As part of the visit, a football session was conducted on the Softball pitch in the centre of the community.
Yesterday, our Central Australian Ambassador, Ruth Wallace, along with Paul Murray (Indigenous Sport Unit Coordinator at NT Government Department of Sport and Recreation), Steve Jones and James Moore commenced the ATSI program where they undertook a football session on a softball pitch within the community of Yuendumu.
Yuendumu is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia and ranks as one of the larger remote communities in central Australia and has a thriving community of Aboriginal artists. Yuendumu lies 293 km northwest of Alice Springs on the Tanami Track, and is a community largely made up of the Warlpiri and Anmatyerr Aboriginal people, with a population of 817.
The session started with 6 children (5 girls and 1 boy) kicking some soccer balls and proudly wearing their AUFC t-shirts and having a great time. As the word around town grew more and more young children aged from 5 to 15 started to join in -girls and boys were playing soccer together and having a great time.
By the time the session had finished, two hours after it started there were 53 children playing a game of soccer TOGETHER.
Girls and boys were playing together, enjoying the opportunity to be involved in a structured session. The 53 kids who had never even heard of AUFC and maybe even ever played a game of soccer before, had had the time of their lives. With the most repeated questions being when are we coming back.
We have now created a platform that will allow the program to grow to what it can be in Yuendumu, and looking forward to continuing this in the other communities targeted.
The Adelaide United Football Club in conjunction with the Northern Territory government have developed an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) youth program that focuses on girls and boys from 11 to 20 years of age.
For people interested in further information regarding this program and our involvement in Central Australia please contact either Glenn Elliott at: glenn.elliott@aufc.com.au or James Moore at: james.moore@aufc.com.au
