“Wominjeka” – Welcome to Australian Rules Football

Monica and Anna with St Kilda players

Today is a public holiday in Victoria (the Australian state of which Melbourne is capitol). There is a parade, people get a day off work and folks are partying. Is it in honour of a great day in Indigenous history? Is it election day? How about the roundly condemned but still celebrated “Australia Day” — the anniversary of the invasion by the British First Fleet of the land now known as Australia?

No. This public holiday is in honour of the grand final of Australian rules football (AFL) — a public holiday that gives us a long weekend every year. The game tomorrow will be between the Collingwood Magpies (“Go Pies!”) and the Brisbane Lions (Queensland).

And though I’ve written about AFL before, I’m writing about it today in honour of another significant event in football.

About a year ago, Zoe Daniel, the Member of Parliament we helped to elect, held an evening to encourage her constituents to form groups to sponsor refugee families as part of CRISP, the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot. 

As it states on the website, “Refugee participants identified as in urgent need of resettlement by the UNHCR are referred into the CRISP program by the Australian government. They come from a wide variety of countries; most have been waiting to resettle in a safe new country for a long time.”

Six groups formed including ours. Each refugee family is now in Australia on humanitarian visas, free to stay if they choose.  Our sponsorship group is named Wominjeka, an Aboriginal word for “welcome.”

We waited for months to find out who would be joining us and a few weeks ago, Ana and her daughter Monica arrived from El Salvador and are now in the very beginning of learning life in Australia.  We are supporting them in finding accommodation and employment, learning English, figuring out how to navigate our public transport system and everything else they’ll need to live in Melbourne.

And we could hardly be doing our job if we didn’t incorporate “footy” into their orientation. Ana and Monica are not accustomed to going to football (soccer) because it’s a very dangerous undertaking in El Salvador. 

In this spirit, Simon and I took Ana and Monica to a game of Women’s AFL. Simon “barracks” for St Kilda — “roots” means something entirely more sordid here — and I acquired sexually transmitted barracking when I arrived in Australia.  So we took them to a “Saints” game. Women’s footy is hugely on the rise.

As soon as we walked through the gates, I saw that the team was offering photos with players so I got Ana and Monica lined up for a shot. Then I made sure they had the kit that St Kilda was giving away – a cap and the “GOAL!” banner folded into a fan. 

We stood at the fence to get the best view and Simon taught Ana and Monica the basics of the game —  about as much as I understand after 25 years in Australia: how to score a goal (worth 6 points), what a “behind” is (worth 1)and what it means when you score a “mark.” Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to introduce them to a “screamer” — when one player literally climbs up an opponent’s body to catch the ball. 

“Screamer” — Image courtesy of NITV

Personally, I was determined to acquaint them with AFL cuisine — meat pies and hot chips (French fries for my American friends) but no joy. By the time we got there, the only place to buy chips had a 45 minute wait so we just got Cokes.

St Kilda lost to Port Adelaide 56-47. Oh well. But Ana and Monica enjoyed themselves so otherwise it was a win.