A former board member of Netball Australia has revealed her experiences of racism within the organization, as the company recommitted to its sponsorship deal with mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting.
Despite the issues surrounding the company’s record on addressing Indigenous issues, NA still signed the deal.
Fascinating comment from @NetballAust. I’m pretty easy to contact if you’re sincere and I haven’t had any as yet. Try me here.https://t.co/aA9SMsG0zL
— Nareen Young (@nareenyoung) October 19, 2022
During an interview with The Drum, Nareen Young, who served on the organization’s board in 2018, revealed that she had experienced racial discrimination while she was playing the sport at a junior level.
She said that there was a lot of racism in the organization at every level.
According to Young, she had also spoken to several black players who had experienced racial discrimination in the sport.
She noted that these players had told her that they had experienced racial prejudice in the sport.
Following Young’s comments on Tuesday, NA released a statement to News Corp, stating that it was not aware of the allegations against the organization, but takes any such claims seriously.
The statement also noted that the company had made a commitment to addressing the issue of racial discrimination in the sport.
Young also acknowledged that NA had been trying to address the issue of racial discrimination in the sport for years, but noted that it came from a non-Indigenous perspective.
She said that the lack of diversity in the sport had become normalized. D
espite the presence of Indigenous people in the sport, she said that the analysis of racial issues in the sport had not come from a diverse perspective.
