--no date Boxing: The golden years 1940-1950 (vol. 1), 1950-1960 (vol. 2), 1960-1970 (vol. 3), 19701980 (vol. 4), Topmill Pty Ltd, Marickville, NSW.

Daley, Laurie 2000 Laurie: Always a winner (with David Middleton), HarperCollins, Sydney.

Edwards, Ken (with assistance from Troy Meston) 2008 Yulunga; Indigenous traditional games (online resource), <http://www.ausport.gov.au/ participating/indigenous/games/traditional_ games>.

Egan, Ted and Barbara Vos 2006 The Role Models: Steve Abala Top End sporting role models, Northern Territory 1947-2006, Office of the Administrator, Darwin.

Freeman, Cathy 2003 Cathy: Her own story (with Scott Gullan), Penguin, Camberwell, Victoria.

Gascoyne, John 1986 Far West Football League, 1906-1986, J Gascoyne, Ceduna, SA.

Gillespie, Jason 2007 Dizzy: The Jason Gillespie story, HarperCollins, Sydney.

Gorman, Sean 2005 Brotherboys: The story of Jim and Phillip Krakouer, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.

Harms, John 2005 The pearl: Steve Renouf's story, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld.

Hayward, Eric 2006 No Free Kicks: Family, community and football, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, WA.

Hicks, Jenny 2003 Australian Cowboys, Roughriders and Rodeos, Central Queensland University Press, Rockhampton, Qld.

Hutchison, David (ed.) 1995 A Town Like No Other: The living tradition of New Norcia, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, South Fremantle, WA.

Maynard, John 2003 Aboriginal Stars of the Turf: Jockeys of Aboriginal racing history, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.

McGregor, Adrian 1998 Cathy Freeman; A journey just begun, Random House, Milson's Point, NSW.

Meninga, Mal 1996 My Life in Football (with Alan Clarkson), HarperCollins, Sydney.

Norman, Heidi 2006 'A modern day corroboree: Towards a history of the New South Wales Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout', Aboriginal History 30:169-86.

Peris, Nova 2003 Nova: My story, the autobiography of Nova Peris (with Ian Heads), ABC Books, Sydney.

Ryan, Maurice 2001 The Dusky Legend: Biography of Sam Anderson, Aboriginal cricketer, Northern Rivers Press, Lismore, NSW.

Stocks, Gary and Alan East 2000 Lewie: Chris Lewis, an Aboriginal champion, Specialist Sports Management, Perth.

Tallis, Gorden 2003 Raging Bull (with Mike Colman), Pan Macmillan, Melbourne.

Tatz, Colin and Paul Tatz 1996 Black Diamonds: The Aboriginal and Islander sports hall of fame, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, Sydney.

Whimpress, Bernard 1999 Passport to Nowhere: Aborigines in Australian cricket, 1850-1939, Walla Walla Press, Sydney.

REFERENCES

Adair, Daryl 2006 'Shooting the messenger: Australian history's warmongers', Sporting Traditions 22(2):49-69.

Appo, Bob 1992 The Most Colourful Bowler in Australia, Bob Appo, Bribie Island, Qld.

Australian Human Rights Commission 2007 What's the Score?: A survey of cultural diversity and racism in Australian sport (CD-ROM), Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney.

Blades, Genevieve 1985 Australian Aborigines, cricket and pedestrianism: Culture and conflict, 1880-1910, Bachelor of Human Movement Studies (Honours) thesis, University of Queensland.

Broome, Richard 1980 'Professional Aboriginal boxers in eastern Australia', Aboriginal History 4(June):49-72.

Callaway, Lauren 2004 Darby McCarthy: Against all odds, Melbourne Books, Melbourne.

Cato, Nancy 1993 Mister Maloga, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.

Chioqueta, Andrea and Tore Stiles 2007 'Cognitive factors, engagement in sport, and suicide risk', Archives of Suicide Research 11(4):1375-90.

Clark, Mavis Thorpe 1965 Pastor Doug, Lansdowne, Melbourne.

Colman, Mike and Ken Edwards 2002 Eddie Gilbert: The true story of an Aboriginal cricket legend, ABC Books, Sydney.

Corris, Peter 1980 Lords of the Ring, Cassell, Sydney.

Edwards, Kenneth 1993 Black man in a white man's world: Cricketer Eddie Gilbert, doctoral thesis, University of Queensland.

Egan, Pierce 1812 [19761 Boxiana or Sketches of Ancient and Modern Pugilism from the Days of the Renowned James Figg and Jack Broughton to the Heroes of the Later Milling Era Jack Scroggins and Tom Hickman, The Folio Society, London (originally published in five volumes between 1812 and 1829).

Entine, Jon 2000 Taboo: Why black athletes dominate sports and why we're afraid to talk about it, New York, Public Affairs.

Frankl, Viktor 1984 Man's Search for Meaning (3rd edn), Washington Square Press, New York.

Fraser, George MacDonald 1997 Black Ajax, HarperCollins, London.

Gallico, Paul 1938 [1988] Farewell to Sport, Simon & Schuster, London.

Goolagong-Cawley, Evonne and P Jarratt 1993 Home/ The Evonne Goolagong story, Simon & Schuster, Sydney.

Goolagong, Evonne, Bud Collins and Victor Edwards 1975 Evonne, Dutton, New York.

Gould, Stephen Jay 1981 The Mismeasure of Man, WW Norton, New York.

Harris, Bret 1984 Ella Ella Ella, Little Hill Press, Sydney.

--1991 The Proud Champions, Little Hill Press, Sydney.

Hatfield, Dolph 1996 'The Jack Nicklaus syndrome Racism in sport', Humanist July-August.

Hawke, Steve 1994 Polly Farmer: A biography, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle, WA.

