Overview
- Identifies tensions between an Indigenous culture of sport and the culture of professional, elite level sport in Australia
- Challenges the restrictive nature of the dominant methodology used to study the development of sporting expertise
- Helps coaches to cultivate creativity, flair and game sense in their team members
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About this book
This book presents journeys of sixteen Indigenous Australian athletes from their first touch of a
‘footy’ to the highest levels of Australian football and rugby league, conceptualized as a process
of learning. The authors challenge simplistic explanations of Indigenous success in Australian
football and rugby league, centered on the notion of the ‘natural athlete’. The book traces
the development of Indigenous sporting expertise as a lifelong process of learning situated in
local culture and shaped by the challenges of transitioning into professional sport. Individually,
the life stories told by the participants provide fascinating insights into experience, culture
and learning. Collectively, they provide deep understanding of the powerful influence that
Aboriginal culture exerted on the participants’ journeys to the top of their sports while locating
individual experience and agency within larger economic, cultural and social considerations.
Stories of Indigenous Success in Australian Sport will be of interest to students and scholars
across a range of disciplines including Indigenous studies, physical education, education, sport
management and sociology
‘footy’ to the highest levels of Australian football and rugby league, conceptualized as a process
of learning. The authors challenge simplistic explanations of Indigenous success in Australian
football and rugby league, centered on the notion of the ‘natural athlete’. The book traces
the development of Indigenous sporting expertise as a lifelong process of learning situated in
local culture and shaped by the challenges of transitioning into professional sport. Individually,
the life stories told by the participants provide fascinating insights into experience, culture
and learning. Collectively, they provide deep understanding of the powerful influence that
Aboriginal culture exerted on the participants’ journeys to the top of their sports while locating
individual experience and agency within larger economic, cultural and social considerations.
Stories of Indigenous Success in Australian Sport will be of interest to students and scholars
across a range of disciplines including Indigenous studies, physical education, education, sport
management and sociology
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Keywords
Table of contents (18 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Part III
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Front Matter
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What These Stories Tell Us
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Front Matter
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Reviews
“The research presented in this engaging and important book provides invaluable understanding of the meaning Australian football and rugby league holds for Indigenous Australian athletes and its inseparability from Aboriginal culture. Guided by the important and profound Indigenous methodology of Dadirri, Indigenous Stories of Success in Australian Sport, this book provides deep insight into what enables Indigenous Australians to thrive in sport by embracing our humanity and capacity to be exceptional and by offering us hope rather than entrenching despair. It also suggests the potential that taking this approach to understanding Indigenous Australians holds across a wide range of issues that include but are not limited to sport.” (Chris Sarra, University of Canberra, Australia, National Rugby League (NRL) Commissioner and Founding Chairman of the Stronger, Smarter Institute)
“A fascinating, well written, entertaining and significant study, Indigenous Stories of Success inAustralian Sport is a timely and perceptive personal understanding of Indigenous experiences in both the AFL and NRL. Light and Evans provide rare insights into considering the importance that sport plays within Indigenous communities. A very welcome addition to Indigenous sports literature.” (John Maynard, University of Newcastle, UK)
“The narratives of the outstanding sportsmen in Indigenous Stories of Success in Australian Sport are immensely interesting, beautifully written, neatly structured and provide fascinating insight into the development of elite Indigenous sportsmen and the role Aboriginal culture plays in it. This book is more than a chronicle of Indigenous success in sport. It is an incisive, and original exploration, and critique, of a country with a proud history of sporting prowess. It also presents a passionate plea to sports administrators, educational leaders, and policy makers, to ‘listen to culture’.” (Angus Hikairo Macfarlane, University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Richard Light is Professor of Sport Coaching in the College of Education, Health and Human Development at The University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
John Evans is Professor of Indigenous Health Education in the School of Sport and Exercise Science, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Stories of Indigenous Success in Australian Sport
Book Subtitle: Journeys to the AFL and NRL
Authors: Richard Light, John Robert Evans
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66450-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-66449-1Published: 22 March 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-09771-4Published: 04 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-66450-7Published: 12 March 2018
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 240
Topics: Sociology of Sport and Leisure, Sociology of Culture, Sociology of Education, Australasian Culture