There has been a shifting dynamic in the NRL and NRLW playing ranks in recent seasons, with almost 50% of athletes sharing Pacific Islander and Māori identity.
Off the field, this trend has been recognised by the wider game, including within the NRL who have begun delivering the Pasifika Culture Competency Training module, which encapsulates identity and culture, and how they link into the culture of a club, as part of its mandatory program delivery to players and / or football staff.
More broadly, commentators in Australia now taking more care to pronounce names correctly, guided by and , and are being taught to understand how player names have special meaning in different cultures and their importance to families of players.
The NRL is celebrating Multicultural Round this week, themed ‘Stronger Together’ with players from all the clubs sharing their heritage. During this round time last year, the NRL and RLPA launched their Pasifika and Māori advisory groups, including the Pacific Wellbeing Advisory Group, who met for the first time last month in what they hope will become an annual conference.
More of a gathering where stories of pepeha and whakapapa (Māori for identity and genealogy) were shared, rather than a ‘conventional’ conference; wellbeing staff of Pacific Island and Māori descent currently employed at NRL clubs met with NRL Wellbeing and Education staff and external experts, including Dr David Lakisa, a Pasifika academic and founder of Talanoa Consultancy.
Lakisa, alongside Queensland-based NRL players wellbeing and Pasifika programs manager David Solomona and wellbeing officer at Gold Coast Titans Carmen Taplin, organised the event which was also attended by Paul Heptonstall, who is the senior wellbeing education manager for the NRL.
“The purpose of our inaugural conference was to ensure the voices, views and ideas of Pasifika and Māori people are incorporated across the game,” Solomona said.
Dr Lakisa agreed, adding the conference was a great sign of the progress being made in this space by the game.
“Similar to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the game, much progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go. It’s only a new conference … but the fact it happened is progress and shows wellbeing and education can lead the way in that space," Dr Lakisa said.
“Pasifika and Māori cultural capability is a non-negotiable skill in this day and age, you cannot ignore that 50% of the people you are working with are from a particular cultural background.”
As well as being an opportunity for talanoa or korero (culturally safe exchanges) and an exploration of various Pasifika models of wellbeing, there were also three key emerging themes that arose from the two-day conference which delegates will look to explore at their clubs.
“One, we want to create pathways and structured support for on-and-off field roles; two, build capacity, capability and share knowledge and resources and thirdly, to gather data,” Dr Lakisa said.
“This is a new innovative space and will help guide informed decision-making across the game.
“Now, we know how to better support Pasifika and Māori athletes, what they are thinking and feeling.”
Taplin, who also works with the New Zealand Rugby League and Queensland Maroons women’s team, has already been implementing Pasifika models of wellbeing into her sessions for years and has seen how it has helped players better navigate their lives on and off the field.
“I started framing every talk I have around wellbeing, I frame it with Te Whare Tapa Whā – the four walls of the house, which is our Māori house model,” Taplin said.
“There's the physical, spiritual, mental and emotional and family and communities, and then the grounding is whenua (land), which is our roots which we all connect to.
“So I more or less say, we have walls in the house and if one of those areas aren't strong, the house is at risk of toppling over, so we need to check in regularly and go ‘mentally, I'm all good; physically, I am awesome, but I've got my relationships breaking down, so I need to put more time into that’.
“I say, if we had the house, the physical wall would be sky high, but everything else would be really small (if we don’t put time into it); there's no balance.
“These players are human, we’re human; we've all got to make sure (we’re looking after it all) and my job is to go ‘how are you going?’ And helping them unpack that.”
For Heptonstall, the work the group was doing would not just benefit players, but just as importantly, would help rugby league staff across the game in their interactions with players.
“This is like a subset within our wellbeing and education group and brings that level of expertise to help share that across all the clubs as well,” Heptonstall said.
“That was the prime objective for it, and because these people are living and breathing it, they can help share their perspective on some of the challenges players may have or share how to better engage them to look after their money, their careers, their education.
“Some of those cultural differences which sometimes if you haven’t lived it, you are not quite sure of it, so that was a big part of it; just trying tap into the information that they are living and breathing and what they hold.
“But the education isn’t so much for the player, it’s often for the staff around the player, because the majority of the players are Pasifika now, so it’s actually probably being a bit of an advisory group to the staff from all the clubs as well.
Māori and Pasifika Pioneers
“Our wellbeing staff, about a third or maybe a quarter of the group is of Pasifika background, so we get to see it every day, but again it is just helpful to have this reference group to go to.
“This group is meant to be a go-to group for those people who want to know more and what to understand more. And it’s not like we need necessarily a Pasifika person at every club, the idea about this group is that maybe you don’t need someone at every club, but you have someone to call upon and ask. It also helps the group too because they feel valued and respected.”
The attendees of the inaugural Pasifika Wellbeing Advisory Group conference were David Solomona (NRL), Paul Heptonstall (NRL), Dr Sierra Keung (Māori academic), Dr David Lakisa (Pasifika academic), Luke Goodwin (Bulldogs), Sam Tagataese (Dolphins), George Dansey and Christine Gwynne (Eels), Joe Galuvao (Panthers), Sia Soliola (Raiders), Damon Spooner (Roosters), Morgan Te Oka (Sharks), Carmen Taplin (Titans), Jerry Seuseu (Warriors)
