It was a spot of hope in the depths of COVID-19 restrictions; a poster, stuck on a closed cafe outside a regional Victorian supermarket inviting women and gender diverse people to try football.
Photographer Mitch Nivalis never had an interest in Aussie Rules.
“What stopped me were the words ‘gender diverse’. I’d never seen that word used in a sporting context before, let alone a football context,” they said.
Mx Nivalis identifies as non-binary – a term used by those who experience their gender identity and/or gender expression as falling outside the binary categories of ‘man’ or ‘woman’.
A photography project was what Mx Nivalis had been looking for when they saw the poster outside the supermarket in Castlemaine, just over 18 months ago.
What they found was a sense of belonging.
Club seeks to create a safe space
Mx Nivalis has since become part of the Mount Alexander Falcons; a community football club created by, and for, women and gender diverse people.
Club president Alana Wearne had just given birth to her second baby when a friend approached her with the idea to form the club in early 2021.
“AFL clubs haven’t always been safe spaces for women and gender diverse people,” Ms Wearne said.
She and her friend set out to change that, modelling their club on the Preston-based Darebin Falcons.
“What we’ve created, we don’t think it’s rocket science,” Ms Wearne said.
“We are putting women and gender-diverse people as the number one priority in the club and putting all our resources into creating a space where [they] can play footy.”
Nearly 600,000 women and girls were participating in Australian football in 2022, at more than 2,500 community football teams nationwide.
The AFL said women and girls’ participation had surged since the AFLW started in 2017.
Falcons spread their wings
The Castlemaine-based Falcons are playing their first official season as part of the inaugural women’s football competition in the Riddell District Football Netball League.
“It’s looking unlikely that we’ll be playing finals this year,” Ms Wearne said.
But just getting to this point has been a win, after the club came off second best in a contest for a spot in the Central Victoria Football League.
The Castlemaine Football Netball Club fielded its first senior women’s football side in the league last year, taking home the premiership cup.
Mx Nivalis said momentum for the Falcons kept building, even before the club had a league to play in.
“It was very clear that the community wanted this,” they said.
“The number of players that kept turning up each week to come and try sessions was pretty extraordinary.”
Ms Wearne, the club’s president, said more than 50 players had signed up, wanting to take to the field each week.
“At a time when lots of clubs are really struggling for numbers, we seem to be just getting bigger and bigger,” she said.
Inclusion driving footy participation
Mx Nivalis said they and their teammates often joked that it wouldn’t have mattered what type of sport they were being invited to come to try.
“It could have been a chess club, and we all would have turned up because we wanted to feel a sense of belonging,” the 42-year-old Fryerstown resident said.
“To be able to walk into a space that is already very clearly saying, ‘You’re welcome’, is such a massive load off.
“I remember the first couple of sessions I walked away and just suddenly thought, ‘Why do I feel so calm?’
“I’m completely accepted in this space, and that’s not normally the case.”
They said they were often misgendered, which could be anything from just uncomfortable to feeling unsafe.
“There’s been so much conversation, especially recently, about trans and gender diverse inclusion in sport, and that has been met with a lot of really horrible commentary online,” Mx Nivalis said.
“There is just this underlying sense that you’re never quite sure if you’re going to be truly welcome in a space.
“So, to have a club leading so proudly from the very beginning to say everyone’s welcome, that was just a really huge thing for a lot of us.”
The Australian Sports Commission yesterday released guidelines for the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse athletes in high-performance sport.
The guidelines advocate inclusion first, with a case-by-case approach to determining exemptions, in line with International Olympic Committee guidelines and anti-discrimination laws.
June is Pride Month in Australia; a celebration of the LGBTIQA+ community, and a time to reflect on civil rights.
Club’s story on screens
In addition to becoming part of the Falcons, Mx Nivalis did set out what they had intended to do; they documented the club’s origins and its fight for inclusion.
Their documentary, Equal the Context, premieres this weekend as part of the Castlemaine Documentary Festival.
“For a lot of us, we’ve played sport our whole lives and never been worthy of being photographed, let alone had a film made about us,” Mx Nivalis said.
“To see ourselves on screen is a hugely validating thing.
“What I really hope is that people come away from the film, having had really interesting conversations that allow people to start to have a deeper understanding about inclusion, diversity in sport and welcoming trans and gender diverse people into organisations, and really understand what that means and how to make places safe.”
Loading
Source: AFL NEWS ABC
