Anyone who has ever met Ashtyn Hiron understands the role that lacrosse plays in her life. Her parents played, her grandparents played, essentially everyone in her family has played. Being raised by a family of lacrosse lovers, it was only natural that Hiron would follow suit. She’s found success in lacrosse in both Division I collegiate and national team play, but perhaps the most important games she’s played were in the streets of Alice Springs, among the aboriginal Australians.
From ages five to nine, Hiron lived in a small desert town in Australia’s Northern Territory, called Alice Springs. Life in Alice Springs was a drastically different than life in Perth, she said.
“I was like a little ferrell wild child,” she said, “Never wore shoes, never brushed my hair.”
Living in Alice Springs was more than just fun and games though. Her time there, along with important lessons from her parents, taught her something that may be lacking in other areas of the country: acceptance.
“You go into the city and racism is a lot more prevalent,” Hiron said.
For context, aboriginals make up nearly 30% of the Northern Territory’s population, compared to only 4% of the Western Australia’s population.
“I remember when I moved back to Perth,” she said, “Going to school and just like the way little kids would talk about the aboriginal kids, and I would be horrified because they’re all my friends, I grew up around them.”
She remembers having screaming matches in defense of the aboriginals because of how upset the intolerance would make her.
Now pursuing a career in sports journalism, the acceptance she learned as a child will be just as important as ever.
Ray: Where did you grow up?
Ashtyn: I grew up in the outback. In Northern Territory actually which is the state right in the middle of the country. So all, most of Australia’s cities located on the coasts so it's like this and ever and everyone pretty much lives on the coast because the middle is desert. But for four years when I was little I lived in a little town called Alice Springs. Which mainly indigenous Australians, but my dad got a job there so we all moved. I was like a little ferrell wild child, never wore shoes, never brushed my hair.
R: So this is right in the middle of nowhere?
A: Yeah, just red dirt.
R: You look both ways, just nothing..
A:Red dirt. Gumtrees. Blistering heat.
R: What do you what do you do there as a kid? What do you do to pass the time?
A: Uhmmm play outside.
R: You just go out and kick dirt?
A: No! We did really cool things. There’s creeks. There’s a lot of history because aboriginal Australians are like the original custodians of the land. So it’s like, it’s very spiritual. There's like lots of cool gorges, I don’t know if you know what a gorge is, lot’s of cool creeks. It’s just, the Australian outback is so beautiful. But it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
R: What was it like to go from the city to a place like that back to city, town living?
A: I just noticed the way..the heat for one, like the way people treated aboriginals. Because like, I don't know, in the Northern Territory it’s like sacred. Everyone's accepting but the you go into the city and racism is a lot more prevalent. Aboriginals just aren’t accepted as much because they’re trying to like, it’s like an assimilation into white society that isn’t, I don’t know..
R: I imagine it has to have similarities to how the natives were treated here.
A: Mhmmm
R: Like how the white man wanted to come in and make all the native Americans be like them.
A: Our history is just like yours pretty much but just 100 years behind. You know, like you’re 100 years ahead. The same things pretty much happened. But I don’t know like I would go to school, I remember when I moved back to Perth, going to school and just like the way little kids would talk about the aboriginal kids, and I would be like horrified because like they’re all my friends, I grew up like around them. My mom, my parents always taught me that it didn’t matter who you were, where you came from, what the color of you skin was. So I remember I would always like get in fights, not like fist fights at school but like when I moved back to Perth I would get in like screaming matches because I would be so upset about it, how people would talk about aboriginals. But yeah...that’s a weird thing to write about.
R: That’s an interesting thing to write about… Racism in Australia. So how old were you when you lived there?
A: Probably like, when I was like five to nine maybe.
R: Five to nine, so like prime kicking dirt age.
A: Prime kicking dirt age.
R: So you moved back when you were still fairly young?
A: Yeah.
R: Is that when you started getting into sports more, after you left? Or was it there even earlier?
A: No, like everyone in my family played lacrosse. Both of my parents played for Australia. And my grandparents played. Everyone plays, so… No one played in Alice Springs but we would teach the local kids how to play and stuff. But I don’t know, I’ve just always played.
R: Just because it was a family thing?
A: Just because everyone else did.
R: Is that like an Australian thing? Is lacrosse just like a big Australian thing?
A: I mean besides the Iroquois, Australia was one of the first nations to play international lacrosse, so it is kind of an old sport in Australia but it’s not popular.
R: It’s not popular?
A: No..
R: What did you say was popular..like football...and rugby?
A: Australian rules football, rugby, netball...You ever heard of netball?
R: I have no idea what that is.
A: It’s like, girls play it, but it’s like basketball but you don’t dribble, and there’s no backboard.
R: So you just run with the ball…
A: No you can’t run with the ball
R: Oh you can’t run..
A: No, you can only take like two steps. It’s kind of like handball in that sense.
R: I feel like we’ve adapt games like that. What do we call it? Speed ball? We could take like two steps or
A: It’s a good game.
R: Do you score, is it like a goal or a hoop.
A: It’s like a semi-circle, it’s a hoop but there’s no backboard. And only the shooters can be in the circle.
R: Oh, that sounds kind of complicated to me.
A: It is complicated.
R: Just play basketball.
A: No! It’s a cool game, you should watch it. Go google it when you get home.
R: Oh, I’ll google it. I’m interested now. Did you do anything else besides play lacrosse or was lacrosse always just focus?
A: I played netball too.
R: Okay, that’s why you’re adamant.
A: Uh-huh. That’s why I’m adamant.
R: Is that like an organized sport? Is it sanctioned, like you play for a team?
A: Yeah! Netball and Australian rules football are like the two predominant sports that people play. Like boys always play footy and girls always play netball. That’s why it’s so hard to get new kids to play lacrosse in Australia because like such an Australian thing to do, put your little boy into football and your little girl into netball. You know?
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