Australian softballer Janice Blackman named aboriginal culture ambassador by nation's Institute of Sports

Australian softballer Janice Blackman named aboriginal culture ambassador by nation's Institute of Sports
04/03/2021
Blackman is one of 14 ambassadors from 11 different sports included in the initiative promoted by the Australian Institute of Sports.

Janice Blackman, an outfielder who is vying to make the Australian Olympic Softball Team, has been named an Australian Institute of Sport's 2021 Share a Yarn Programme ambassador. Blackman is one of 14 ambassadors from 11 different sports included in the programme.

The Share a Yarn initiative aims to provide Australian Elite Athletes with meaningful opportunities to connect and build relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) communities, and learn more about the differing cultures, lands, histories and people within them.

The Australian Women’s National Softball Team is currently conducting a pre-Olympic camp at the AIS, and as part of Share a Yarn activities, Blackman invited her teammates to Walk on Country on traditional Ngunnawal land. Blackman is one of three Aboriginal players in the Australian Softball team and spoke of the powerful moment the team asked them to present an Indigenous-designed jersey to their teammates.

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“It's a really awful feeling when you feel out of place in your own country, but when you're essentially playing for your country,” said Blackman. “[Presenting those jerseys] is probably the best feeling I've ever had being on this team. I know the girls probably think it's something very small, but to me, it's massive…I feel just so settled, so free, and I just feel like I belong.”

Blackman says being an ambassador for Share a Yarn has brought her closer together with her teammates.

"And they do want to learn more about it, definitely. When we got to present those jerseys, all three of us [Indigenous players] got quite emotional actually because it was such an empowering moment,” said Blackman, according to ABC News.

Blackman was a member of Australia’s 2016 WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship team that finished in 10th place in Surrey, the country’s worst position ever in the top-tier global competition. She hit .381 for the tournament, with three RBI and four runs scored.


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