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Former AFL star Austin Wonaeamirri has been a player and spectator at world-class venues around the country, but he never misses the grand final in the remote Aboriginal community of Wurramiyanga on the Tiwi Islands.
"Footy, it's in our blood," says Wonaeamirri, who hails from the Tiwi Island community of Milikapiti.
WARNING: This story contains images of people who have passed away.
"That's how I got to play footy, by watching family members play the game.
"Uncles, cousins, fathers, grandfathers played footy, and that's why I chose footy. Well, I had no choice."
The annual Tiwi grand final is one of the biggest events on the islands. Most of the 2,600 residents of the two small islands which make up the Tiwis — Bathurst and Melville — attend.
But this year's final, played between the Tapalinga Superstars and Ranku Eagles last Sunday, had even greater significance — it marked half a century of the Tiwi Islands Football League.
"This year has been big for us. It is 50 years," Wonaeamirri said.
"We can thank those old people that started it, you know, particularly Brother John Pye who brought footy onto the Tiwi Islands."
It is a history that is well documented at the local museum's football hall of fame.
"Way back in 1935 they had an old football cover stuffed with rags so they had that just kicking it around," Sister Anne Gardiner said.
Brother John Pye introduced the Aussie Rules code in 1941 with a makeshift field marked out on an old airstrip.
Since then it is been a story of huge success, with the small island producing some of the greatest AFL players in Australia's history.
"We have had some brilliant players like Cyril Rioli, Austin Wonaeamirri, and you go back over the years you've got Maurice Rioli and Ronnie Burns. There's a super amount of talent over there," AFLNT talent manager Brenton Toy said.
Toy, who is a Tiwi Islander, helped set up the Tiwi Islands' team in the Northern Territory Football League — the Tiwi Bombers — as a pathway for frustrated and talented young men.
"It was aimed at giving young men a different avenue to have some identity and express themselves and who they were," he said.
"There was a big problem with youth suicide on the island, and while footy isn't the only response, it was part of the response."
Tiwi elder Mary Elizabeth Moreen said the sport offered a strong code for life.
"Instead of thinking about smoking, drinking, domestic violence, we want them to have a brain," Ms Moreen said.
"Put some sense into their brain, leave everything out, because the footy, the sport, you never know, they might go down to Melbourne and join … I've got a granddaughter in Adelaide, she is playing AFL now."
While some young women on the Tiwi Islands are heading interstate to play football, currently there are no female teams in the Tiwi Islands Football League and the Tiwi Islands does not yet have a representative female side in the NTFL Women's Premier League.
"It's a work in progress at the moment for the Tiwi Islands," Wonaeamirri said
"It would be a dream come true to have a women's side in the comp, and that would add a lot of extra skill into the comp itself and people would come to watch."
Toy agreed there was a lot of emerging talent among female players on the islands.
"Some of the female talent that I've seen over at Tiwi easily rivals some of the male talent, so to have them involved adds another dimension," he said.
At the beginning of Sunday's grand final, players burst through banners and onto the field flanked by family members.
Fans young and old adorned themselves with streamers and paint, and Wonaeamirri said the players did not disappoint.
"The grand final was spot on," he said.
"The skills were amazing. They were clean with the footy. I seen a lot of talent from both sides.
"The game was alive, and it was just Tiwi people.
"You know that's how we play the game — a lot of excitement, a lot of joy, a lot of skills."
Former NT administrator Ted Egan, who played in the first St Mary's football team in Darwin, said football on the Tiwi Islands had become part of the fabric of the community.
"It's much more than footy, it's a way of life," Egan said.
"They've taken Aussie Rules into their tribal structure, if you like, because the various clans, they all play for their prescribed teams."
He said the result was gripping, high-stakes football that had seen the grand final grow from a small community event to a bucket-list item for the AFL-obsessed.
"They put a style on it that no-one else does. They are mercurially fast and spectacular," Egan said.
About 3,000 tourists usually make the trip to the Tiwi Islands for the grand final and for a Tiwi art sale held on the same day.
But this year visitors had to stay away because of concerns about the coronavirus spreading into remote communities.
"I was very sad about it, but the main thing is we have got to protect our old people on the islands from the virus," Milikapiti elder Pius Tipungwuti said.
Without tourists there were no art sales, and the hundreds of pieces created are now being sold online. Tipungwuti said even without the art sale, the footy festival had to go on.
"It's very important to the culture of all Tiwi People to do the gathering. We all love our footy over here on the Tiwi Islands," he said.
Without the visitors on Sunday it was left to the die-hard supporters to watch the game.
At full time, supporters of the Ranku Eagles erupted at their side taking out back-to-back premierships.
A win in the Tiwi grand final can make local heroes of the players.
Sebastian Tipungwuti is still celebrated for his role in the Irrimaru team's 1997 Tiwi premiership victory.
He also played for Waratah in Darwin and hopes his son can take the family name even further.
"We got to get the young generation to come up and play and come into Darwin," he said.
"They got a future ahead of them in Darwin in the Bombers, but we want more Tiwi [players] to go up to the AFL."
Wonaeamirri said the talent and opportunities were there.
"I chose to try to go the next level up and I felt lucky to have good support and people around me that made it easier for me," he said.
"I coach under-18s now and the next generation of Tiwi kids running around, it's going to be big for us."
Topics: community-and-society, history, sport, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, indigenous-culture, australian-football-league, darwin-0800, nt