The ongoing partnership between Broken Hill Netball Association (BHNA) and Maari Ma has strengthened, with the Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation donating 50 specially branded Gilbert netballs to the sporting group.
A presentation was held during the BHNA’s Tuesday night competition – which also marked the start of the association’s finals series – where Maari Ma Executive Manager, Nola Wyman, gifted the collection of new balls to BHNA President, Tori McManus.
Each netball carries the BHNA logo, Maari Ma logo, and Kiila Laana logo, and were used right away on the night.
The netballs will also be taken away to competitions and tournaments, including the upcoming SA Country Championships in Adelaide next weekend (June 10-12).
Ms Wyman told us it was important to keep relationships like these going, supporting local sporting organisations and spreading Maari Ma’s key messages surrounding living healthy lifestyles.
“Maari Ma always strives to promote the work that we do and for all of our community to lead a healthy and active life, looking at sporting bodies to help us do that and who want to be involved and do the same thing. Hence the partnership with the Broken Hill Netball Association,” she said.
“I was really encouraged when we were told that they would take the balls away because not only is it visible that our logo is there, but people like Lianne [McManus, BHNA Vice President] and her team will spread the message of why that is. That is really important that it’s not just what it looks like visibly, but the message that comes with that.”
BHNA President Tori McManus and Vice President Lianne McManus said they applauded Maari Ma’s commitment to communicating through programs that promote awareness and knowledge surrounding health issues and wellbeing choices.
“With the support from businesses like Maari Ma, local Broken Hill sporting clubs like ours can continue to provide our community with great quality sporting activities,” Tori told us.
“The message and focus that these netballs represent – smoke-free and no-tobacco – is a perfect cause that we as an association can get behind and promote. More than half our members are young children who need to be educated on the harmful causes of smoking and e-cigarettes.”
Lianne said BHNA were, “happy to be aligned to Maari Ma, who are dedicated to improving the health outcomes for communities in the far west region of New South Wales with a special focus on Aboriginal health”.
“We were very proud to invite some of our First Nations young players to participate in this promotional opportunity with Maari Ma. It further demonstrates our commitment to community service and getting the word out there about living a healthier lifestyle,” she said.
“We love to think that sport has an amazing, unique way of making a positive impact in our community and promote inclusion and pro-active behaviours, options and actions to make people from all backgrounds, ages and abilities feel welcome, respected and that they belong at our club, so that everyone can get the most out of it.”
