MAYSAR, Melbourne Aboriginal Youth Sport and Recreation Co-Operative

30/05/2026

19/05/2026

16/05/2026

🌟RETRO - FITZROY STARS X NEW BALANCE🌟

Secure yours in the first shipment arriving in mid-June to make sure you're looking deadly for NAIDOC week!

Limited sizes remain, so get in quick. -> https://www.fitzroystars.com.au/shop

If your size is already sold out, we'll have a future pre-order opportunity soon.

You'll be notified when your order is ready for pick up from the club. ⚫🌟🔴

*ai generated image

08/11/2025

27/02/2025

Members of the Aboriginal cricket team that toured England in 1868 - the first Australian team in any sport to play overseas.

This incredible all-indigenous team was made up of players from across the Western District, including several from Gunditjmara clans around Warrnambool.

Prior to travelling overseas, some members of the team (under then-captain coach Tom Wills) played the Melbourne Cricket Club in a Boxing Day match in 1866, which was when this photo was taken.

The team also played against the Warrnambool Cricket Club in October 1867, scoring 140 runs in their first innings. Warrnambool was bowled out for a mere 16 runs in the first innings and 24 in the second.

The historic UK tour took place just a year before the start of the Aboriginal Protection Act in Victoria.

This Act saw Aboriginal people forced onto reserves where they required signed permission to leave, making it impossible for most to continue playing competitive cricket.

A trove of information can be found online about this team, so we will simply share the names of those pictured:

(L-R)
Standing:
Bullchanach/Bullocky,
Murrumgunerrimin/Tarpot,
Tom Wills (coach and captain),
Unaarrimin/Johnny Mullagh,
Brimbunyah/Red Cap;
(seated, l-r)
Jungunjinanuke/Dick-a-Dick,
Yellanach/Johnny Cuzens,
Grongarrong Grongarro/Mosquito,
Jarrawuk/Twopenny,
Lytejerbillijun/Jim Crow,
Bripumyarrinain/King Cole [Bripumyarrimin fell ill and died on tour.]

[Image: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. Photographer unknown.]

27/02/2025

26/02/2025

What wonderful experiences you have shared with your band, family, traditional owners and your audiences👣

06/02/2025

Our thoughts are with the Austin family today as they lay to rest community legend, Lawrence (Locky) ‘Baby Cassius’ Austin.

Baby Cas, as he was known, became Commonwealth Champion in 1977, defeating Hector Thompson, a highlight of his long list of accomplishments.

In his later career, Uncle Locky fought out of the Fitzroy Stars boxing gymnasium in Gertrude Street, trained by his brother and former Fitzroy Stars President, Herbert ‘Jock’ Austin and Johnny Douglas, with World Champion Boxer Uncle Lionel Rose and his brother David ‘Toopy’ Austin in his corner.

Uncle Locky will be missed, leaving behind a lasting legacy. Rest in peace.

25/01/2025

"I wanted to be an Olympic champion and I didn’t care about the goings-on around me. In my heart and with all of my soul I was ready, willing and I was very able. I had a deadly sense of self-belief. I’d go to another level and say I had a deadly sense of self-conviction where you can say whatever you want, you can do whatever you want but you’re not going to touch me"

"Cathy Freeman’s mother, Cecelia, of the Kuku Yalanji people, was born on Palm Island. Her father, Norman ‘Twinkletoes’ Freeman, of the Birra Gubba mob, was born at Woorabinda in Queensland"

"Cathy Freeman was born in Mackay in 1973. Always proud of her ancestry, Freeman hoped her success as an athlete would be an inspiration to all Aboriginal children"

"Family is important to Freeman. Her first coach was her stepfather, Bruce Barber. And after winning her gold medal at the Sydney Olympics, the image in her mind was of her older sister, Anne-Marie, who had been born with cerebral palsy"

"Anne-Marie had died from an asthma attack in 1990, three days after 16-year-old Freeman won her first gold medal at the Auckland Commonwealth Games"

"Freeman was keenly aware of the many injustices done to Aboriginal people. Her grandmother was part of the Stolen Generations, forcibly taken away from her family at the age of eight. Freeman was upset the Howard government had refused to issue an apology for this policy. As she told the London Daily Telegraph after winning the Sydney 2000 Olympics 400 m :

"You have to understand that when you have a government that is so insensitive to the issues that are close to people’s hearts, that have affected so many lives for the worse, people are going to be really angry and emotional"

“Somewhere deep inside, I’d absorbed
all the pain and suffering my people had
endured and turned it into a source of
strength.” — Cathy Freeman

🖤💛💖

CATHY FREEMAN Foundation/Community Spirit Foundation is now known under the name MURRUP Murrup - incredible work helping getting/keeping kids in school.
See website for details and how to make a DONATION https://www.murrup.org.au/our-story 🤗

https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/cathy-freeman

Image: "Cathy Freeman 1994 Commonwealth Games victory lap with the Aboriginal flag wrapped around herself – a moment that symbolised a movement" courtesy of Woman's Day