We all know how important the footy is to Victorians. It is as old and unique as this place, starting out as Marngrook, a Gunditjmara word for ‘game ball’. It was originally played with a possum skin ball and the rules were strikingly similar to the rules of AFL today.
“The tallest men, and those who are able to spring to a great height, have the best chances in this game”
WILLIAM THOMAS wrote of Marngrook in 1878
And it wasn’t just in Victoria
“Numerous accounts in the diaries of settlers, explorers, anthropologists as well as artist depictions point to the widespread existence of a ball game not only in South-Eastern Australia but also in the Northern Territory”
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. 26.05.17. The AFL’s aboriginal origins.
For a long time the influence of Marngrook remained buried under pages of written documentation that favoured colonial narratives.
Narratives like that of Tom Wills, a non-indigenous man who grew up in Moyston (one of the origin locations of Marngrook). Tom Wills is often credited as the inventor of the sport as he recorded the rules for the first Australian Rules game in 1859.
“Most historians rely on written documentary evidence and are unwilling to rely on oral history, so there’s all sorts of assumptions made – If it isn’t written down by a white person, it didn’t happen.”
Jim Poulter, Historian and author
However the essence of Marngrook lives beyond the confines of written text. It resides in the collective memory of a resilient people.
As we gear up for another year of AFL, let’s honour the legacy of Marngrook and its origins in First Peoples history and culture.
Let’s recognise First Peoples as guardians of a tradition that continues to inspire through the game we love.
In recognising the true history of Victoria, we can shape a better future for First Peoples and all Victorians.
