Woggabaliri is described by the

Australian Sports Commission The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is the Australian Government commission responsible for supporting and investing in sport in Australia. The Commission incorporates the Australian Institute of Sport. From 2018 to 2022, it was known as S ...

(ASC) as a traditional

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

"co-operative kicking volley game". According to the ASC, New South Wales and Queensland governments who fund its promotion in schools, it is a kicking game similar to soccer played in a group of four to six players in a circle. Author Ken Edwards wrote in 1999 that

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...

children around the

Bogan Bogan ( ) is Australian slang for a person whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour are considered unrefined or unsophisticated. Depending on the context, the term can be pejorative or self-deprecating. The prevalence of the term bogan ...

and

Lachlan River The Lachlan River is an intermittent river that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, located in the Southern Tablelands, Central West, and Riverina regions of New South Wales, Australia. The Lachlan Riv ...

s in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

originally played it however the basis of this account has been challenged.

History

Robert Hamilton Mathews Robert Hamilton Mathews (1841–1918) was an Australian surveyor and self-taught anthropologist who studied the Aboriginal cultures of Australia, especially those of Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland. He was a member of the ...

, studying

Aboriginal Australian languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

, listed the word ''woggabaliri'' in 1901 as the Ngunnawal word for "play".

Ken Edwards Research: 1999

In 1999 Australian author Ken Edwards, Associate Professor in Sport, Health and Physical Education at the

Queensland University of Technology Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area viz. Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. The univ ...

, published a book ''Choopadoo : Games from the Dreamtime'', in which he makes mention of a game played by the

children near the

Bogan River Bogan River, a perennial river that is part of the Macquarie– Barwon catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the central west and Orana regions of New South Wales, Australia. From its origin near Parkes, the Bogan River ...

and

. Edwards provides a bibliography with six works. One of these, ''Bush Toys'' by Claudia Haagen (1994), makes no mention Woggabaliri in its analysis of traditional Aboriginal games. ''Sport and Play amidst the Aborigines of the Northern Territory'' by William E Harney (1952) specifically covers the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

and does not mention Woggabaliri. ''Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits 4: Arts and Crafts'' by A.C Haddon (1912) relates specifically to the

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...

. Other works cited by Edwards include ''Sport and Play in Aboriginal Culture then and now'' by Ian Robertson (1975), which relates primarily to the

Pitjantjatjara people The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are var ...

of central Australia; ''Sports and Amusements of the Northern Queensland Aboriginals'' by Walter E Roth (1904) and ''Games and Pastimes of the Australian Aboriginal'' by Michael A Salter (1967). The Australian Sports Commission in 2000 cited permission to "use and adapt" Ken Edwards' Choopadoo book to publish an otherwise unsourced derivative titled ''Indigenous Traditional Games'', listing it as one of 19 games complete with lists of rules. The ASC's John Evans copied the descriptions of the games verbatim from Edwards' book though further modified Woggabaliri with additional rules to make it suitable for contemporary children to play.Acknowledgements - Indigenous Traditional Games Australian Sports Commission 2000 Though it contains a single source (Ken Edwards book) 'Indigenous Traditional Games' has also been cited as a source for Woggabaliri by others, for example by Malcom Walker (2017) it is however generally not recognised by scholars. Ken Edwards was subsequently engaged to collaborate in follow up works produced by the ASC. In 2002 the Australian Sports Commission also funded the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (1990–2005) was the Australian Government body through which Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were formally involved in the processes of government affecting ...

to promote Woggabaliri to schools as part of the Indigenous Sports program (ISC). In 2004, historian John Maynard received a grant from the

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

(AIATSIS) to write a book inspired by the story of Woggabaliri on the history of Aboriginal involvement in soccer.

Blandowski attribution and World Cup Soccer bid: 2007-

In 2007 Dr Patrick Greene, CEO of

Museums Victoria Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage faci ...

discovered Gustav Mützel's 1862 engravings of findings from the Blandowski expedition, including a depiction of

Jarijari Jarijari were an indigenous Australian people whose traditional territory was located in the Mallee region of Victoria. Name Jarijari was the tribe's word for "no", it being customary for the Murray tribes of this area to be identified by the ne ...

in 1857 observed at Mondellimin (now

Merbein, Victoria Merbein is a town just north of Mildura, Victoria, in the Sunraysia region of Australia. It is on the Calder Highway between Mildura and the Murray River crossing at the Abbotsford Bridge to Curlwaa. At the , the town had a population of 1,981 ...

). In the background of this engraving a child can be seen kicking the "ball" with others attempting to catch it, the caption translated from German reads "A group of children is playing with a ball. The ball is made out of typha roots (roots of the bulrush). It is not thrown or hit with a bat, but is kicked up in the air with a foot. The aim of the game - never let the ball touch the ground". In 2010

Football Federation Australia Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only establ ...

(FFA) in its Australian 2022 FIFA World Cup bid, connected the Australian Sports Commission's Edwards-based game to Mützel's image and cited the similarity to

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

as evidence that

had a history in Australia stretching back thousands of years.The Australian Game - FFA highlights indigenous soccer ties. by Tim Hilferti for The Advertiser Pg 79. 24 October 2010 Rod Allen, FFA media relations was quoted to say "We'd hope a wider knowledge of Woggabaliri might encourage more indigenous kids to play football". This was reported in an

opinion piece An opinion piece is an article, usually published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about a subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals. Editorials Opinion pieces may take the form of an editorial, ...

published by soccer reporter Tim Hilferty on 24 October 2010. This Wikipedia article was initially created on the same day based primarily from that single source and was subsequently extensively widely cited as an authoritative source in an example of

circular reporting Circular reporting, or false confirmation, is a situation in source criticism where a piece of information appears to come from multiple independent sources, but in reality comes from only one source. In many cases, the problem happens mistaken ...

