Jimboomba representatives take on Indigenous sports carnival

The carnival is run annually and Indigenous children can apply to play in their respective age division.

Each child must have a health check prior to their selection as part of the Deadly Choices program.

During the four day carnival, which was held at the University of Queensland, the children also took part in education components of the Deadly Choices program.

Lowanna Lane, 11, played netball in the under 12s division.

Facing some tough competitors her team won three of their nine games through their two day carnival.

Lowanna said she was fortunate enough to meet some of the Queensland Firebirds who also signed her uniform.

“My coach said I did really well in the goal shooter position, but I also played wing attack and goal attack,” she said.”

“It was different to my normal games as some of the teams were mixed.”

Mikey Lane, 10, and Pinjarra Mason, 8, played for the under 10s rugby league side and played six games.

Pinjarra said he loved playing before NAIDOC week as he wanted to make his own deadly choices.

“I got to make heaps of new friends with the boys on my team too,” he said.

“We had heaps of fun playing and I got to be the first runner and dummy half too.”

Mikey said the teams met right before the carnival began to have a training run as no one knew who was on their team.

“We had some tough competition,” he said.

The boys were able to meet some NRL players during the carnival as well.

Mother Kathy Smith said the whole carnival was just like a big family.

“There was about 600 kids registered to play throughout the four days,” she said.

“It was just an awesome thing to see all the Indigenous kids get together and play.”

The siblings were chosen to form part of the honour guard at the Gabba on Saturday, July 8, for The Long Walk.

The walk commemorates Aboriginal AFL player Michael Long’s 2004 interstate walk to take a stand against racial abuse.