Young sports fans painted in the Mimili colour support their team.

As a press photographer, travelling and meeting new people comes with the territory. I was very excited when I recently got offered a very rare opportunity to travel to the remote Aboriginal community of Ernabella in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankuytjatjara Lands (APY Lands) in South Australia’s Far North West to cover the FNWSL (Far North West Sports League) grand final sports day.

I am usually not a morning person and it was with sleepy eyes and a foggy head that I boarded a small chartered aeroplane at 6 am on a Saturday morning at the Adelaide Airport. As we took off I envied all the dark homes in the suburbs below, in the knowledge that ‘no lights’ meant people were still snug in bed, longing to be curled up under the blankets in my own.

The strong head wind of up to 80 kilometers an hour meant that we burnt up plenty of petrol and had to stop twice to refuel the aeroplane. Once at Port Augusta and again at Coober Pedy, before finally shaking our way through turbulent airstreams when the pilot announced: “We will be landing in about 5 minutes”.

The community is nestled among the hills of the Musgrave ranges near the Northern Territory border, about an hour and a half drive from Uluru. Landing on the dusty runway takes a combination of tricky twists and turns, but our pilot Dick Lang has obviously done this a few times before and we touch down without any fanfare.

Representatives of the SANFL (South Australia National Football League), who run the sports program, wait to pick us up in 3 white utes to take us to the sport complex which we caught a quick glimpse of from the air. It is hot and windy.

Warming up for the game

The two games scheduled for the day, softball and Football (Australian Rules), were to be fought out between the might of the Mimili Blues and the red and black wearing Amata Bombers. Both teams based in communities around the area. I am surprised to see what an influence the AFL (Australian Football League) has in this remote community. The Mimili Blues’ colours and strip, based on the Carlton Blues and the Amata Bombers, based on the Essendon Bombers, both clubs in the AFL from Melbourne, Victoria, almost 2000 km’s away.

Any fears that I had about people not wanting to have their photo taken (due to Aboriginal culture) was soon laid to rest as the smiling colourful faces came from everywhere. Not a single person that I approached and asked if I could take their photo, turned me down. Instead, the already smiling faces only lit up even brighter, many approaching me, to ask if I would take their photo. Especially the children, most of whom had gone all out as supporters. Their faces and bodies painted in their appropriate teams colours, hair and clothes included. Many carrying flags sporting the colours of their teams. It was a cacophony of colour contrasted against the blood red sand and crystal clear blue sky of this sunburnt land. 

Mimili Blues get ready for the first softball innings.

Directly after the softball, all the spectators hastily made their way the fifty or so meters to the neighbouring Football Oval, where the two teams were warming up already. After a lengthy delay and a quick trip to the local general store, where they sell frozen kangaroo tails by the kilogram, the game got underway. There were even more spectators now, for this, the main event.

Spectators try and get a better vantage point on the game by swamping the score board.

The patches of brown grass on the oval is purely symbolic, vastly outnumbered by the patches of bare sand. The oval is roughly surrounded by gum trees for shade and has a striking view of the pastel coloured hills running off on the horizon. At sunset, I was assured, these hills would turn golden yellow.

With the wind howling, blowing red sand and dust everywhere the temperature still hovered around the 30 degree mark. Even in these conditions, the pace of the game was frenetic. Passes and marks taken with utmost precision. The running play much faster than anything I had seen in the deliberate controlled environment of the AFL. Red sand sloshing with every step, almost as if they were running in water.

Unfortunately our trip was cut short due to the delays earlier in the day and we could only stay until half time.

A player from Mimili gets the ball away under pressure from his opponent.

For the record, the Mimili Blues won the softball, and the Amata Bombers came from behind in the last quarter to take out the football grand final.

Players from both side compete for the ball in the dusty, sandy conditions.

 All Pictures by Morne de Klerk for The Advertiser

(Pictures Copyright The Advertiser)