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Abstract
The New South Wales Annual Rugby League Knockout, run on the long weekend in October, is the largest gathering of Aboriginal people in Australia. This significant event, now running for 40 years, is run for and by the Aboriginal community and is largely funded by private sponsorship and community support. For the most part this major sporting and cultural event goes unnoticed by the wider community, save for anxiety over possible violence and disorder. Through interviews and observation and participation, I set to document the origins of the Knockout; how it came about and why and how the event has changed over time. Second, I examine the Knockout as a social, cultural and political phenomenon internal to the Aboriginal domain continuous with past traditional cultural practices and historically produced.
Acknowledgements
Research on the Knockout was made possible by a grant from AIATSIS and Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. The author wishes to thank Professor Gillian Cowlishaw, Professor Heather Goodall, Dr Bob Morgan and Jennifer Newman for comments on this draft and Cameron Muir for research assistance. An earlier version of this paper was first published in the journal Aboriginal History (vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 169–86). I am grateful for their permission to reproduce it here.
Notes
1 CitationNorman, ‘A Modern Day Corroborree’, 169–86.
2 CitationNorman, ‘An Unwanted Corroboree’, 112–22.
3 See ‘NSW Aboriginal Rugby League Knockout 40 year Anniversary’ at http://www.facebook.com/pages/NSW-Aboriginal-Rugby-League-Knockout-40-year-anniversary/114547481915851?ref = ts. Images and other material from the research will be available on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive (ATSIDA) at http://atsida.edu.au.
4 Keith ‘Chubb’ Hall was a key organiser of the 2010 Knockout and his placement, along with his organising abilities with Local Government were instrumental. As well, Erica Hall played a significant role in managing communications and logistics.
5 See CitationGoodall, Invasion to Embassy; CitationCowlishaw, Blackfellas, Whitefellas, and the Hidden; Cowlishaw 2004; CitationReynolds, Aborigines and Settlers; CitationReynolds, Dispossession: Black Australians; CitationReynolds, Fate of a Free People; CitationNugent, Botany Bay.
6 As a result of the momentum around the 40th Anniversary, several Knockout teams have developed rich photo archives and fan sites for their clubs on Facebook: eg. RAB, Emus, Waterloo Storm, Narwan Eels, Nambucca Heads.
7 It was the Government's 1965 enquiry and subsequent 1967 ‘Report of the NSW Parliamentary Joint Committee into Aborigines Welfare’ that foreshadowed much of the reforms, including the recommitment to achieving assimilation and decisions to withdraw housing and infrastructure support on the reserve lands with the view to ‘encouraging’ relocations in the towns and cities.
8 CitationGoodall, ‘New South Wales’, 107.
9 In addition to the several scholarly accounts of this period, Gary Foley's essay is enriched by his immersion in the politics at the time, see ‘Black Power in Redfern 1968–1972’, in There goes the neighbourhood: Redfern and the politics of Urban Space accessed online at http://www.theregoestheneighbourhood.org/TGTN-eBook.pdf.
10 On account of Jimmie Little being a ‘Balmain Tigers’ supporter, Koorie United began playing in his beloved Black and Gold!
11 George Jackson and Victor Wright married sisters.
12 Interview with B. Morgan, conducted by the author, 30 May 2004, The Entrance, Central Coast.
13 Interview with S. Bellear, conducted by the author, February 2011, Redfern.
14 Interview with B. Morgan, conducted by the author, 30 May 2004, The Entrance, Central Coast.
15 Interview with J. Miller, conducted by the author, 31 August 2004, Powerhouse Museum.
16 Interview with B. Smith, conducted by the author, 19 September 2004, Offices of the Department of Education, Kempsey.
17 Max Silva's band is also known as ‘Silver Lining’.
18 Dan Rose interview with the author, Long Jetty, January 2010.
19 Sol Bellear interview with the author, Redfern, November 2010.
20 There have since been some 35 commemorative perpetual trophies and shields added including the Gamilaroi Elders Shield in 2002.
21 The photo was contributed to the Knockout photo archive by Carol Smith and can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/pages/NSW-Aboriginal-Rugby-League-Knockout-40-year-anniversary/114547481915851?v = photos&ref = ts#!/photo.php?fbid = 167946619909270&set = a.167946593242606.27837.114547481915851&theater. The Aboriginal side is reported from Wallaga Lake in 1931.