Hoberman, John 1997 Darwin's Athletes: How sport has damaged black America and preserved the myth of race, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.

James, Cyril Lionel Robert 1963 Beyond a Boundary, Stanley Paul, London.

Kamin, Leon 1974 The Science and Politics of IQ, Penguin Books, London.

Lake, Marylin and Henry Reynolds 2008 Drawing the Global Colour Line: White men's countries and the international challenge of racial equality, Cambridge University Press, New York.

McCoy, Brian 2008 Holding Men: Karyirninpa and the health of young Aboriginal men, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.

McDonald, John 1990 Big Mal, Lester Townsend, Sydney.

Mitchell, Ray 1965 The Fighting Sands, Horwitz, London.

Mulvaney, John and Rex Harcourt 1988 Cricket Walkabout: The Australian Aborigines in England, Macmillan Company of Australia, Melbourne.

Murray, Ngarra and Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit 2009 Sharing Our Stories and Building on Our Strengths: Indigenous presenters talk up their community health projects (booklet and CD-ROM), Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit, Melbourne.

Orr, Jack 1969 The Black Athlete: His story in American history, Lion Books, New York.

Pepper, Phillip (with Tess Araugo) 1980 You Are What You Make Yourself To Be, Hyland House, Melbourne.

Perkins, Charles 1975 A Bastard Like Me, Ure Smith, Sydney.

Read, Peter 1990 Charles Perkins: A biography, Viking, Melbourne.

Rose, Lionel (as told to R Humphries) 1969 Lionel

Rose, Australian, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.

Rowley, Charles Dunford 1970 The Destruction of Aboriginal Society, Aboriginal Policy and Practice series, vol. I, Australian National University Press, Canberra.

--1971 Outcasts in White Australia, Aboriginal Policy and Practice series, vol. II, Australian National University Press, Canberra.

--1971 The Remote Aborigines, Aboriginal policy and practice series, vol. III, Australian National University Press, Canberra.

Sammons, Jeffrey 1988 Beyond the Ring: The role of boxing in American society, University of Illinois Press, Chicago.

Saunders, Keith 1992 Learning the Ropes, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.

Smith, Andy and Ivan Waddington 2004 'Using "sport in the community schemes" to tackle crime and drug use among young people: Some policy issues and problems', European Physical Education Review 10(3):279-98.

Stephen, Matthew 2009 Contact zones: Sport and race in the Northern Territory, 1869-1953, doctoral thesis, Charles Darwin University, Darwin.

Tatz, Colin 1987 Aborigines in Sport, Australian Society for Sports History, Adelaide.

--1994 Aborigines: Sport, violence and survival, report on research project 18/1989 'Aborigines: The relationship between sport and delinquency' to the Criminology Research Council, Canberra.

--1995 Obstacle Race: Aborigines in sport, University of NSW Press, Sydney.

--1999 Aboriginal Suicide is Different: Aboriginal youth suicide in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand: Towards a model of explanation and alleviation, Criminology Research Grant 25/96-7, Criminology Research Council, Canberra.

--2004 'Aboriginal, Maori and Inuit youth suicide: Avenues to alleviation?', Australian Aboriginal Studies 2004/2:15-25.

--2005a Aboriginal Suicide is Different: A portrait of life and self-destruction, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.

--2005b 'From welfare to treaty: Reviewing fifty years of policy and practice' in Graeme Ward and Adrian Muckle (eds), The Power of Knowledge, the Resonance of Tradition: Electronic publication of papers from the AIATSIS Indigenous Studies Conference, September 2001, <www.aiatsis.gov. au/rsrch/conf2001/PAPERS/FullPublication.pdf> (hard copy is available from AIATSIS).

--in press 'Race matters in Australian sport' in Jonathan Long and Kevin Spraklen (eds), Challenging Racism--In and through sport, Palgrave Macmillan, London.

--and Paul Tatz 2000 Black Gold: The Aboriginal and Islander sports hall of fame, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.

Time 1977 (9 May) Sport: The black dominance, www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0, 9171,947918,00.html, accessed 9 October 2009.

Colin Tatz

AIATSIS & School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

Daryl Adair

School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism, University of Technology Sydney

NOTES

(1.) The subject of sport and reconciliation will be debated at a conference entitled Pathways to Peace, Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Human Security in Living Communities, in Amman, Jordan, in December 2009.

(2.) Anti-racism programs are now very much underway in Western countries. In 2010 British scholars Jonathan Long and Kevin Spracklen will publish, through Palgrave in London, a volume dedicated to the topic, entitled Challenging Racism--In and through sport.

(3.) Three further speakers invited to submit for this journal were unable to do so for family and personal reasons.

(4.) It is also true that there was no general conspectus of the Aboriginal experience until the Charles Rowley trilogy--The Destruction of Aboriginal Society, The Remote Aborigines, Outcasts in White Australia--in 1970 and 1971. Obstacle Race was conceived and written with sport as the metaphor for that experience--from the genocidal massacres of the 1830s through to the protection-segregation eras, life on the government settlements and Christian missions, the forcible removal of children phase, and the eras of assimilation, social engineering, social welfare, absorption, integration, self-determination and self-management.

Colin Tatz has held chairs in politics at the University of New England and Macquarie University. He is now Visiting Fellow in Social Sciences at the ANU and Honorary Visiting Fellow at AIATSIS.

<colintatz@gmail.com>

Daryl Adair is Associate Professor of Sport Management at the University of Technology Sydney. In 1995 he earned a PhD in History from the Flinders University of South Australia, and has since worked at universities in the UK and Australia. In Sydney in 2008 Adair organised the conference Sport, Race and Ethnicity: Building a Global Understanding and subsequently founded the SRE Research Network http://globalsport.ning.com/.

<daryl.adair@uts.edu.au>