Whilst in the confines of an AFL quarantine bubble, all 44 currently listed West Coast Eagles players recently engaged with remote Indigenous communities across WA through the club’s ‘Eagles in the Air’ program.

This coincides with the United Nations’ International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, occurring today.

The ‘Eagles in the Air’ program is designed to provide students at remote community schools with access to West Coast Eagles role models, through highly interactive video conferencing workshops.

While the program has clear educational objectives including promoting school attendance, active lifestyles and mental wellbeing, the interactions provided a unique opportunity for two-way cross-cultural learning as students further educated the players on their respective cultures.

West Coast Eagles player Brad Sheppard was pleased with the results from the program.

“We spoke to ‘Gov’s’ (Jeremy McGovern’s) Primary School, kids from Warburton,” he said.

“We spoke about our pathways and how we got to football. But we had questions about them and their journeys.

“They had questions for us about our lives as AFL professionals, about training, what we eat, games.

“They were over the moon to chat to us, the smiles were amazing.

“You don’t get the chance to get out to those communities, but it shows you how much football, or sport, means to those kids.

“You could just see their eyes light up.”

Principal of Ngaanyatjarra Lands School’s Wanarn Campus Andrea Mahiepala was appreciative of the opportunity for their students.

“Our students here in Wanarn were that excited and wanted to speak with them the day after as well. (They had) smiles on their faces that lasted all afternoon.”

West Coast thanks BHP for their support in delivering the program to 13 remote schools across the Pilbara and Goldfields regions.

For more information on International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples visit: https://www.un.org/en/observances/indigenous-day