As the dust settles from the Tiwi Islands grand final on Sunday, Pumarali Thunder and Lightning coach Kevin Pilakui consoles his shattered team.
“Be proud for who you are,” he bellows at the huddled players.
Mr Pilakui singles out the youngest on his team, one-by-one urging them to come back next year to fight for the premiership.
“Don’t let this happen to you again.”
The sea of red jerseys disperses shortly after, but for the nearby Tuyu Buffaloes — emblazoned in blue and white — the celebration that began with a siren and a surge of spectators onto the field is only getting started.
Final score: 70-63 to the Buffaloes.
This is the aftermath of yet another blockbuster Tiwi Islands Grand Final — a spectacle combining the passion of Aussie Rules football with an expression of Indigenous community and culture.
The game is held in the community of Wurrumiyanga each year, drawing crowds from across the Tiwi Islands and tourists from further afield.
Amidst the fray of celebrating Tuyu supporters , player Jeffrey Simon is ecstatic.
“It’s an awesome feeling, it’s my first premiership for the club,” he says.
The victory is all the sweeter, given Tuyu had been lagging behind Pumarali into the fourth quarter.
“The coaches had a chat to us in the change rooms, told us to keep it simple, nothing too fancy, stick to your gameplan, and the rest took care of itself,” Mr Simon says.
The late-stage comeback made for a nailbiter, with supporters from both sides huddled right up against the sideline until the final siren.
Change afield for finals
The Tiwis have produced greats of the game, most famously members of the Rioli family.
“I think there’s something in the water,” Pumarali coach Pilakui tells the ABC in the hours before first bounce.
“It’s a sport that we’ve learnt when we’re younger, and it has become a religion now.”
But this year has seen change come.
Sunday’s game marked the first grand final since the passing of a well-known Tiwi Island footballer, who the ABC has chosen not to name for cultural reasons.
“We miss one of the good leaders in football,” Tiwi Land Council chairman Gibson Farmer Illortaminni says.
“He was a founder of football, with his brothers Maurice and [Cyril].”
But he says the community is determined to “keep the passion alive” for a sport that has become so central to its culture.
“That was his legacy for the Tiwi people.”
The grand final has also moved away from its traditional month of March, with its torrential wet season downpours, to the clear sunny skies of August.
Competing cultural events in Darwin meant mainland attendance to the game was noticeably quieter.
The frantic influx of tourists from the mainland by ferry and plane — flush with cash and ready to spend up at the local art centres — was this year relatively more subdued.
Hope Tiwi ‘pride’ can help showcase culture
At one of the art centres, local guide Vivian Warlapinni Kerinauia watches the visitors shuffle around the various works on display.
Far from just a single event, she says grand final day provides the community with a once-a-year chance to showcase the remote islands’ local culture.
“This is the only time, one Sunday of the year, things get abuzz,” she says.
“It gives a lot of Tiwi people pride.”
On sale at the centre is everything from branded t-shirts and tea towels, to ornate carvings and paintings.
Ms Warlapinni Kerinauia says she hopes the event can also be a chance for mainlanders to get a better idea of how Tiwi people live.
“Footy is one thing, but we also would love probably in the future to take people out swimming or hunting, or camping, before the game starts.”
“Eating bush tucker, and you can catch things from the mangroves here in the sea.”
Source: AFL NEWS ABC