. Historian John Maynard, in his 2011 book ''The Aboriginal Soccer Tribe'', reiterating the FFA's attribution of Mützel's image, proclaimed it as Australia's first football game, and strongly link it to the modern game of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

(soccer). The 2011 bestseller received a Deadly Award for outstanding Achievement in Literature. Maynard's book and its reference to Woggabaliri was subsequently widely cited. A passionate soccer fan, following his Ph.D at the University of Newcastle in 2003 Maynard began studying Aboriginal involvement in 2004, writing in 2008 of the significant under-representation of Indigenous Australians in the 'world game' in comparison to Australian football. Maynard joined Football Australia's National Indigenous Advisory Group in 2021. Former soccer player

Craig Foster use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , nationality = , other_names = , siglum = , citizenship = , education = , ...

in 2011 wrote a popular opinion article supporting Maynard's theory connecting Woggabaliri with soccer. The New South Wales Department of the Arts, Sport and Recreation in 2011 promoted Woggabaliri in

schools.

Controversy and hoax allegations

Critics of Woggabaliri point out various inconsistencies in the story and it has been called a hoax. As at 2023 no mentions of the name Woggabaliri attributed to the activity described in Ken Edwards 1999 book prior to its publication have been found.

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...

contains just one result from 2002. Ken Edwards and Troy Meston (Australian Sports Commission 2009) stated that the word comes from the

Wiradjuri language Wiradjuri (; many other spellings, see Wiradjuri) is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup. It is the traditional language of the Wiradjuri people of Australia. A progressive revival is underway, with the language being taught ...

. However the official Wiradjuri dictionary lists the word for play as ''wagigi''.Wiradjuri Online Dictiorary
- Wiradjuri Study Centre Though it appears in the Ngunnawal language, both Ngunnawal and Wiradjuri lands and languages are distinct and distant of each other. Critics also question John Maynard and the FFA's attribution's to the Blandowski expedition. Neither Blandowski's account or the Mützel engraving attribute any name to the activity. The tribe depicted is not the Wiradjuri but the Jarijari, groups separated by great distances. Blandowski's expedition did not travel as far as Wiradjuri country, only to the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers.Paszkowski, L.K. (1969). 'Blandowski, William (1822 - 1878)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 3, Melbourne University Press, pp 182-183

/ref> Blandowski's route crossed the Murray only briefly into what is now New South Wales to

Kureinji The Kureinji, otherwise known as the Keramin, are an Aboriginal group whose traditional lands are located in southwest New South Wales, Australia, along the north side of the Murray River roughly between today's settlements of Euston and Wentw ...

country at the approximate locations of the settlements of Euston and

Wentworth Wentworth may refer to: People * Wentworth (surname) * Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth (1873–1957), Lady Wentworth, notable Arabian horse breeder * S. Wentworth Horton (1885–1960), New York state senator * Wentworth Miller (born 1 ...

, three nations west of the Wiradjuri. The description that accompanies the engraving is also identical to other much better documented activities from the same area. Tim Hilferty's 2010 opinion piece and FFA's World Cup Bid stated that the etching from Haddon Library at Cambridge University they attributed to Woggabaliri was produced in 1857, however it was actually from 1862. Interviewed in 2012 John Maynard insisted that the 1860s engraving was drawn by William Blandowski and is of Woggabaliri however the engraving was not drawn by Blandowski and there it little academic evidence to support the assertion that the depiction can be attributed to the word Woggabaliri. The engraving, being of Merbein, Victoria is more than 600 kilometres away and across multiple major rivers and nations from Wiradjuri lands and therefore it is more commonly attributed by academics to Marn Grook which has been documented within less than 100 kilometres. In 2010, Ian Syson of The Footy Almanac labelled Woggabaliri a hoax perpetuated by the Australian Sports Commission to further Australia's world cup bid and highlights the similarity between Woggabaliri and "wogball" a derogatory

Australian slang Australian English is a major variety of the English language spoken throughout Australia. Most of the vocabulary of Australian English is shared with British English, though there are notable differences. The vocabulary of Australia is drawn ...

term for soccer, suggesting that the choice of name may be

tongue-in-cheek The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scot ...

. Many government sites in the 2010s subsequently withdrew their references to Woggabaliri, the exceptions being the Australian Sports Commission, based in the ACT and the governments of New South Wales and Queensland. Coincidentally all three are east of the Barassi Line and therefore less inclined to support a sports cultural connection with marngrook. Historian David Thompson (2017) while investigating aboriginal games states that Ken Edwards simply coined the term using an existing aboriginal word and attributed it to various already well documented observations across outback Victoria and New South Wales. Whereas Woggabaliri was a major platform of Maynard's 'The Aboriginal Soccer Tribe' original bestselling edition, all references to it were redacted without explanation from a revised 2019 edition which instead makes increased reference to marn grook.

Modern play

Basic rules

The game as described by Sports NSW can be played by groups of four to six players standing in a circle apart and uses either a soccer ball or a

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

ball. Using feet and knees only, in no set order but without consecutive touches, the players attempt to keep the ball from touching the ground. The group that has the most touches in a set time wins. If the ball touches the ground the count is restarted.

Team rules

Two teams of four play on a

court sized pitch with football (soccer) goals at each end. A game consists of two halves lasting 10 minutes each. Players may use feet, knees, thighs, chest and head to keep the ball aloft with the team losing possession if the ball touches the ground, is intercepted or an infringement occurs. Tackling is not permitted, and goals can be scored from any part of the pitch.

References

{{Reflist Indigenous Australian culture Cooperative games Ball games