Brenden Broadbent has first hand experience of how Aboriginal people like himself got the cold shoulder from the football code many people know as soccer.
He says things are slowly changing now, but back in his day, “in the 1980s and 90s people who identified as Aboriginal were still looked down upon’’.
“Playing football when I was 14, I suffered a lot of racism and discrimination,’’ says Mr Broadbent, who is the deputy director of the Camden Tigers Indigenous Football Program (IFP).
“It wasn’t due to the colour of my skin, it was due to the colour of my mother’s skin; I copped the racism because of my mother’s skin,’’ he says.
“The coach wasn’t very engaging with my mother because I don’t think he liked Aboriginal people.
“My dad pulled me in and said, you got no chance of making it in this sport, so I went and played AFL and rugby league, where I excelled.’’
Were you any good in soccer, asks the South West Voice in Macarthur.
“Yes, I was very quick. A good striker, very physical at a young age,’’ he replies.
We’ll never know if Brenden Broadbent would have made it big in football, but there’s no doubting he is a very talented urban contemporary Aboriginal artist, a career he has been pursuing for 20 years.
His art work (pictured at right) for this Saturday’s seminal event, the Dharawal Cup at Ron Dine Reserve in Camden is simply gobsmacking.
It will appear on the playing gear of the three Indigenous sides taking to the field as well as on all of the merchandise that will be available for sale to the public.
Mr Broadbent, who also works at the Campbelltown arts centre as their full-time arts and cultural liaison officer, is donating his time on the art work and relinquishing his fee from sales of the merchandise.
He says it’s very important that all of the proceeds go to the Camden Tigers IFP.
“This is not about me, it’s about getting funds into the program so it’s sustainable over the next 10, 20, 30 years,’’ says Mr Broadbent, a proud Dharawal man from the South Coast and the Wadi-Wadi clan.
“The aim with Dharawal Cup and the IPL is to give young Indigenous kids the opportunity older footballers like myself never had.’’
- The inaugural Dharawal Cup day is on this Saturday at Ron Dine Memorial Reserve, South Camden. Gates open at 9.30, free entry.
