USQ Toowoomba to host traditional games

USQ will play host to sports of a different sort this month when hundreds of indigenous students from schools in south west Queensland converge on Toowoomba campus to take part in a traditional indigenous games competition.

Organised by the DARE (Dream Aspire Reach Experience) Indigenous Secondary School Mentoring Program, the Traditional Indigenous Games School competition has been developed as a way of continuing the sharing of traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Megan Darr, Dare Project Manager from USQ’s Centre for Indigenous Knowledges said the daylong competition has been developed around The Yulunga: Traditional Indigenous Games resource project which integrates Indigenous Australian perspectives across the education curriculum.

Megan said that The Yulunga: Traditional Indigenous Games was developed to provide all Australians with a greater understanding and appreciation of Indigenous culture - the way it was many thousands of years ago and still is today.

Many of the games that will be played have evolved from traditional games of the past.

She said that through this unique sporting resource, traditional Indigenous culture can be experienced and enjoyed by all Australians.

Local schools from the Toowoomba region have been invited to register teams of Indigenous students from year 8 and 9. Teams have already been nominated from Toowoomba State High School (Mt Lofty and Wilsonton Campus), Harristown State High School, Centenary Heights, Oakey State High School, Laidley State High School and Warwick State High School with support also coming from Education Qld, Catholic Education, Qld Health, Department of Communities, Police Citizen Youth Club and Lifeline.

Megan said that Indigenous Elders have also be invited to be part of the day which will follow will a round robin based around three traditional games, Keentan, Millem baeyeetch and Buroinjin.

Keentan is a keep-away game of catch-ball which was played by both males and females in the north-west central districts of Queensland. Because the action of the players jumping up to catch the ball resembled the movements of a kangaroo, the Kalkadoon people sometimes described the game as the “kangaroo-play”. The ball itself was made from possum, wallaby or kangaroo hide tied up with twine.

Megan said that students from Harlaxton State School volunteered to make replicas of the “kangaroo play” balls as a part of their NAIDOC celebrations. USQ’S Centre for Australian Indigenous Knowledges donated kangaroo hide to the school and students used ash or toy stuffing to create the game balls.

Millim baeyeetch is one of the favourite games of the Aboriginal people in parts of Victoria. The game is a type of keep away football with a number of variations but the one being played at USQ was first observed in the 1840’s.

Megan said players are divided into opposing teams such as “white cockatoo against black cockatoo, quail against snake and so on.” In the traditional game, the player (beiin) who kicks the ball the highest during the game is considered the best player and has the honour of burying it in the ground (keeping the ball) until next required. She said that modern day versions of the game is particularly suited as a skills practice for Australian Rules, rugby union, rugby league and soccer.

Buroinjin was a ball game played by the Kabi Kabi people of South Queensland. Buroinjin is work used by the Kabi Kabi people for ball. The ball was the size of a soccer ball also made from kangaroo and stuffed with grass. The aim of the game is for a player for a team to cross ball over the line without being touched by their opponent.

The games will be held on October 12 on the Toowoomba campus main oval.