Around 100 kids from all around the state recently descended onto Swan Valley Adventure Centre and the WACA Ground for a weekend of cricket and cultural learning for WA Cricket’s annual Kambarang Cricket Carnival.
A resounding success, the smiles couldn’t be wiped from the children’s faces as they tried to hit as many sixes as they could on the famous WACA Ground turf.
For 16-year-old Kaid Jurdine from Port Hedland, being able to say he played cricket at the WACA Ground was a dream come true.
“I love cricket, to grow up watching games be played on the WACA Ground on the TV and then to come here and see what the WACA Ground looks like in real life was really cool,” Jurdine said.
“I was sending videos to my dad because he wasn’t able to come here, hoping I was able to make 100 runs today out here.”
WA Cricket Aboriginal Specialist Adam Cockie said it was great to see so many excited kids over the weekend, making new friends and trying their hand at cricket.
“This is our fourth year running the Kambarang Cricket Carnival and we’ve seen the success and engagement grow throughout the years, as we’ve had greater reach in regional WA, which is has been exciting,” he said.
“We thought it would be a great initiative to bring in an Aboriginal youth carnival as we didn’t have anything like this in place for young Aboriginal people who take part in our Deadly Cricket and Leadership programs across WA. It is great to see them thrive in our programs. Being able to offer the opportunity to take part in the Kambarang Carnival motivates them to do well, attend school and be positive role models for their friends and classmates.”
Cockie said it’s incredible to see our sport bringing even the most remote of regional communities together in Perth to participate in the game of cricket.
“The biggest addition to the carnival over the last two years are the addition of the teams from the Pilbara area,” he said.
“We had our first team from the area, from Port Hedland, join us last year and this year we’ve now got the Newman team who’ve come on board.”
The weekend included a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony to start the participants’ day, followed by a game of Deadly Cricket, boomerang throwing and cultural painting sessions at the Swan Valley Adventure Centre.
On the Sunday, a change of scenery brought the children and participants to the famed Nicky Winmar statue outside Optus Stadium as part of a Reconciliation Walk.
The group then participated in mini curtain-raiser matches on the WACA Ground before standing side-by-side with players from Weber Women’s Big Bash League teams Perth Scorchers and Melbourne Stars as part of Australian Cricket’s largest barefoot circle.
The Kambarang Cricket Carnival is supported by the WA Cricket Foundation as one of the key programs within its Aboriginal Cricket pillar and is made possible through the generous support of our donors.
To find out more about the WA Cricket Foundation’s Aboriginal programs, click here.