Review by MARK SMITH

A significant part of the new book by Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins, Tested, is devoted to achievers from from Central Australia.

“Please not now,” were the first words Cummins thought when he unexpectedly became Australia’s 47th Test Captain at age 28.

His being a new father at that time may explain his interest in the history of the boys from St Francis House, many whom came from The Centre, and to write about John Moriarty’s lifelong connection with the other boys from the home, including Gordon Briscoe, Charles Perkins and Malcolm Cooper.

Cummins notes their shared sporting talent, rivalry and activism, initially through the Aborigines Progress Association.

He writes that excellence emerges in clusters.

Moriarty’s interview with Cummins covers sensitive topics with grace, such as his forced removal from his Yanyuwa mother, when he was only four, to their chance reunion in Alice Springs in 1953, near the old Stuart Arms Hotel.

Cummins was connected with John Moriarty through his work as a UNICEF Ambassador. This role brought him to visit Booroloola on the Macarthur River to experience first hand life in remote communities and how the Moriarty Foundation programs are helping children to excel in life and sport.

Whether it was painting rocks, singing songs or kicking the footy, Cummins experienced why a wrap-around, holistic, culturally-connected approach can be a game changer in remote communities for Indigenous children.

Every week the Foundation helps more than 2,200 Indigenous children and their families in 18 remote and regional communities across the Northern Territory, addressing 13 of the 17 Federal Government Closing the Gap targets.

The Moriarty Foundation was created in 2011 by John and his wife Ros Moriarty at the request of senior Aboriginal Law women in Borroloola, who wanted to see their grandchildren educated.

“A number of boys from Borroloola, went to St Francis House, including the talented rugby players Wally McArthur and Jim Foster who played successfully in England.

The Moriarty Foundation employs 50 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff members as local community football coaches and early years educators, representing 73% of its workforce. 

Such is Cummins’s regard for John Moriarty that in this book his words sit in a chapter  between former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the icon Dennis Lillee, arguably the greatest fast bowler of all time.

In 1960 Moriarty was the first Indigenous person selected to play soccer for Australia – the first Aboriginal socceroo: “John was selected by our national soccer team to represent a country that refused to count him and many of his loved ones in a census, and denied them their right of movement and choice,” writes Cummins.

“He would have every right to be angry, yet there just isn’t any anger in hm. As I spoke to him I was in awe of his sense of gratitude and grace.”

PHOTO: Pat Cummins visits Booroloola as a UNICEF Ambassador.

[Mark Smith is chair of the St Francis House Project and is making the film Finding Miss Almond about the boys from St Francis House and his grandparents Isabel and Percy Smith.]