'It’s about being connected': Robinson ready for community feel
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For Radean Robinson, Indigenous culture is all about being connected.
The Souths Logan Magpies playmaker – proudly of Kanolu and Kuku Yalanji descent – manages to find that connection in everything he does.
He had it growing up, learning from his family and his elders. He has it through his football. And he finds it everyday through his work.
And as the Hostplus Cup this weekend celebrates BMD Indigenous Round, he hopes everyone feels that same connection through the game.
“To me, it’s about being connected and culture,” Robinson said.
“It’s just bringing the community together and celebrating a sacred culture… connectedness and being constantly aware as a community of the status of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”
Rockhampton born and raised, Robinson – who is also of Italian descent – said his family taught him plenty about his culture growing up.
“My family has been always influential in being strong Indigenous role models in my life,” Robinson said.
“Kanolu is my dad and my mum’s mother is from Kuku Yalanji and she’s also Italian.
“It feels like I’m constantly being guided and being taught more about their experiences and traditional ways.
“It’s just being around family gatherings, just listening to the stories about our elders, their experiences growing up.”
Having joined Souths Logan last year, moving down from Central Queensland Capras, the 25-year-old is now working with Indigenous kids in residential care.
Formerly a support worker for disabled adults in Rockhampton, Robinson fell into his current line of work when he moved to Brisbane.
For him, it’s not only a way of helping the next generation of Indigenous youth, but a way to stay connected to his family back home.
“I’ve been doing it for a year and half, almost two years now,” he said.
“Moving to Brisbane, being away from family, I feel like the closest thing to do is being connected with my culture while I’m down here.
“I know the kids that I work with, they always want to know how I’m going and how footy is going and did the boys get the win and what not. They love it.
“I feel the most rewarding part for me is that it’s more a sense of happiness, the happiness I can bring to them and the peace.”
The kids that Robinson works with will certainly be asking all the footy questions again after BMD Indigenous Round, as Souths Logan prepare to head to BMD Kougari Oval to take on the Wynnum Manly Seagulls.
After a one-point win over the Brisbane Tigers last week, the Magpies will welcome Brisbane Broncos affiliate Tristan Sailor back into the No.1 jersey, with Robinson moving back into the halves after filling in at fullback in recent weeks.
Both teams are desperate for the two points – in what is also the significant occasion of the Mitch Cronin Cup – with the Magpies pushing to break into the top eight while the Seagulls’ last win was in Round 13.
For Robinson, the most special part of the weekend, however, is the jersey presentation.
While he knows it’s a big game ahead, he is not at all losing focus on the bigger picture – what BMD Indigenous Round means to him.
“All of this, it just grounds me in a sense of what my family endured and it brings me a sense of it’s all finally being recognised through football,” Robinson said.
