This collaborative community research project with the Yarrabah Seahawks Rugby League Club and Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council examines the historical role of sport in reinforcing community strengths, pride and identity in Yarrabah.
The focus was rugby league and the community’s determination and efforts to gain entry to regional competition. After several decades of campaigning, the Yarrabah Seahawks were admitted to the Cairns District Rugby League competition in 1999. Both the long campaign for entry and the teams’ successes in the past quarter century have been an enormous source of community inspiration.
Research was conducted via individual and group yarning sessions, interviews with rugby league officials, and archival repositories.
Project outputs
- Involvement of Yarrabah community members in yarning, story-telling and research guidance.
- Recording of over 40 yarns and interviews.
- Award of $2,000 external funding for acquisition of related photographs: Wes Smythe Award for a Community and Rugby League Project, Tom Brock Bequest Committee of the Australian Society for Sports History (2023-24).
- Collection and collation of an extensive documentary record on the history of rugby league in Yarrabah.
- Conference presentation: Australian Society for Sports History (2023).
- Cross-disciplinary collaboration within HMNS between the lead and Indigenous partner researchers.
- A book is planned to disseminate the findings to community.
Impact
The collaborative and consultative research approach modelled in this project highlighted the importance of centring Indigenous voices and perspectives in sport histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Along with other work by the lead researcher, it provides a template for similar collaborative projects between community and academic researchers.
For Yarrabah, the project has inspired new, independent projects beyond the terms and life of the grant. The chief focus is a planned community book to be co-written by the lead researcher and community members.
Newspaper clip from the Cairns Post (23 Nov 1999 edition, p45)
