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Indigenous Sports

Indigenous Sports and Recreation Program

The Indigenous Sport and Recreation Program (ISRP) aims to create a sport and recreation sector that is inclusive of and accessible to Indigenous Victorians.

The program aims to:

• increase awareness within the sport and recreation industry of ways that it can be more inclusive of indigenous people;
• increase access to sport and recreation opportunities by working with indigenous communities;
• increase the involvement of indigenous people in the sport and recreation industry; and
• facilitate links between sport and recreation organisations, indigenous communities and other relevant agencies.

To achieve this Sport and Recreation Victoria’s ISRP works with a range of organisations including Indigenous communities, sports groups, State Sporting Associations (SSAs) and national sports organisations. The ISRP provides direct service delivery including sports activities in partnership with SSAs, Traditional Indigenous Games, school programs and Cross Cultural Awareness.

The ISRP also supports the delivery of the Australian Sports Commission’s (ASC’s) Indigenous Sport Program to Victoria’s Indigenous communities through an agreement with the ASC.

The ISRP in action

The Imparja Cup is an Indigenous cricket carnival that has been held in Alice Springs since 1994. Initially, the competition started as a way to bring local communities together to play cricket. It has now grown into a national competition that is recognised by all State and Territory cricketing bodies in Australia

Victoria first entered the Imparja Cup in 2002, winning one match. More recently, the Victorian squad has made big improvements and in 2007 narrowly missed the final, winning three of five games

The team’s improvement can be credited to a greater awareness of cricket in Victorian Indigenous communities. This is in part thanks to the work of SRV’s ISRP, Cricket Victoria and Indigenous community organisations

Over the past couple of years there has been an increase in interest and participation in cricket from Indigenous people, with Cricket Victoria now running trials and training sessions as part of a selection process for the Victorian Imparja Cup squad. Today the Imparja Cup is seen as an opportunity to develop and nuture future State and Australian cricket players.

More than 150 surfers from Indigenous communities across Victoria competed in the 2007 Victorian Indigenous Surf Titles held outside Anglesea. The competition has grown steadily over the past eight years and now attracts competitors from as far away as Swan Hill and Phillip Island

The titles were sponsored by the Victorian Government Play it Safe by the Water campaign and supported by VicHealth, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Untion, Victoria Police community policing unit, Wathaurong Glass, the Wathaurong Community, Sport and Recreation Victoria, Surfing Victoria, and the surfing industry.

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