Swapping rage for honour of heritage
STEVEN May is a happy and proud indigenous man but he still remembers the confused an angry teen he once was.
As he leads the Suns on to Traeger Park in Alice Springs today as the AFL’s only current indigenous skipper he feels there has been giant strides towards cultural awareness in his lifetime.
Inclusion is certainly in the Gold Coast Suns’ DNA.
May will wear No.67 today and has been humbled at the gesture by co-captain Tom Lynch who will wear No.50 to celebrate the anniversary of the landmark 1967 referendum that altered the constitution to change the rights of indigenous Australians.
May, who will next month join Adam Saad in fasting for Ramadan, feels part of the most culturally aware AFL club.
But he can recall when a moment that was supposed to usher in a new era of national unity turned into the time to choose sides.
It was his first year at Melbourne Grammar in 2008 when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made his historic apology to the stolen generation.
While May, whose grandmother was part of the stolen generation, was bursting with joy inside, he could see the ripple of unease that spread through the conservative ranks of the student body during an assembly turn into open outrage.
“I was very angry, I didn’t want to stay at the school, I wanted to leave,” he said.
“I was thinking I can’t be with these kids.
“I was probably ignorant but they were as well.
“Not all of them, many were open to it, but there was a bunch that had preconceived ideas and that is not their fault, it is about education.’’
It put May in a bind. With his light skin, which he gets from his partially indigenous mother, his heritage was not well known among his peers and he could easily have chosen the path of least resistance and kept quiet.
“I had to sit there and choose, as a 15-year-old, am I going to agree to make friends or disagree, have an argument, and lose friends in a new city,’’ he said. “You shouldn’t have to take sides.’’
But his sister has darker skin and he wasn’t going to betray her to make his life easier.
While May relates to his mother’s tribe, the Gunbalan- ya people, and carries the Kinga, a saltwater crocodile from East Arnhem land, as his totem, his father who he has no contact with is an indigenous man from Western Australia.
“As a young person in Darwin, it is a big indigenous community up there and everyone is really proud of their family trees and how they are related,’’ he said.
“And I didn’t really realise until I moved away from it and down to Melbourne how close all those families are.
“So I didn’t realise how important family is and our culture is until I grew a bit older.’’ SOUTHPORT have sent bigman option Jonathan Croad back to his 2016 QAFL club Palm Beach-Currumbin to regain some confidence.
The Sharks, who play NEAFL wooden-spoon rivals Redland at Wally Fankhauser Reserve today at 1.30pm, omitted two players – Croad and Blake Erickson – in the wake of a poor last-start home loss to Northern Territory.
Croad (pictured), in particular, is a shock omission and appears to be paying the price for the Sharks’ lack of success.
But the ruck-forward could be considered unlucky given there are a number of players in the firstgrade line-up not going well.
“We want Jon to go back to QAFL level, regain some confidence and come back in,” Sharks football manager Jarrod Field said.
There is a line of thought that the Sharks have been playing Croad out of position as a specialist defender.
Last year as basically a ruckman-forward, Croad played 18 games for PBC, kicked 18 goals and was in the Lions’ best eight times.
This year the big blond has yet to kick a goal and has been in the best list just the once.
And considering the Sharks have lost another forwardruck option in Hamish Shepheard (shoulder), the axing of Croad is questionable.
Off-season signing Ryan Pantic was due to play his first game for the Sharks but has had further complications with his reconstructed knee and will miss at least three weeks.
Rover James Holland, ruckman Jed Turner, forward Josh and Sam Jewell, from Surfers Paradise, have been named to tackle the Bombers.
Jewell, the son of former Surfers flag player Danny, will be on debut for the Sharks.