Indigenous Nationals Games

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Each year in the final week of June, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student-athletes from around the country to compete in the Indigenous National Games. This year an interpid team of eleven student-athletes and three support staff set off early one Sunday morning, flying across the Nullarbor to Boorloo (Perth) for the 29th Indigenous Nationals, hosted by the University of Western Australia.

After a very long day of travel, the team headed to Curtin University for a tour of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies and a special Welcome to Country by a local Whadjuk Nyoongar matriarch. The ceremony was followed by a bush food tasting and a phenomenal three course meal prepared by local Nyoongar enterprise, Gather Foods. The special visit was organised by Curtin University in recognition of the close relationship between our two Indigenous centres and an act of reciprocity for the hospitality Woolyungah extended to all teams last year. 

After a day of rest and official ceremony, the event we had been preparing for began. 

The Indigenous Nationals is a multisport competition where students compete in basketball, netball, touch football and volleyball. At just eleven, the Woolyungah team was a small but fearless group of allrounders. This year the jet lag added an additional challenge for those of us from the east coast which seemed to (almost) cancel out the advantage of knowing how to play touch football.

Day 1 Basketball: The pool was strong. The first two games were lost to University of Queensland (ranked ninth in 2024) and Adelaide University which placed fourth this year. The team rallied and came back with a win against Southern Cross University. 

Day 2 Touch Football: Traditionally a sport which the team from Woolyungah excels in. The draw saw us take away wins against Bond University and Charles Darwin, drawing with Charles Sturt. The afternoon saw a repeat of our 2024 Quarter Final loss to Australian Catholic University.

Day 3 Netball: Mixed results. A convincing win against James Cook. A draw against La Trobe. And a loss to Western Sydney, who maintained their rank at seventh in 2024 and 2025.

Day 4 Volleyball: Southern Cross University took the win, balancing out our win in the basketball. Game two was our love match with BFFs Curtin University. Curtin won in the third set, but really, we were all winners on the day. The highlight for many, Game 3, saw UOW compete against University of Sydney – second place in 2024, the best server on the court, and annihilators of all teams who stood opposite them in our pool. With our BFFs cheering the team on, we lifted, winning the first set against Gadigal who fought back in the second. By the third set, all other games had finished and players from around the country lined the court to cheer UOW on to victory!

The overall highlight though would be the relationship with Curtin University and our bonding on the second day of competition, over touch football (not the strong suit of those on the Southern or Western coasts). The memory is characterised by UOW staff coaching Curtin and explaining the game, between games when Woolyungah students ran drills with their Curtin friends, and the moment Curtin officially won their second game with the team from Woolyungah cheering them on. This was the epitome of Indigenous National Games and the lasting and meaningful relationships that are formed with mob across the continent. 

These relationships make it all worthwhile, even the Friday night red eye flight back to the East Coast.