22 CitationTatz, Obstacle Race, 10.
23 Tatz, Obstacle Race, Chapter 8.
24 CitationBaker, ‘Cowboys or Tigers’, Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, 1–2 October 2005, 7.
25 New Dawn, April 1972, 3(1), inside cover, New South Wales Aborigines Welfare Board.
26 Dawn Magazine 1969, Vol. 3 (1), inside cover, New South Wales Aborigines Welfare Board. ‘Report on NADOC week activities in Moree’. ‘NADOC’ in more recent times is spelt ‘NAIDOC’ and refers to the national week of celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture, generally held in early July.
27 This was covered in New Dawn with a picture of RAB on the front cover in June 1970, wearing red and white jerseys on account, as research participants explained, of sponsorship from St George; New Dawn: A magazine for the Aboriginal peopleof NSW, 1970, Vol. 1 (3), Brindle, A club to be proud of …, New South Wales Aborigines Welfare Board.
28 Citation New Dawn , ‘A Moree NADOC triumph’, September 1970, 1(6), 5.
29 Tatz Citation1987.
30 Brindle ‘A club to be proud of …’, New Dawn, June 1970, 1(3), 1.
31 Brindle ‘A club to be proud of …’, New Dawn, June 1970, 1(3), 1.
32 Brindle ‘A club to be proud of …’, New Dawn, June 1970, 1(3), 2.
33 Interview with R. Vincent, conducted by the author, 25 August 2004, Redfern.
34 Interview with R. Vincent, conducted by the author, 25 August 2004, Redfern.
35 Interview with Ray Vincent, conducted by the author, 25 August 2004, Redfern. Further to this long-standing kin-based connection, RAB also came to be a home for many Aboriginal people who experienced life in institutions. This was particularly the case for former residents of KBH. At the 2002 Knockout, the ‘KBH Ken Brindle Memorial Shield’ was presented to the most promising player in the grand final.
36 Sol Bellear (interview with the author, November 2010) further explains that the formation of the Louis St Dodgers followed conflict amongst the community that extended through to RAB players, including the ‘iron barring’ of one person and revenge shooting of another, saw RAB implode and unable to put a side in the Kempsey Knockout. The name referred to The ‘Block's ‘Louis Street’ and, as Bellear recalled, the New York Dodgers recruitment of the first black man to major baseball league in the USA. For Bellear this was a match, but it was also because ‘we can dodge and weave and duck’. Louis St Dodgers was supported by the Newton Jets and played in their pale blue jerseys.
37 Interview with Graham Merritt, conducted by the author, 26 August 2004, University of Technology, Sydney.
38 Interview with J. Widders, conducted by the author, December 2010, Newcastle.
39 Interview with D. Widders, conducted by the author, April 2005, University of Technology, Sydney.
41 Interview with D. Thorne, conducted by the author, August 2004, Campbelltown.
42 Interview with D. Thorne, conducted by the author, August 2004, Campbelltown.
43 Interview with B. Duncan, conducted by the author, April 2005, Redfern.
44 Interview with W. Mundine, conducted by the author, August 2004, Office of the NSW Native Title Service, Redfern, New South Wales.
45 The Hon. Jan Burnswood, NSW Legislative Council Hansard, 41–7.
46 See Norman, ‘An Unwanted Corroboree’, for further discussion of this.
47 The Hon. Jan Burnswood, NSW Legislative Council Hansard, 41–7.
48 This was reported by two interview participants and committee members, Ricky Lyons (25 August 2004) and Graham Merritt (August 2004), and at the meeting of the organizing committee (26 April 2005).
49 Graham Merritt, Interview with the author, August 2004, UTS.
50 Interview with D. Rose, conducted by the author, January 2011, Long Jetty.
51 D. Rose, Interview with the author, January 2011, Long Jetty.
52 Erik de Haart, Director of Clovelly Taxation Business Services has for several years contributed to the La Perouse Knockout and District campaign and features on their jersey as a sponsor.
53 Former Canterbury first-grader and builder, Gavin Lester, from the La Perouse community has been a sponsor of the Club in more recent years.
54 This is the case for the Newcastle based team, the Yarnteen Yowies.
55 Jake Widders shared this story in a recent interview with the author (Newcastle, 2010).
56 Danny Allende, Interview with the author, November 2010, Randwick.
57 Danny Allende, Interview with the author November 2010, Randwick.