by On a dark, cool spring day on Sunday, Sydney’s Redfern Oval represented a time capsule for inner-city, working-class rugby league. Classic Australian rock was blaring from the speakers, entry to the stadium was just $2 and it was cash only for the large line of customers waiting for the sausage sizzle.
The Redfern All Blacks A-Reserve team has reached the grand final of the 2024 South Sydney District Rugby League – the same year that Australia’s oldest indigenous rugby league club celebrates its 80th anniversary, commemorating its official entry into the South Sydney Rugby League competition in 1944.
For Birripi-Dunghutti native and CEO of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council Nathan Moran, the region’s RAB and rugby league have deep meaning for his community. “Football and boxing were always our way out – literally outside the mission, then later as a chance to get ahead,” says Moran, a former All Blacks coach and player. “It’s not just fun for us, it’s an escape and a movement.”
All Blacks fans and players are easy to spot in the crowd, many wearing white hoodies that read: “We keep the ball moving.” It’s a line from their team song that references the club’s DNA – the now-defunct Tweed Heads All Blacks, who came to Sydney to play exhibition matches in the 1930s, inspiring the Redfern Aboriginal community to create their own team.
The club’s rich history was on display on Sunday – in the community elders tent, Moran was surrounded by aged pioneers of the Redfern All Blacks, including John Young, also known as ‘Uncle Blackdog’. Young is almost 70 years old and has been involved for 47 years as a player and coach and, today, as the team’s goalie, dressing ankles and other injuries.
He takes great pride in being part of the club’s circle of life and highlighted the All Blacks’ number 17, a tall, strong forward known as ‘Bubba’. “He is like his father and his brother: calm off the field but tough on the field,” he says. “I trained ‘Bubba’ in diaper class and now I’m hooking him up for boys’ soccer. This makes me so proud.
For Junior Club Manager Keith “Kip” Munro, helping to keep the club healthy is a personal mission. When the All Blacks were dangerously reduced to five teams, he pledged to rebuild to 20; Two years ago the club achieved this goal and is thriving again, creating role models for all ages and ensuring cultural affirmation.
“We have been a beacon, a safe place for the community,” Munro says. “A place where you can be yourself, play football in an entertaining way and identify with that feeling of pride in what we have built over the last 80 years.”
The Redfern All Blacks have been at the center of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights’ journey from exclusion to inclusion and integration to maintaining their cultural identity in a dominant league. Once restricted to missions and reserves by the Aboriginal Protection Act, in the 1920s Aboriginal people began to settle in Redfern to work in the railway workshops at Eveleigh and in the factories on Botany Road.
After the official birth of the All Blacks in 1944, the club provided a unifying backbone for families from the various Aboriginal nations of New South Wales and helped establish the first Aboriginal-controlled legal, housing and medical societies in Australia. early 1970s.
On the field, the Redfern All Blacks won the South Sydney A-Grade men’s title seven times, while off the field they were heavily involved in activism and resistance within the civil rights movement and the Black Power. The club was also scrutinized by ASIO for its links to communism and provided a rallying point for the death of TJ Hickey and the riots that followed.
Gathering together every week for All Blacks matches became an act of defiance to push back against assimilation. The latest challenge is gentrification: social housing stock is dwindling in the area and many families have moved to western Sydney and now commute every week to play.
According to Munro, the biggest positive change for the All Blacks has been the success of the women’s program, now with 45 per cent women and girls, including four Australian Jillaroos.
This wasn’t always the case according to community matriarch, Aunt Beryl Van-Oploo OAM, who is still vibrant at 82 and first came to Redfern at the age of 16 from by Walgett. Aunt Beryl notes that when it comes to the All Blacks, she’s got it: “Lived it, seen it, done it.” »
“Women never dreamed of acting, but we used to fundraise, cook, wash and iron jerseys all around Eveleigh and Louis streets on ‘The Block’,” she says. “It’s great to see our young girls now have choices.”
The All Blacks fought bravely on Sunday but, despite strong crowd support, lost in a tight match 16-12 to Mascot. The men in black and white are beaten but not bowed and loyal Redfern All Blacks fans gave them a standing ovation and sympathetic hugs.
“We are resilient, still here and strong and there will always be next year,” Moran says as he returns home to his family. “We just have to keep the ball moving.”
