Hi everyone! I’m currently away representing the Australian Indigenous All-Stars team in New Zealand, and I’m going to document this experience with a few blogs along the way! 

Training Camp

The team come from all over Australia. We have boys from Geraldton, Carins, country New South Wales and Victoria, to name a few. We all met in Brisbane on Saturday 22^nd to give us time to prepare for the Maoris, as a team. Three sessions and one game in two days felt brutal after not touching a basketball since our disappointing semi-final loss over a month ago. But, coming back into training camp with my balas is always something special. Joining myself are a few names that you all will recognise – Deba George, Tj Diop and Tyson Demos. Unfortunately, my brother, Mick Cedar, couldn’t be a part of our team due to work commitments. We also have Matty Adekponya here and he has taken on the role of our creative videographer. World famous coach, Joel Khalu, and the man behind the scenes, Jason Borg, are the other ‘Mackay’ names amongst our 2018 Indigenous All-Stars line-up.  

 Joel set the bar high and we started with DEFENCE! Anyone who knows me is aware that I prefer the offensive side of our game. But basketball is not about how many points you score; it’s how many times you can stop your opposing team from scoring. We have had 12 players working hard, trying to show the coaching staff what they bring to the team and all fighting for minutes in the Trans-Tasman battle.  

Practice Game

I woke up after our first day of training feeing sore but motivated to get through another session so that we could get on the court to play against quality opposition and to see where we were as a team. The hit out against Logan’s QBL side was a high quality game that allowed us to put into practice the team structure and principles Joel had been drilling into us the day before. We got the win and got a feel for how we play as a team. It made the lead up to playing the Maori team that much more exciting. 

Culture

During the practice game, we wore our Indigenous All-Stars uniforms with pride. The game referees also wore some deadly uniforms that displayed Aboriginal artwork. Auntry Lovie lives in Brisbane, and she organised for a dance group to showcase Torres Strait Islander dancing by both men and women. Any opportunity to represent Indigenous Australia is an honour, and showcasing our culture at that game felt amazing. Thank you to all of the people involved in allowing us to do that. A big thanks to the crowd that got behind our Indigenous All-Stars team too. 

Now, we’ve travelled to New Zealand and get to engage in Maori communities, learn about their culture, share ours, and train to prepare for the 5^th Annual Trans-Tasman Series that begins on Thursday night. I’ll share those experiences with you next blog. 

Thanks for reading,  

Chris