Indigenous Sport Week returns with Olympic inspiration

News Corp Australia’s Indigenous Sport Week returns for 2024, kicking off on Monday 20 May. 

Running from 20-26 May, the editorial campaign celebrates the history and future of Indigenous Sport in Australia. This year, the campaign will be streamlined into the course of the week. Previously, the campaign ran over a month. 

The inspiration behind this year’s Indigenous Sport Week comes from Olympian Patrick Johnson, the only Australian to break 10 seconds in the 100m. 

Each year, News’ sport newsrooms across the country support the AFL and NRL Indigenous Rounds and Super Netball First Nations Round, with the coverage amplified across the business. 

The company-wide collaboration will see the campaign run across state and regional mastheads, news.com.au, The Australian, CODE Sports, and Kommunity TV. 

The 2024 campaign will put a spotlight on Australia’s Indigenous Olympic athletes in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics. The campaign will look at what it means to wear the green and gold, how athletes express their cultural identity through sport on the global stage, and initiatives like the Indigenous coaching scholarship program. 

National deputy sports editor and lead editor of Indigenous Sport Week Tim Morrissey spoke to Patrick Johnson’s role in the campaign, saying: “As chair of the Australian Olympic Committee’s Indigenous Advisory Committee in an Olympic year, Patrick has a simple yet powerful message for all Olympians and Australians alike: ‘Don’t walk in front of us, don’t walk behind us, walk with us.'

“This year, we are also incorporating elements of Aboriginal artist and former Olympic boxer Paul Fleming's artwork Walking Together into our campaign. Paul's artwork, which will feature on every Australian Olympian’s competition uniform in Paris, draws inspiration from the power of the Olympic Games to bring all people together as one. As he explains: ‘We're all athletes and it doesn't matter where you come from.'”  

For the launch today, the Indigenous Sport Week artwork by Paul Fleming is integrated into the mastheads of The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser, as well as Cairns Post, Gold Coast Bulletin, Toowoomba Chronicle, Townsville Bulletin, The Mercury, Geelong Advertiser and NT News.