Marn Grook

Australian Aboriginal domestic scene depicting traditional recreation, including one child kicking the ball, with the object and caption being to "never let the ball hit the ground". (From William Blandowski's Australien in 142 Photographischen Abbildungen, 1857, (Haddon Library, Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge)

Marn Grook, marn-grook or marngrook (also spelt Marn Gook[1]) is the popular collective name for traditional Indigenous Australian football games played at gatherings and celebrations by sometimes more than 100 players. From the Woiwurung language of the Kulin people, it means "ball" and "game".

These games featured punt kicking and catching a stuffed ball. They involved large numbers of players, and were played over an extremely large area. The game was subject to strict behavioural protocols: for instance all players had to be matched for size, gender and skin group relationship. However, to outside observers the game appeared to lack a team objective, having no real rules or scoring system. A winner could only be declared if one of the sides agreed that the other side had played better. Individual players who consistently exhibited outstanding skills, such as kicking or leaping higher than others to catch the ball, were often praised, but proficiency in the sport gave them no tribal influence.[2]

The earliest accounts emerged decades after the European settlement of Australia, mostly from the colonial Victorian explorers and settlers. Historical reports support it as a widespread activity across south-eastern Australia of the Djabwurrung and Jardwadjali people and other tribes in the Wimmera, Mallee and Millewa regions of western Victoria. According to some accounts, the range extended to the Wurundjeri in the Yarra Valley, the Gunai people of Gippsland, and the Riverina in south-western New South Wales.[3] The Warlpiri people of Central Australia played a very similar kicking and catching game with a possum skin ball, and the game was known as pultja.[4] North of Brisbane in Queensland in the 1860s it was known as Purru Purru.[5]

Some historians claim that Marn Grook had a role in the formation of Australian rules football, which originated in Melbourne in 1858 and was codified the following year by members of the Melbourne Football Club.[6] This connection has become culturally important to many Indigenous Australians, including celebrities and professional footballers[7] from communities in which Australian rules football is highly popular.[8]

  1. ^ "Aussie rules kicked off by Aborigines". The Age, Australia. 22 September 2007. Archived from the original on 19 February 2023.
  2. ^ The Sports Factor, ABC Radio National, program first broadcast on 5 September 2008.
  3. ^ Yarrow, Stephen (2019), "Aboriginal Culture: Sport and Recreation", Australia Guide, archived from the original on 25 June 2022
  4. ^ Campbell, Liam (writer, director); Cadden, Anna (co-director, director of photography) (2007). Aboriginal Rules (PAL) (Video) (in English and Warlpiri). Sydney: Walpiri Media Association; Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Running time 53 mins. OCLC 271606524. [Documentary].
  5. ^ Bird, Murray; Parker, Greg (2018). More of the Kangaroo: 150 Years of Australian Football in Queensland - 1866 to 2016. Morningside, Qld. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-9943936-1-6. OCLC 1082363978.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ "A code of our own" celebrating 150 years of the rules of Australian football The Yorker: Journal of the Melbourne Cricket Club Library Issue 39, Autumn 2009
  7. ^ Morrissey, Tim (15 May 2008). "Goodes racist, says AFL historian". Herald Sun.
  8. ^ AFL turning Indigenous dreamtime to big time - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)