Colin Martin Tatz (1934–2019)

"Black Diamonds", published in 1996, was the first attempt by Colin Tatz to cover all the sportspeople inducted into the Australian Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall and Fame.

"Black Gold", published in 2000 by the same author, is a greatly updated edition and if pushed, I would suggest that "Black Gold" is the better choice for anyone seeking a good understanding of the long and distinguished history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders sportspeople in post-1788 Australia.

Of course, in the 14 years since "Black Gold", we've seen many more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders distinguish them selves in sport and one wonders when the next update will come.

However, if all you've got access to is "Black Diamonds", don't despair, as it is still an informative look at the history of sport and race relations in Australia.… (more)

"Black Gold" is an expansion of the earlier "Black Diamonds", with more recent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sport stars feted and older, forgotten stars remembered. And, for such a small percentage of the Australian population, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders can lay claim to an extraordinary group of leading sportsmen and women, from the cricketers and runners of the nineteenth century, the boxers of the twentieth century through to tennis champs like Evonne Goolagong, Olympic gold medallists like Cathy Freeman and Nova Peris-Kneebone and footballers like Gavin Wanganeen, Polly Farmer and the Krakouer brothers.

The authors run through the athletes inducted into the Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame, giving each a short biographical piece (in the course of doing this, supplying us with facts about the sprinter who invented the crouched start, the Melbourne Cup winning jockey who claimed he was Filipino so as to avoid the racism he believed he would face as an Aboriginal and the "mysterious" former Test cricketer the authors claim is Aboriginal.

This is well worth a read and I hope this book is further expanded (perhaps titled "Black Platinum") in the near future to include mentions of the new generation of Indigenous Australian rules footballers, cricketers, boxers and other myriad sport stars.… (more)