The chance to represent his culture one last time on the biggest stage was too big of an opportunity to pass up for Ryan James, who has come out of retirement to play for the Indigenous All Stars this weekend.
James – who ensured he was keeping fit and ready to play by joining in pre-season training with Tweed Seagulls – said he “planted the seed” with coach Ronald Griffiths early on and was grateful to earn selection.
“I sort of planted that seed towards them the last year. We’ve always been short on front-rowers – we’re definitely not short on outside backs – and I said to Ronnie ‘if you want me to start training, I'll start training’.
“I always keep pretty fit anyway, so come January, I started doing the pre-season with Tweed and spent the last four weeks there just to get ready for this game. And when Ronnie gave us the call, it was pretty exciting.
“Just to be able to play for your people as your last game is something that I'll highly regard forever. It's just important for me and my family to be able to do it, and when they told us last year that we could possibly be playing in New Zealand, I've been playing in it since 2011, so why not play the first game in New Zealand?”
Harvey Norman All Stars wrap - Day 1
For Griffiths, the decision to select James – a veteran of 168 NRL games from his time with the Gold Coast Titans, Canterbury Bulldogs, Canberra Raiders and most recently Brisbane Broncos – was an easy one to make.
“I spoke to Ryan pre-Christmas and I didn’t put the idea in his head, he said to me ‘listen, if you are looking for someone to play, I will keep training, I would really love to be considered for selection’ and that was enough for me,” Griffiths said.
“So, (for me) if there’s an opportunity to pick him and he is not standing in the road of someone getting that opportunity, then we’ll do that.
“It was sort of his idea and we were happy to entertain anyone who would come up with an idea like that and I think it’s a great way to be able to send him out on the highest level.”
Not only an impressive presence on the field whose experience will be vital in helping lead a young and raw forward pack, Griffiths said having someone as connected to the culture as James is would be a key inclusion to camp, where sharing and learning was vital.
In recent times, James has shared finding out more about his mother Terri-Lee’s story, in which she was seven years old during the 1967 Referendum when Australians voted to change the Constitution so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be counted as part of the population, and not as flora and fauna.
“I think if you listen to his story, his mother’s story, it was inspiring to read it and to hear about his mother’s story and know how close it is to him, and it’s only one generation away,” Griffiths said.
“My dad has passed away, but my aunty, my dad’s sister, often tells the story around when they were young, their mum used to have to move them from place-to-place.
“They had one uniform and they had to make sure it was washed every day… they used to move from place to place to make sure welfare didn’t know where they were, for fear of them taking her children away.
“That’s one generation away from me.
I might not have had my kids, I might not have had the surname I have got, it’s daunting.
Ronald Griffiths
A proud Bundjalung man, James spoke about how much he was enjoying the experience of being in New Zealand for the game and his amazement at the way Māori culture was embedded in the broader culture of the country, something he hoped to see grow in a similar way for Indigenous culture in Australia.
“We're very lucky in camp that we've got our cultural advisors and a lot of the guys here are strong with their culture, and for the other guys that aren't, it's a learning journey and it's always been a learning journey ever since I started playing All Stars,” James said.
“It is one of those things where you get in, you be around your people and you get to learn about each other and that's the best part about this week, you get to spend the weekend with people that you probably wouldn't ever get to play footy with and then not only that, you get to become great mates with them.
“It's just one of those things where we just have to keep learning our culture.
“Australia has never really taught our culture, and it's something that we're looking to change."