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NRL launches reconciliation action plan

By John Coomber

1 February 2008 - Rugby league has acknowledged its importance to indigenous people by becoming the first sport in Australia to launch a formal reconciliation action plan.

Leading players Johnathan Thurston, Sam Thaiday, Preston Campbell, Dean Widders and Matt Bowen - who will sit on an advisory group - helped launch the scheme at the start of the NRL's centenary season.

Eleven per cent of NRL players are indigenous Australians, and Thurston believes they have a crucial role to play in improving the lives of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

"It will help bridge the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous people," Thurston said.

"Hopefully we will create a pathway for indigenous kids from communities to help them make to better choices in life ... and to realise their dreams.

"You just have to see the impact that NRL players have when they go to the communities."

Widders, who was racially abused by South Sydney captain Bryan Fletcher during a match in 2005, said he believed the program could make a positive impact on the lifestyles of young indigenous kids, and ultimately increase their life expectancy.

"The NRL has always been supportive of reconciliation, and doing things for indigenous people," he said.

"It's great to make it official. It'll give us that strength to go on and do more great things in the communities.

"There's no game that can bring a community together like rugby league, and the kids really look up to the NRL players."

The scheme has the official endorsement of Reconciliation Australia.

RA director Shelley Reys said the game had shown it had a vital role to play in the cause of reconciliation, and said it was especially timely given the federal government's decision to offer a formal apology to Aboriginal people over the stolen generations.

"Sport is the ultimate example of social cohesion," she said.

Reys has a unique perspective on the changing profile of indigenous people in Australian sport.

Her late father Frank was a champion jockey who won the 1973 Melbourne Cup on Gala Supreme.

But throughout his career he hid his Aboriginal heritage, referring only to the Filipino part of his heritage.

"He knew it would give him a better chance of getting good rides," she said.

Source: Blayney News

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