First Nations Programs

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Australian Athletics is dedicated to fostering inclusive participation and development opportunities for all First Nations communities. We are actively working across the country to expand and enhance programs, ensuring greater access to athletics for all individuals.

Rio Tinto Athletics for the Outback

The Rio Tinto Athletics for the Outback program is focussed on engaging regional and remote communities. This program is committed to long term and sustainable relationships with the communities we visit. The aim of Athletics for the Outback is to create relevant programs through a collaborative and consultative process prior to delivery, so that we can deliver meaningful and engaging athletics participation opportunities for each community.

Athletics for the Outback comprises the following elements: 

  • Next Athletics Clinics

  • School Clinics

  • Team Development

  • Event Development

  • Running Clubs

  • Teacher Upskilling

  • Athletics Carnivals

  • Community Coaching Courses

Thanks to the support of Rio Tinto, the Rio Tinto Athletics for the Outback program is delivering athletics programs in Weipa in North Queensland, Gladstone, the Pilbara and surrounds in Western Australia, and East Arnhem in the Northern Territory. In the inital three years of our partnership with Rio Tinto, we reached over 15,000 participants in regional and remote areas, with over 10,000 participants engaged in Rio Tinto Athletics for the Outback programs in 2024 alone.

Reconciliation Action Plan 

Australian Athletics is committed to playing an active role in reconciliation, using the power and influence of athletics. In June 2019, we launched our initial Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). Australian Athletics commits to completing the actions within this RAP to ensure we are well-positioned to develop and deliver actions aimed at strengthening our relationships and improving outcomes for First Nations peoples and communities.  

Australian Athletics is well advanced in developing our second Innovate RAP with the new RAP currently under review by Reconciliation Australia. Our new Innovate RAP will be launched in mid-2025. Whilst we finalise the new RAP, we are continuing to work on the delivery of elements of our initial RAP which can be accessed below.

View the current reconciliation plan

Athletics First Nations and RAP Advisory Group 

Some of the most prolific names in Indigenous Australian Athletics have come together with experts in the field as part of a revamped and expanded Australian Athletics First Nations and Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Advisory Group.

Initially launched to guide the development of Australian Athletics' initial Innovate RAP (launched in June 2019), the Advisory Group was refreshed in 2023. The Group’s purpose is to:

  1. Provide strategic advice to Australian Athletics Management and Member Associations across all aspects of engagement with First Nations people, including programs and initiatives; and 

  2. Guide the development of and actively contribute to the delivery of Australian Athletics' second RAP. 

 Read more about the group via the button below.

Register your interest

For enquiries about Athletics for the Outback, our Reconciliation Action Plan, or First Nations Programs, please contact Emily Broderick, First Nations Manager, at Emily.Broderick@athletics.org.au

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Australian Athletics acknowledges and pays respect to all traditional custodians of the lands of which we run, jump, throw, walk and roll throughout Australia. We pay respect to elders both past, present and emerging. We are committed to a positive future for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and to honour their ongoing cultural and spiritual connections to this country and recognise the role and value of culture.
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