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Sport

13 July, 2022

CAIRNS HOCKEY celebrates Indigenous culture

THE Rene Archer Indigenous Hockey Round is coming to Cairns on Friday, July 22, at the Cairns Hockey Grounds as part of the Aspire to be Deadly Program aiming to promote the participation of Indigenous athletes in sport and celebrate Indigenous culture.


Photo - Pexels
Photo - Pexels

The event will begin at 5 pm at the Cairns Hockey Grounds. 

It will feature a traditional Welcome to Country and acknowledgements, cultural displays, and stalls with traditional food, art, music and storytelling. The participating club teams will also play in unique uniforms designed by Indigenous hockey players and a NAIDOC-designed shirt that will be available for the general public to purchase. 

The significant increase in awareness of indigenous culture across Cairns Hockey in 2021 has led to the clubs and association members joining with Operations and Aspire to be Deadly Program to commit to and participate in a specially designated round of hockey. 

The Rene Archer Indigenous Hockey Round is named in honour of hockey coach Rene Archer. 

She began coaching a team from Paramatta Park in the 1960s and continued committing and coaching this team into the 1980s. 

Rene became a member of the Junior Committee and Chairperson of that committee at Cairns Hockey from the 1960s through to the 1990s and helped start and drive the junior representative program to attend state carnivals. 

During this time, Hockey QLD did not recognize any primary school hockey. So Rene formed a committee with the regional hockey centres with the full backing of CHA and started a Primary Schools carnival which in time turned into the Qld U13 State title – now the biggest annual state hockey championship. 

Rene Archer was made a life member of Cairns Hockey for her contribution to the development and the advancement of junior hockey across Cairns and regional areas and was awarded an OAM for her services to the community. 

The 2021 Indigenous Hockey Round took place on July 9, 2021, and was highly embraced by the community, which was an incentive to include it in the calendar for 2022. 

For more information, visit  https://aspirecairnshockey.com.au/

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