A few years ago the Australian Rugby Union employed true-blue John Williamson to perform Waltzing Matilda before Bledisloe Test matches. It was an ill-advised attempt to offset the intensity of the All Black’s performance of the haka.
Cringe-worthy to say the least, the sight of Williamson pacing the sideline with his acoustic guitar swung over his shoulder gave leaguies yet another opportunity to mock the rah-rah faithful and thankfully was ditched after two years or so.
The NRL’s decision to perform two versions of the national anthem, one in English and one in the Daharug language, prior to State of Origin III on Wednesday should be applauded.
As Daniel Lewis and Paddy Wood reported in the SMH reported today, there was a hiccup with the Daharug version incorrectly attributed as the Eora language.
Lets hope the mistake doesn’t take the gloss off the initiative. It was successfully devised by rugby league’s Indigenous Council as part of the Naidoc Week celebrations and not as some cynics may have you believe an attempt to diffuse the Andrew Johns racial abuse case.
New Zealand performs its anthem in both Maori and English and the NRL and other Australian sporting codes should seriously consider implementing the practice at all major events.
The beauty of sport is its ability to lay the foundations for social change. By adopting the two-anthem initiative Australian sporting organisations would be showing supporters that committing to the reconciliation process is a life’s work, not simply a one-off token gesture.
Read the SMH yarn here – State of Origin woes
I’m interested in your thoughts.
If you think it’s worthy and can spare the ink please email your thoughts, opinions to litresofink@gmail.com
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