How Rumbalara is bridging the education gap with new Munarra Centre
First, it was a decades-long battle to find a league. Now, one of the nation’s most unique football netball clubs is driving an education sector revolution in a ‘labour of love’
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Hawthorn leader and proud Yorta Yorta man Jarman Impey has never played in a Rumbalara guernsey, but the club has always held a special place in his heart.
For Impey and many other Indigenous kids growing up around Shepparton, the picturesque oval and netball courts were places where they would always feel safe and special.
The Rumbalara co-operative ran the healthcare clinic Impey’s family would visit in Mooroopna, and the kindergarten where the memories still bring a smile to his face.
“I still have fond recollections of the storytelling at the kinder, which is quite cool,” Impey said.
“My mother used to play netball for Rumbalara, so as a kid I’d be running around a lot around the football club and the playgrounds.
“I still follow the club closely on socials and keep an eye on how they’re doing … they’ve been amazing for the community and everyone around, so it’s a pretty special place.
“It feels like a really inclusive club, there’s a sense of home or a family-oriented type feel about it, and it’s just something that you naturally feel like wanting to be a part of.
“It’s a credit to the people that run the club and run the facility, because it just makes you want to be involved.”
In his final years of junior football Impey was able to train at Rumbalara regularly with the Murray Bushrangers, and never went long without visiting the club early in his AFL career.
“Even when I was at Port Adelaide and came back home for the off-season, me and Tom Clurey would spend time training there because it’s always kept in such good nick.”
The quality playing surface and place in the Murray Football Netball League is not something Rumbalara’s administrators will ever take for granted.
Founding president and Yorta Yorta elder Uncle Paul Briggs fought a decades-long battle with other key figures to have “Rumba” admitted into a local competition.
Briggs had been inspired to create the club by his powerful experiences playing in Aboriginal representative teams after Sir Doug Nicholls took him under his wing in Melbourne.
“We’re really proud of our club, and we’re really proud of our people,” Briggs said.
“My father, Les Briggs, was born on Cummeragunja Aboriginal Reserve in 1896, and Sir Doug Nicholls was born there in 1906.
“And the stories they used to tell me about were the heroes of Aboriginal leadership – Aboriginal footballers and athletes that were coming off Cummeragunja.
“I grew up on the reserve as well and I was 18 or thereabouts when I left the reserve and went to Melbourne.
“And I was just thinking about the (lack of) cultural expression and cultural affirmation … once you come off the reserve, you come into town, there’s not a lot.
“To have leadership and leaders who come from your cultural background is really important, and I thought about modelling Rumbalara on a place where leadership could be developed and inspiration could be driven.”
Briggs said he felt a “camaraderie” and a “sense of ease” when he played football for Indigenous teams at representative carnivals.
But there was no sense of ease dealing with local league administrators, who repeatedly denied entry to the club.
“We had a lot of community meetings through Uncle Paul about potentially getting into a league,” acting president Corey Walker said.
“It was a really trying time for us as a community … to get our own space, our own football club.
“It was pretty challenging, but we’ve had good allies and champions through Uncle Paul’s connections and networks. The (Goulburn Valley Football League) gave us an opportunity.”
Soon after their entry in 1997, Rumbalara won back-to-back senior football premierships before moving into the Murray league in 2006.
Former Essendon players Nathan Lovett-Murray and Damian Cupido starred and Collingwood forward Brad Dick kicked the winning goal after an epic second-half comeback to beat Finley in the 2014 grand final.
The current side is not blessed with the same experience, but a talented young core including 21-year-old co-captain Kydan Atkinson and 19-year-old defender Jaylen Saunders have the club in finals contention this season with a 6-6 record.
“I’ve been here since I was eight … I played my 150th game for the club actually two weeks ago,” Saunders said.
“It’s a family here … I love the community. My favourite thing is rocking up to training and just seeing all the brother boys, and everyone just having fun.”
“It’s a very young group, but very entertaining,” Atkinson said.
“My cousin Jay-Jay (Saunders) has really stepped up … he’s starting to become a young, mature leader. It’s so good to see the young kids maturing really early and showing their skills and leadership.”
Developing future leaders remains at the core of what Briggs wants Rumbalara to achieve.
“To have leaders that come from your cultural background is really important, and I wanted to model Rumbalara on a place where leadership could be developed, where inspiration could be driven, and where there is infrastructure that looks after your cultural identity,” he said.
“It sends a lot of good messages into our community about our capacity to just engage in the economy, the social networks, and to provide people with opportunities that they might not get anywhere else.
“We’ve got L-plates on coaches across all grades, and the same applies across the eight grades of netball … these are opportunities that Aboriginal people might not get at any other sporting club.
“I think that in itself is great, and it’s not seen as a special thing – it’s just seen as someone taking pride in being able to assist the teams by showing leadership.
“Our ability to take that into the elite environments is something that we’re interested in … to produce coaches, umpires and other components of the AFL and elite netball.”
Senior football coach Kane Atkinson, who is an electrician by trade, had a key role to play in another important Rumbalara project – the Munarra Regional Centre of Excellence, which will celebrate its first birthday next month.
The club partnered with Melbourne and Latrobe Universities and other tertiary education providers to develop the $36m centre, which has enrolled more than 140 students.
The programs offered are designed to give students the skills and confidence they need to begin studying on major university campuses, or complete the qualifications needed to pursue other careers.
“It was great to see (the result of) years of pre-Munarra Centre – the planning and the blood, sweat and tears that went into it getting off the ground, through Uncle Paul’s vision as well,” Kane Atkinson said.
“For me, (Briggs) is a massive role model. You walk in the room and he doesn’t demand respect, but you just want to do something to make him proud.
“The stuff he has done for the community, the football club and the wider Shepparton community, as well as bringing people together … he’s going to leave a legacy for a long time after we’re gone.”
The Munarra Centre swept the state architectural awards last week with four separate gongs – designed after the Yorta Yorta totems Bayadherra (the long-necked turtle) and Boorimul (the emu), it also takes on the form of the Aboriginal flag when viewed from above.
“As it was put to me, the building is like father emu sitting on or nesting the eggs, and he won’t move off the eggs until they hatch and develop,” interim centre CEO Tom O’Reilly said.
“So for students coming and entering, the building is what nurtures them, and they grow and develop with the protection extended around them. It’s a nice philosophy, isn’t it?”
The project also smashed the target quotas set for involving Indigenous contractors and businesses in its design and construction.
“Around the club, on the netball courts, when you’re travelling on buses … people talk about the need to strengthen the club and strengthen our community,” Briggs said.
“A critical part of that is access to good education and the transmission of Indigenous knowledge into our young people.
“Munarra is the word for thunder, or ‘noise in the sky’ … we think it’s important that we’re present, and people know that we’re present.
“It’s a very celebratory name – we are pursuing excellence in every facet of our life, and the way that we present ourselves and the way the club operates – it just shows the optimism for the future.”
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Originally published as How Rumbalara is bridging the education gap with new Munarra Centre
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