Aboriginal Family Legal Services Queensland has joined forces with the International Legends of League and Oakey Bears Rugby League to tackle the scourge of family violence.
Domestic and Family Violence Awareness Legends of League match will kick off at the Oakey Bears home ground on November 15, with an All-Star line-up. NRL legends including Sam Thaiday, Scott Prince, Cliff Lyons, Antonio Kaufusi and Craig Teevan, will go head-to-head against the Toowoomba and southwest Indigenous Allstars team including Ash Taylor, Laurie Stewart and Cam Moodie.
In the lead up to game day, the league legends will visit schools throughout Toowoomba and Oakey on November 12 and 13, delivering the Dream Believe Achieve program, family awareness talks and coaching clinics.
The event is the brainchild of AFLSQ chief executive Kathleen Wincen, who approached the International Legends of League with the idea of bringing rugby legends to the rural community to shine a light on the prevalence of domestic and family violence. Kathleen said she wanted the community to be involved in raising awareness of domestic and family violence.
“This was born out of a conversation I had with Troy around domestic and family violence and how we can better educate, prevent and get our communities involved,” she said. “Domestic and family violence is really prevalent at the moment, our community and especially Indigenous people, suffer at the hands of domestic violence seven times greater than non-Indigenous people. “We don’t want that tag as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”
International Legends of League chief executive Troy Byers said the event would also give a nod to Oakey Bears old boy Daryl Docherty, who sadly passed away earlier in the year.
Junior and senior teams from around the southwest will warm up the field in the lead up to the legends game in the afternoon. “It’s going to be a great six hours of football (in Oakey) it’s great for the community and clubs, and that’s what it’s all about,” Mr Byers said.
Tickets for the 6.30pm game will be available to purchase at the gate.