Diversity in spotlight at Games opening
A strong indigenous presence permeated the 2018 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast on Wednesday night, starting with an Aboriginal family kicking off the countdown.
William Barton, one of Australia’s leading didgeridoo players, made a call out to Australia from atop the Q1 skyscraper in Surfers Paradise; the Seven Sisters Aboriginal creation story featured; there was a smoking ceremony; and a welcome to the country was made by Yugambeh elder Ted Williams. Earlier in the day about 50 indigenous protesters from the ‘‘Stolenwealth Games’’ group lined up to delay the Queen’s Baton relay by an hour.
The protests continued before the opening ceremony, with the protesters corralled hundreds of metres from the stadium.
New Zealand were 62nd of the 71 nations to enter at 9.30pm (local time), led by beaming flagbearer Sophie Pascoe. There was a raucous roar from the 35,000-odd crowd, second only to that for host nation Australia, almost certainly aided by some of the more than 40,000 Kiwis who live on the Gold Coast.
Not all 251 Kiwi athletes were there. Including support staff, there were fewer than 200. The basketball teams are a two-hour flight away in Cairns and Townsville for group matches. The track sprinters are an hour up the road in Brisbane and compete over the first four days of competition. The women’s sevens team are staying on the Sunshine Coast until Sunday as a precaution after Ruby Tui got the mumps.
The rest of the ceremony was fun despite sporadic showers.
Some Australians sang, Delta Goodrem the most notable. Prince Charles walked around with wife Camilla and did some standard royal stuff, like opening the Games on behalf of his mum, the Queen.