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Joel Parkinson Teams Up With Indigenous Surfers Ahead Of The Quiky Pro

Waves of change for Indigenous surfers.

Looking out from the basalt outcrop at the top of Fingal Headland, the creamy beaches and deep turquoise sea are reminiscent of the idyllic life it’s original inhabitants, the Coodjingburra people of the Bunjalung tribe would have experienced, long before Captain Cook sighted it in 1770.

Formed by a lava flow from the now extinct Tweed Volcano, Fingal Head is situated on the Far North Coast of NSW.

According to historians, Aborigines have been living here since the Dreamtime with seven feet tall skeletal remains attesting to the superb nutrition the area provided

Evidence suggests Indigenous Australians were skilled ocean people with a well-developed coastal culture, paddling canoes in and out of the surf, fishing, diving and bodysurfing.

In the 1999 award winning Indigenous surfing film, “Surfing the Healing Wave,” Fingal resident, Kyle Slabb affirms their connection with the ocean

“When Aboriginal people are in the ocean, they know they are in their country,” he says. “They belong to it. They don’t own it… we know there’s always another wave. Surfing is about being part of the wave.”

Looking down from the headland to the right, Dreamtime Beach is a continuous stretch of pristine sand with a brutal history. The northern end is a massacre site dating from the 1850s and today there is an Aboriginal cemetery in the area where the legendary Juraki is buried.

According to Kyle’s brother, Joel, Juraki’s father Gumoi was “one of the Kings.

“When people came to the border into Coolangatta, Gumoi would tell Juraki to go and sit on Greenmount Hill and watch people swim to make sure they didn’t drown,” he says.

The foundation meeting of the Tweed-Coolangatta Surf Club in 1910 paid tribute to Juraki for carrying out numerous daring rescues in the surf before the existence of the surf club and more recently, he was awarded a Royal Humane Society medal for bravery for his lifesaving feats.

Having established the first surfing school in Australia for Aboriginal kids and as huge supporters of Indigenous surf culture, the Slabb family have lived in the area for as long as they can remember.

“We are all from here, but our grandmother was born on Ukerabagh Island out in the middle of the Tweed River and before that we were up in the caves around Fingal Point, so we’ve been here for that long,” Joel says.

In “Surfing the Healing Wave”, Kyle elaborates on the Slabb family’s progression into surfing.

“From our house you can hear the waves when you wake up in the morning. Most mornings if the conditions are good, me and my brothers go surfing. My Dad and Mum, my brothers and sisters, my wife and children, all my in-laws, a lot of other relations, we all live here in Fingal. We grew up in the salt water. My grandfather was a fisherman. My dad’s a fisherman and we grew up with that and I think that even comes before surfing, like being at the beach with Dad and then fishing all the time, we just progressed into surfing.”

To honour the area’s history, Kyle and Joel’s father, Kevin, initiated one of the first Indigenous surf competitions at Fingal in 1996, which remained an annual event for several years.

“When I was young there weren’t any competitions for blackfellas,” Kevin says. “There were barely any Indigenous people surfing full-stop. We didn’t join surf clubs and to be a professional surfer or compete you needed financial backing. This was in the days before sports grants or funding of any sort.”

Following in his father’s footsteps, Joel was determined to get the event back up and running and, after a 16 year hiatus, his vision materialized last year.

“A few years ago I started collecting boards in the hard rubbish collection around Fingal and fixing them up for the kids in the area and then taking them surfing,” he says. “And Dan Flynn who runs The Surfboard Agency gave me a couple of boards and I enjoyed riding them, so I went in the Wandiyali Classic in Newcastle early last year and met up with Indigenous surfers I hadn’t seen for years.”

With sponsorship provided by a local family and several more boards from The Surfboard Agency, Joel was able to organize the competition, which ran successfully in September 2015 under the name “Banaan Indigenous Surf Titles.

Prominent Pro Surfer, Otis Carey, who starred in the open men’s line up, says that for him the Indigenous comps are all about connection to Country and are underpinned by cultural values that place an entirely different emphasis on winning.

“It’s always important to be connected to the things that your ancestors were connected to as well,” Otis says. “Its important to keep that connection there and always understand why it’s there and the Indigenous comps are really good. It’s basically the Indigenous surf community coming together because we never really get to see each other. We all live so far apart, so the only time we get to see each other is at the comps. It’s a pretty special thing to be able to have.”

Kyle Slabb reiterates the notion of communality that foregrounds the “competition.”

“Most contests are about winning and losing,” he says. “Fellows trying to beat each other and knock each other out. But this Indigenous contest when you just see everyone on the beach the first morning, just blackfellas everywhere, you’re just happy that everyone’s there. Good feeling. And it’s not just the surfers that come, it’s their mums and dads, aunties and uncles, old people there, kids running everywhere. They’re all here to cheer on their families and friends. They’re all part of the whole thing, the celebrations.”

This year the competition at Fingal will run again in September as the ‘Juraki Surf Invitational.’

Additionally, in an all time first, there will also be an Indigenous event and Cultural Day proceeding the Quiksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks on March 9.

Champion surfer, Joel Parkinson, has been working closely with Juraki to organize an All Stars Event that will showcase Australia’s best indigenous surfers on the day.

Eight standout surfers from the Banaam Indigenous Surf Titles (four male and four female) will be competing in the event, which will involve two 8 men heats, where they’ll be paired with four internationally renowned Surfing League Champions.

Joel Slabb sees it as a good opportunity to invigorate Indigenous surfing and his clan will perform an opening ceremony with a full cultural presentation that will include a Welcome to Country and the telling of the Juraki story.

“It’s such a healthy lifestyle and has always been a way to get away from societal pressures, and with Indigenous youth suicide rates rising, it’s something we want to promote as much as we can,” he says.

“I go and spend a few hours out in the water with the young fellas and see them getting their first barrel and it’s so motivating, and it’s the same with the comp. It’s just an avenue where we can encourage young kids and give them something to train for, even if they don’t all want to become professional surfers.”

Over one hundred local kids and community elders have also been invited to the event.

“It’s our cultural way – gathering, coming together, so that’s a strong point as well. Gathering our elders and having them speak to the young people about positive things, because some of our elders have been through some heavy stuff in their lives.”

“For them to have come through that and reflect on what they’ve overcome and to say that we have opportunities now and can move forward is what it’s all about.”

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