Skip to main content

Sheena's sporting some new skills

01 April 2015

West Arnhem Regional Council Sports and Recreation Officer Sheena Namungara with Charles Darwin University trainer Bill Adam at the sports training course in Jabiru recently. West Arnhem Regional Council Sports and Recreation Officer Sheena Namungara with Charles Darwin University trainer Bill Adam at the sports training course in Jabiru recently.

WEST Arnhem Regional Council (WARC) Sports and Recreation Officer Sheena Numungara has become the first female Indigenous person in the Northern Territory to complete a Certificate III in Sport and Recreation.

Sheena, who lives and works in Maningrida, completed her course at the Charles Darwin Training Centre in Jabiru last month. She says she is looking forward to using her new skills to keep kids in her community healthy, active, and engaged in sports. 

“I just love getting involved with the kids in the community and getting them to play sport,” she said. “This time of year it’s not a good time to take the kids out fishing, it’s too wet, so we look for other activities. I want to continue working with the basketball competition and working with children.

“We are looking to get women’s football back up and running after I head back from the course. We have men’s football from Monday to Thursday, with women’s football every Friday afternoon from 4-6pm. It’s really popular for Maningrida.”

Sheena said youth, sport and recreation activities helped give young kids in her community positive things to do. “We want to continue sport throughout the year,” she said. 

And it’s not just the youngsters in Maningrida who enjoy their sports, Sheena says. “Older people in the community play football and basketball too,” she said. “Some of our sportspeople also get picked up to go on excursions and sporting trips. “Last year we took sporting teams from Maningrida to Ramingining, we had the girls basketball team go to Milingimbi, a girls and boys team go to Barunga, some boys went to Darwin, and girls and boys went to Jabiru to play football and basketball in the Gurrung Sports Carnival. We also went to a sports festival in Oenpelli.”

WARC Youth, Sport and Recreation Coordinator Ian Douglass congratulated Sheena on her new qualification.

“It was a successful course, with eight participants doing the training,” he said. “We hope in future to bring the course out to Maningrida, and possibly other communities in West Arnhem."

Sport and Rec officers Sheena Numungara and Gerard Watson with some of Maningrida’s young basketball talent. Sport and Rec officers Sheena Numungara and Gerard Watson with some of Maningrida’s young basketball talent.