Daley Aboriginal and proud of it
August 22, 2010 12:01AM
THINK Laurie Daley - you thinking Aboriginal?
"People probably have their own ideas about the appearance of Aboriginal people and maybe I haven't fit those ideas, so they've made the wrong assumptions about me," Daley said after being named coach of the Indigenous All Stars for next year.
"People look at you and go, 'nah, you're not Aboriginal, you look a bit different to the Aboriginal people I know'.
"That's wrong, but it's what happens. People thought I was Greek or Italian. I told them about my heritage and they just flat out didn't believe me.
"My team-mates always knew, all my friends knew, there was never any secret.
"I never set out to keep it quiet, not in a million years. It just never seemed like an issue to bring up, but I guess people in the rugby league public never knew."
Timana Tahu walked out of the NSW Origin camp this year because he thought Andrew Johns had racially vilified Greg Inglis.
Tahu is likely to be one of the players coached by Daley next year. And when Tahu used to think Laurie Daley, he never thought Aboriginal.
"I never knew Laurie Daley was Aboriginal until two years ago," Tahu said after his Origin walkout.
"It makes you wonder if Laurie Daley had recognised himself publicly as an Aboriginal in the past, would he still have made all those rep teams and played for Australia?
"Being Aboriginal, coming from an Aboriginal heritage, it does hurt when blokes wait until later on in their careers to do that. But I guess what hurts the most is that those players felt they couldn't acknowledge themselves because they feared a bad reaction. Most of the time it's just been me as the only indigenous fella in the NSW sides."
Whoa. That gets Daley all wrong.
"I'm extremely proud of who I am, proud of what I stand for, proud of what I believe in," Daley said. "I wasn't out there bringing it up every five minutes, but if I was asked I always talked about it. It was just that I never thought of myself as being anything different to anyone else and then moving into football, I felt like I was always judged on my footy instead of my race.
"That's the way it should be. I suppose it goes back to how I was brought up. A small country town like Junee, it was about what you did in the community, how you treated other people. That's how you earned your respect. I know I was luckier than some others. I never came across any prejudices."
Daley racked up his 23 Origin matches for NSW and 21 Tests in an era of reduced awareness and even worse interest. The NRL is staging a Close The Gap Round this weekend under their Reconciliation Action Plan. It was unheard of in Daley's day.
"Some people talk about it a lot, other people don't," he said. "That doesn't mean it means any more or less to those people. That's not about the colour of someone's skin or their bloodlines. It's just different personalities. I've always thought you just go about your business and let people judge you on that. I never felt like I had to prove myself to anyone, talk about myself too much."
Unlike, say, Anthony Mundine.
"He would be welcomed into our camp with open arms by everyone, including me," Daley said. "I will ask him to be involved."
Pull the other one. It plays the national anthem. You blokes were enemies. He bagged you for "running on old legs". You were the premier five-eighth of your generation, Mundine somewhere behind. He claimed he was overlooked for Test teams because he was Aboriginal.
"I respect Anthony a great deal. If I saw him right now, we'd embrace, we'd have a laugh, we'd have a yarn," Daley said. "I prefer to work with people rather than putting barriers up, but I respect Anthony for everything he did in rugby league, everything he's doing in boxing. Anthony has been a wonderful sportsman and has done a lot for indigenous people and he should be congratulated for that. I've never had an issue with him."
You fair dinkum?
"There have been times when I haven't agreed with him. He says something and I think, 'why did you say that?' But at the end of the day, he can have his opinions.
"Some people don't like him, other people respect him for it. People have got to be happy with who they are. I'm happy with who I am, with what I'm about, what I stand for and the way I go about things. Ask Anthony and I'm sure he'd say the same about himself."
Family spirit is a fundamental part of Daley. He lived it in Junee as a child and it has shaped him as a man.
"We certainly didn't have silver spoons in our mouths. Dad had to work three or four jobs. Mum didn't work and there were eight of us kids. But everyone just pitched in, the aunties and the uncles and cousins and everyone," he said. "My sisters used to complain because they'd get hand-me-downs and thought I got my own stuff because I was the only boy. But my stuff was only the hand-me-downs from the cousins next door.
"Four or five years go, we had Christmas with Mum's side, all the uncles and aunties and kids, back in Junee. There must have been 150 of us, all family. It makes you think about what you were like growing up, just running around outside all the time. Making the most of what little stuff we had.
"You played out on the road, played on the front lawn, played in the backyard. There were a lot of boys on our street so I spent a lot of time with other people's families. Everyone involved everyone else when I was growing up. Everyone was just accepted for whoever they were."
Think Laurie Daley. You think Test captain. Origin legend. Leader of the Canberra Raiders. But are you thinking member of the Waridjuri people? One of the best Aboriginal athletes this country has produced? Daley didn't get his latest gig solely for his football expertise. He was named coach of the Indigenous All Stars because he's one of them.
