Tensions, Complexities, and Compromises: Sharing Australian Aboriginal Women's Sport History

Researching and writing about Aboriginal sport history is one of the most challenging, and rewarding, opportunities of our scholarly careers. It is challenging because non-Aboriginal people must engage with ontological, epistemological, theoretical, empirical, and methodological issues and ideas that often exist outside traditional Western conventions. Challenges for male scholars escalate in attempting to represent the experiences of Aboriginal sportswomen. Not only do we need to engage with racial theories and gender analysis, as Susan Birrell has done throughout her career, but it involves consciously creating narratives from the outside as non-Aboriginal men with all the boundaries and limitations this situation imposes. The final layer of complexity is that Aboriginal history-making involves appropriate recognition of, and involvement with, Aboriginal people, and creating reciprocal relationships and practices that are community-driven. We address these issues through a case study of the Marching Girls from the Aboriginal settlement of Cherbourg in Queensland, Australia.