Six Players, One Team: The Hawks at the Indigenous All Stars

OUR MOB. OUR ROUND. OUR TEAM.

Ahead of NAIDOC Week's Indigenous All Stars clash in Cairns, six players with Hawks ties take the court. Here's the Hawks story, and where it all started.

On Tuesday 7 July, the IBA All Stars take on New Zealand's Poitūkohu Māori Aotearoa in Cairns. Women's game tips off at 6pm, men's at 8:30. It's part of NAIDOC Week, and this year is a big one: 50 Years of Deadly, marking half a century of NAIDOC honouring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture.

Have a look at the team sheets. The Hawks are all over them.

WHO'S RUNNING OUT

Johny Narkle and Amarco Doyle, who signed with us last week, are lining up for the IBA All Stars men's side. They're joined by Biwali Bayles and Kobe McDowell-White, who are well know to Hawks fans, with Kobe teaming up alongside his brother Will. Sisters Hayley and Jess McDowell-White are suiting up in the women's game.

Amarco Doyle just signed on with the Hawks on a 2+1 deal. He's walking into a First Nations pathway the club has been building for years and Doyle is the latest.

On the other bench, Luca Yates and former Hawk Hyrum Harris will run out for Poitūkohu Māori Aotearoa. Different jersey, same respect.

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A HAWKS FIRST THAT BECAME AN NBL FIRST

This isn't the club's only tie to Indigenous basketball history.

During NBL26 Indigenous Round, Johny Narkle took the court alongside teammates Hickey and Biwali Bayles, three Indigenous Australians in the one Hawks team, in the one game, against the New Zealand Breakers. It was the first time that had happened for a single NBL team.

WHERE INDIGENOUS ROUND ACTUALLY STARTED

Most fans know Indigenous Round as a fixture on the NBL calendar now. Credit where it's due, that story doesn't start with us.

The now defunct Townsville Crocodiles wore an Indigenous jersey back in 2014. That's a piece of NBL history worth remembering, from a club that's no longer around to tell it themselves. In that game, familiar Hawks names Todd Blanchfield and former Hawk Mitch Norton were on court for the Crocs.

What the Hawks did, in 2018, was build on that and turn it into the modern Indigenous Round the league now runs every year, with a jersey designed by Harry Pitt. Patty Mills even wore it on his way into an NBA game.

The response caught everyone off guard. Players, media, fans, all asking the same thing: why isn't this happening across the whole league, every year? Within days, the NBL confirmed it was looking at a league wide Indigenous round, off the back of what Illawarra had kick-started.

Former Hawk Tyson Demos led that push. He told the ABC back in 2018:

"To be honest, this conversation started years back from when I was still playing."

"I think the NBL needs to take charge because it is long overdue."

"It is only the beginning really. It is about recognising the Indigenous community through basketball. I am pretty happy and proud about how it was received."

"People have noticed how important this is to Indigenous Australia. It did make a few people uncomfortable, but that is how you make change."

Demos is still doing the work today. He's Head of Operations at Indigenous Basketball Australia, and Program Manager for Healthy Deadly Kids at the Illawarra Aboriginal Medical Service, one of Hawks standing partners who we thank for their continued support.

WHY IT MATTERS

Six players with Hawks ties, on court in Cairns this week and a round the entire league now plays, because we started it in 2018. A former player still doing the work off the court, years on.

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Photos: Indigenous Basketball Australia and Joel Armstrong