Netball always made Gamilaroi woman Natalee George feel accepted.
"Growing up I didn't always feel like I belonged in different spaces, whether that was at school or anywhere," she told NITV.
"In netball, you're always part of a team, so I always felt like I belonged there ... regardless of whether it was a junior rep team or a club team.
"Netball was the thing that's always been there throughout my whole life."
George is now the coach of the ACT's First Nations team, who are competing in a pilot Indigenous tournament, beginning on Friday at the State Netball Centre in Naarm (Melbourne).
The tournament is part of a bid by Netball Australia to embrace and nurture First Nations talent.
It will feature under-23 aged teams from every state and territory as they compete across three days of competition.
"The sport has not been without its challenges in this space," Gordon said.
"But I think it's a really important commitment by Netball Australia to showcase the deadly talent that we have across Australia in our netball pathways.
"But also to provide a culturally safe space for our athletes to play the game they love in the way they like to play it."
ACT First Nations netball team coach Natalee George.
A 2022 report found that netball is one of the most popular sports in the country for young Indigenous adults.
The tournament follows other initiatives introduced this year including a pilot , and the formation and debut of Australia’s, at the 2024 Pacific Netball Series.
Ali Tucker-Munro, Netball Australia’s First Nations engagement lead, said the tournament is a great initiative.
“I cannot wait to see our girls in action, as well as the opportunity to connect with mob from across Australia who share the same passion and love for our great game that I do,” Tucker-Munro said.
For Victoria's vice-captain Holly Stephens, playing in the tournament is a chance to showcase skills in the game she loves.
"It's just important for all the Indigenous girls around Australia who want to be involved in high performance sport and get a taste of it," she said.
"And it's also important just for community and mob in general, to be able to see people they care so much about playing in these tournaments.
"This is definitely going to contribute to hopefully having more Indigenous people in the national leagues."
Because the tournament is a one-off, the teams have had a challenging lead-up in a limited time-frame.
"We've been training pretty well," Stephens said.
"It's more been about getting to know each other and connecting with each other on and off court as obviously most of us haven't played together before and we have short turnaround.
"We'll definitely bring some speed and athleticism, but I feel like our attacking game is definitely more about fast ball movement."
George, too, emphasised the importance of her team getting to know one another.
The ACT has chose the bogon moth as their symbol and several of their players had a hand in designing their uniforms.
"Two of our players, Liv and Tahlia, have grown up playing netball together since they were about 12 years old so I think that's really special connection," she said.
"There's a real sense of excitement and strength in that connection in this group, and so we did a lot of work around what were our strengths from an individual level, what did we each bring to the team.
"But also those connections and relationship building pieces around what we wanted the team to have as our values and behaviours."
Stephens has a message for any young girl thinking about playing netball.
"Just give it a crack," she said.
"Regardless of if you're good at it, it's such a great sport to be able to play and get that connection with other people, and definitely leads to other pathways.
"So yeah, I'd tell them to give it a crack and just have fun."
The 2024 First Nations Tournament is free to attend.
"A lot of them will be playing their cousins throughout the tournament, and just to know that, as an Aboriginal person, when you walk into a space where there's just mob there, it automatically feels safer," George said.
"And so I think that's a really important part of the pathway, it's just phenomenally positive."
