Former socceroo John Moriarty has featured in Pat Cummins’ latest book Tested

One of the first jobs for any cricket captain is to pick their starting 11 – for Australia’s 47th test captain, he made his decision in book-form.

Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins has featured Territory-icon John Moriarty in his latest novel Tested.

One of the first jobs for any cricket captain is to pick their starting 11 – for Australia’s 47th test captain, he made his decision in book-form.

In the fourth chapter of his 11-chapter novel TESTED, Pat Cummins has documented a conversation with former socceroo John Moriarty, a Territory-born Aboriginal artist, government advisor and advocate for Aboriginal equality.

Born at Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Mr Moriarty became the first Aboriginal Australian to be selected to represent the Socceroos.

In 1960, Mr Moriarty was selected to represent the green and gold.

In 1970, he became the first Aboriginal Australian to graduate from Flinders University in South Australia.

Mr Moriarty is also responsible for the Indigenous designs painted on two Qantas jumbos: the Wunala and Nalanji Dreamings.

Mr Moriarty’s chapter is nestled between former Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s and cricket icon Dennis Lillee’s respective chapters.

His interview with Australia’s 47th test captain covers sensitive topics including his forced removal from his Yanyuwa mother when he was only four, to their chance reunion in Alice Springs in 1953, near the old Stuart Arms Hotel.

Mr Cummins was moved by the former Socceroo’s calmness and compassion in his interview, despite the lifetime of hurdles and racism that made his journey all the more challenging.

Pat Cummins visited Borroloola in 2023 as a UNICEF Ambassador.

Mr Cummins connected with Mr Moriarty through his work as a UNICEF Ambassador in 2023 – with the role bringing him to Borroloola to experience life in remote communities.

Whether it was painting rocks, singing songs or kicking the footy, Mr Cummins experienced how a culturally-connected approach can be a game changer in remote communities for Indigenous children.

“I think people don’t realise that things are so bad in parts of Australia,” he said.

“That’s really hard to take as an Australian, knowing that these things are happening in parts of the country.

“Things that we don’t even think about in Sydney or wherever we are.”

“Health care is tough to get in these regions and hearing these stories made me realise how far we still have to go.”

“That’s why programs like this are so important.”

Pat Cummins said programs like these were important in remote communities.

On his visit Cummins was able to meet the local people working with the children, and the Moriarty Foundation employs 50 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff members as local community football coaches and early years' educators, representing 73 per cent of its workforce.

Mr Moriarty and his wife Ros Moriarty founded The Moriarty Foundation in 2011 – which helps educate more than 2,200 Indigenous children and their families in 18 remote and regional communities across the Northern Territory, New South Wales and Queensland.

The foundation has helped address 13 of the federal government’s 17 Closing the Gap targets.

Mr Cummins said fighting relentlessly for change with compassion and forgiveness motivated Mr Moriarty.

“John was selected by our national soccer team to represent a country that refused to count him and many of his loved ones in a census, and denied them their right of movement and choice,” he said.

“He would have every right to be angry, yet there just isn’t.”

Originally published as Former socceroo John Moriarty has featured in Pat Cummins’ latest book Tested