EVERYONE seemed very happy to be back.
Many of them had travelled hundreds of kilometres to play, watch or just chat with old friends over a couple of days at the Punmu Sports Carnival. Last year’s event was cancelled due to torrential rains, which made the trek by vehicle to the isolated community impossible for most. No serious rainfall was recorded this year, so the curtain once again was lifted for a weekend of sport, fun and good food. This year’s carnival featured round-robin football and softball competitions, a face painter… and a clown. There was an abundance of good humour and chatter, both on and off the field, as the boys brought their natural talents and deft skills to the red dirt oval to play bare-foot footy in good spirit, but with intensity; while the girls bashed the little white ball to all parts of the softball diamond and beyond.

All the while, sizeable crowds yelled and cheered their home teams to victory. Punmu hosted players and families from Parngurr, Kunawaritji, Kiwirrkurra, and Warralong/Goodabinya. For those not yet big or strong enough to take to the sporting fields, there were other entertainments awaiting: You could wait in line to have Natasha Woods paint your face in your favourite team’s colours, or as an angry lion, or as a fairytale character; or you could watch the antics of the clown as he tried valiantly to sweep clean the red dirt from the roads and ovals. You didn’t have to be young to get a giggle from Hardey McMurrick’s performance.

When the tummy rumbled, there was plenty of wholesome food to quell the pangs, cooked to perfection by Martu graduates from a Certificate-level course in kitchen operations, under the direction of Janelle Cockayne, Pilbara TAFE’s Chief Lecturer in the Newcrest-sponsored Hospitality course. The presence of Janelle and her team reflected the close working relationship developed between the College and Newcrest, which is making a sizeable contribution in many areas related to enhancing training and employment opportunities for Indigenous people at Telfer. The (normally) annual Punmu carnival has secured significant and continuing support from two major organisations, which accounts for its success in terms of the numbers of participants and spectators it attracts.

For several years, the community’s nearest neighbour, Newcrest Mining Ltd and the Department of Sport and Recreation’s Indigenous Sports Unit have joined forces to make the carnival possible. Newcrest helps logistically, with flights for the organisers, and equipment, food and soft drinks for the hundreds of people who turn up; while DSR’s contribution is measured in the personnel and expertise it brings to the event to organise the sports and umpire the games. For the record, the hosts won both sporting competitions. The better-performing footballers who caught the selectors’ eyes during the round-robin competition were chosen to represent the Western Desert against the Ngarda Warriors in a game to be played two weeks later as the curtain-raiser to the Western Derby between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers.