The Australian Sports Commission’s Indigenous Sport Program (ISP), which works to increase the number of Indigenous people participating in sport, has partnered with the University of Queensland and Surfing Australia to conduct a three-year (2009–11) research project measuring the impacts of sport on Indigenous Australian communities.

It will be funded by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, an international apolitical organisation that uses the positive influence of sport to address social challenges.

The idea for the research project came out of a need, identified by the ISP, to substantiate claims around the benefits of sport with empirical evidence, not just on the basis of anecdotal accounts. According to ISP Senior Sports Consultant Richard Kilian, this is the first time that research of this nature has been conducted in this field.

ISP has formed a useful partnership with the University of Queensland to provide expertise in the development of the research agenda. Similarly, Surfing Australia has joined ISP as the organisation primarily responsible for providing the context and sites in which the study can take place.

The research project will use a case study approach, focusing on each individual ASC Indigenous surfing project community. In the preliminary stages the researchers will engage with approximately six communities, ranging in locations from South Australia to across the eastern seaboard. It will focus on the key areas of viability, sustainability and participation in the surfing projects; and networks of interaction developed through the projects, and associated benefits (or otherwise) of these networks.

‘The project will seek to examine social capital, the idea of social networks, connectedness, community participation, support for others, and involvement,’ said Dr Steven Rynne of the University of Queensland.

‘Social capital provides a basis upon which a deeper understanding of communities can be founded and which may offer direction at a policy level for capacity building within communities.

‘Of particular importance to this project is how the principle of social capital is both defined and utilised to better understand the impact of Indigenous sport projects on communities and in particular how surfing as an area of physical activity contributes to lives of people in those communities,’ said Dr Rynne.

A showcase launch for the project took place in February this year, in which sporting superstars Cathy Freeman, Layne Beachley and Steve Waugh visited an Indigenous surfing project in Jan Juc, Victoria. During their visit, the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation announced they would double their current funding to the ASC and extend it for the three-year period of the research project.

Laureus Sport for Good Foundation Director Ned Wills said the organisation was proud to support ISP’s important empirical research into the benefits of sport and believes it will deliver valuable evidence of the potential to use sport as a tool for social change in Australian Indigenous communities.