On the white sands of Broome’s Cable Beach, a young Indigenous boy gathers a leg, weaves his way through traffic and scores a goal near the check.
It’s a magical moment as his peers compete to take the stage as teachers, police officers and volunteers look on.
Held over two days, the Fremantle Dockers’ Kimberley 9 carnival is unsurprisingly a huge hit in a region with a deep love for Australian rules football.
Hundreds of elementary and middle school students from Halls Creek to Looma and everywhere in between are invited to participate in nine-a-side games, provided they meet school attendance and behavior requirements.
And with the judge and local police training, it’s an opportunity to break down barriers with Indigenous children in Western Australia’s far north-west, who often fear law enforcement.
The partnership between Fremantle’s Purple Hands Foundation and the WA police force involves helping cadet officers become accredited football coaches in remote communities.
Former Docker Roger Hayden, who has played 128 AFL games and is the club’s Indigenous and Multicultural Liaison Officer and Next Generation Academy coach, is a regular visitor to Kimberley.
He believes the carnival, which concludes a 12-month youth engagement programme, has the potential to help reconciliation efforts in a region that has been plagued by youth crime in recent years.
“The community sees (police officers) in a different light,” he said.
“Instead of wearing the blue jersey, they see them as a coach, they see them as a person and you start building relationships. They see them differently, I think, instead of the negative side of things when it comes to the police picking them up and pet them. them in prison and that’s it.
“It’s just a different space and a positive space that everyone can look at, and it’s growing.”
It is a view shared by Superintendent Craig Parkin, the officer in charge of the Kimberley district.
“For the police, certainly our interactions with young people are sometimes at an enforcement level,” Supt Parkin told AAP.
“So for us to have police involvement on an active level like this is very important when it comes to kids. This partnership that we have with Purple Hands, with them supporting programs like this, really gets into the root causes of youth crime in the Kimberley. .”
With primary school pupils up first on a hot Broome morning, a Welcome to Country ceremony and smoking is held under the shade of palm trees.
Students and visitors line up in single file to get cleaned up before going down to the beach.
Mr Hayden said promoting a better understanding of local Aboriginal cultures was critical to fostering reconciliation.
“The midday culture is different from a lot of areas up here, and for myself, being respectful whenever I go to another place is really important and connecting with people who belong to that area,” he said.
“That’s my role at the club, to communicate and educate people at the club to make sure we’re always respectful whenever we go somewhere.
“It’s only going to increase over the next few years and it’s not just with the AFL environment, it’s across the board.”
With the action underway, Dockers forward and Broome local Bailey Banfield is inundated with photo requests before taking to the field for a kick.
The Dockers’ approach to the Kimberley catchment has already yielded five draft picks, and the club is closely monitoring three more local prospects.
“There’s a lot of talent here and a lot of passion for footy,” Mr Banfield said.
“You grow up playing, your family, your friends all love the game. So you always have a foot in your hand up here and you’re always running to recess and lunch with your friends kicking the foot.
“It builds your skills and just feeds that passion.”
The high school carnival will double as a talent-spotting opportunity for the Dockers’ academy, but for the younger kids, it’s more about the fun.
“The smiles on their faces, running with their friends and the teachers bringing them down here, it’s special,” Mr Hayden said.
“Some of these kids would never have been anywhere near the ocean. So to get down and run on the beach and go for a swim more than likely, it’s going to be good for them.”
This AAP article was made possible by the support of the Australian Meta News Fund and The Walkley Foundation.
