INDIGENOUS STORYBOOK

“What stood
out immediately was their
level of talent. Many of them were
extraordinary players. We used to call a
lot of them ‘bush basketballers’ because
they had no training but possessed
natural skills.”
and I would say to the boys, “You know how to do
this, get out there and play your game.” Then I would
stand there watching in awe as they won their games,
and marvelled at their raw talent.
And then one day…
we decided to take the team to a basketball
competition in Cockburn. All the other teams in
the competition had been playing for years. When
we started playing the other coaches were asking,
“Where did this mob come from?” because the team
were outstanding. After this more kids kept turning
up to play and as we could only have nine kids in a
team we realised we needed to start another couple
of teams. Numbers were never an issue. Once we
had several teams, we entered all the competitions
that were running and continued to have an excellent
success rate; the wins definitely outweighed the
losses! A lot of non-Indigenous people would sit on
the sidelines and watch our teams play because of
their skills and they still do now. Over time, many of
the families started contributing financially to help pay
for the costs of running the teams, which was great
and took the burden off Garry and I a bit.
The trait that we really love about this club is the
passion the players have for the game. All of the
kids love to play basketball, it’s a game where they
can be physical, get their aggression out, display
their talent and their skills, and be themselves in a
positive, social environment. It also makes the kids
feel acknowledged that someone cares enough to
invest their time and energy. I believe because of the
underprivileged backgrounds that some of these
kids come from, they are tougher and it makes them
play harder. It’s also a social learning environment
for the kids and helps them to find their place in
the world by learning to communicate, relate, and
build relationships. The discipline and structure that
playing in a team provides is also invaluable in helping
develop their sense of selves.
And because of that…
our club has now been together for 13 years. We
employ a coach and a coordinator who facilitates
playing schedules and takes care of administration.
Volunteers drive the Southcare bus for some of
our players and family members needing transport.
Over the last 13 years we’ve managed to secure
funding, which has helped the club enormously. We
are now partnered with the City of South Perth,
Southcare, Lifestream, The Christian Church and
more recently, Global Missions, who provide financial
resources. These resources support us to purchase
uniforms and basketballs, employ the coach and
the coordinator. The Moorditj Keila Basketball Club
has expanded to five teams and altogether there
are about 53 kids, along with parents and extended
family. We have two under 10 teams, one under
12’s team, one under 14’s team and one under 16’s
team. However, numbers continue to grow and it’s
becoming increasingly challenging to cater for them. If
we had more people to train and coach extra teams,
then the sky would be the limit, but our resources are
limited.
Early this year I registered seven of our basketballers
for the 2015 Friendly Games, and unintentionally
spoke to the games founder Andrew Vlahov. Though
they had a full quota of participants, he made room
for our kids to join the overseas contingent at the
Games Village, Leeuwin Barracks. He said to me, “You
know I used to play a bit of basketball” to which
I responded, “Great.” When I spoke to my work
colleagues they couldn’t believe that I didn’t know
Andrew Vlahov with Courtenay Michael
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