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Footy the La Perouse Way
Title:
Footy the La Perouse Way
NFSA ID
714107
Year
2005
Courtesy
Dreaming Digital
Warnings
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following program may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons
An RSL Club, and a raffle is taking place. Players from the La Perouse Panthers have gathered for the team’s fundraiser. Bruce 'Lapa’ Stewart, community elder and former La Perouse player, speaks into a microphone. Bruce talks to camera about his days of playing football. Photographs show the Lapa team in the 1930s as an all-Black team. Historical footage of tin huts on the beach, or the mission. Voice-over narration speaks of the common bond of poverty during the Depression. Bruce tells how the community became truly multicultural. Footage of La Perouse versus Mascot. A grade coach Chris ‘Offo’ Sait talks to his players.
Summary by Romaine Moreton
A well documented transformation of the La Perouse Aboriginal community into a multicultural community.
Footy La Perouse Way synopsis
A documentary that uses historical photographs to talk about the history of rugby league in the Sydney suburb of La Perouse, and how football has helped build a community that prides itself on being open to people of all cultures.
Curator's notes
An interesting look at how sport – specifically rugby league – became the vehicle through which racism, poverty and dispossession was confronted by people from all cultures and backgrounds. Historically an Indigenous community, La Perouse became a multicultural community during the Depression, bringing cultures into close proximity with each other. It is worth noting that common needs and objectives unify folk and overcomes difference.
Notes by Romaine Moreton
Production company
Dreaming Digital
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.