As seems to be pretty standard, the week before the National Indigenous Tennis Carnival (NITC) in Darwin, the Wanta troopy had an emergency trip to the mechanic. Unsure if it would be ready in time, I headed into town and, fortunately, the troopy was ready in time to get back out to Arlparra and finish preparations for the trip!
Danny Barnes, one of our NITC veterans from 2024, had burnt his leg and was unable to come – the other 7 troops were ready and raring to go. With an early flight Tuesday morning, we headed into Alice Springs on the Monday and stayed one night. The flight to Darwin was one of the early highlights for the students, with most of them having close to no experience flying on a plane. Getting to see the ocean from the air was another very exciting moment before even touching down in Darwin! We were greeted at the airport by Tennis NT staff, and soon after set up at Novotel Darwin Airport. With a luxurious pool, daily buffet breakfast and view of the fighter jets taking off every few hours, it was quite the spot.
We spent some time in the pool that afternoon, and had dinner overlooking the beach and ocean, much to the students’ delight.
The NITC kicked off with a real buzz, with a welcome to country from Dr. Richard Fejo, a creation story sung in his language by Australian Tennis star Ian Goolagong (he’s also brother to former world No.1 and 14-time Grand Slam champion Evonne Goolagong Cawley), as well as speeches from Tennis Australia Director Chris Harrop, Minister Jinson Charles, and Tennis NT’s Director Steven Rossign. Wednesday also saw an afternoon of cultural activities, which ranged from Indigenous and Torres Strait Islands-inspired hip hop dancing and eating green tree ants, to designing message sticks and participating in yarning circles with legendary Australian sprinter Patrick Johnson. Doing the cultural actives and later the tennis training with students from other states and communities helped our guys to make friends with people from all over the country, which was a great way to connect and learn.
The Thursday started off with the cultural exchange – a chance for the teams from every state to talk a bit about where they were from and share some of their Indigenous culture. There were paintings, stories, music, dancing, different languages and totems. The Arlparra crew had prepared a short video about animal tracks around one of the homelands, and each student said their name, where they were from, and what their dreaming was. For our guys that had mostly never spoken in public before, it was a massive achievement to do that in front of a couple hundred people! We then got into the full swing of tennis, which our Arlparra players embraced enthusiastically. The students showed a lot of potential, and as of writing this blog post, they have have already done a couple of days of tennis in a row back here at school. They played in the red ball competition, Tennis Australia’s modified introductory version of tennis, designed as an introduction to the sport for complete beginners. In the red ball competition were other communities from across the Northern Territory, including Tiwi Islands, Groote Archipelago, Jilkminggan, Jabiru and East Arnhem. Arlparra was the only central desert community represented!
Friday was a massive day with the one and only Ash Barty rocking up! She spent the day playing tennis with the kids, participating in the ball kid program, taking photos, signing autographs and then answered some questions from participants over dinner. She’s even more humble and genuine in real life than what she appears on TV! Friday also saw a concert by Indigenous rapper Yung Milla, who set the crowd alight with his rapping, dancing, and invitation for audience participation. The players were dancing, flipping and singing along as Yung Milla lit up the room. Another highlight for our Arlparra guys.
All good things come to an end, and in between pauses because the jets taking off were too loud for us to hear the speaker through the microphone, we had a closing ceremony with awards handed out, with many talented players receiving recognition. Arlparra claimed the wooden spoon in our category, but that’s had us out on the court in preparation for next year already!
Arlparra wasn’t done with Darwin just yet, and despite the tennis wrapping up we were intent on making the most of our time in the Top End. Saturday afternoon we headed to Crocodylus Park, and not only helped feed the jumping crocs and held a baby crocodile, but also enjoyed the company of monkeys, anacondas, lions, capybaras, dingos, cassowaries, ostriches and baboons. Insane!
On Sunday we had some time to kill before our flight, and we took a walk around the Waterfront Precinct and visited the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair. As well as checking out Indigenous art from all over the country, we stopped off at the Utopia stand to see some of the students’ family and see some of their paintings on display! Very exciting for our students to see the artwork of Utopia being showcased and celebrated on a big scene.
We spent one night in Alice Springs on the way back, which was shockingly cold after a week in balmy Darwin. It’s taken a few days for the students (and staff!) to fully recover, but we are having a surge of tennis playing that will hopefully continue to see some of our students play at a higher level next year!
A huge thank you to Tennis Australia, Tennis NT, Arlparra School and Wanta Aboriginal Corporation for making the trip possible, as well as staff Emily and Penelope for running such a successful trip!
Written by Zac Murfet, Wanta Arlparra Director.
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