Surfest 2022: Wandiyali Indigenous Classic brings 'the mob' together for a celebration of surfing and country at Merewether this weekend

Wandiyali, with open junior men's and women's and a longboard division, is billed as the richest indigenous contest in the country, with a purse totalling $26,000.

Indigenous awareness is on the rise everywhere, and surfing - with its counter cultural roots and close association with nature - knows it has a lot to thank indigenous cultures for.

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An Indigenous contest - starting with Kooris v Cops and Kooris v 000 before taking the present format - has been part of Surfest for 20 years.

Event sponsor Wandiyali has grown from three staff running Hunter Koori Youth Service in 1998 to an organisation with some 75 employees providing its Hunter communities with a range of social and cultural services from its base at the former Prime studios at Elermore Vale.

Chairman Uncle Kevin McKenny says "wandiyali" means small echidna - a reference to the youth-oriented focus of the organisation and its co-founder and CEO, Steve Kilroy, who says this year's Indigenous Classic will be the biggest ever.

WANDIYALI INDIGENOUS CLASSIC AT SURFEST WEBSITE

WANDIYALI ATSI WEBSITE

"It's a great way for mob to catch up, connect and show off the talents of the very best Indigenous surfers in the land," Kilroy says.

McKenny said this week that more than 60 competitors had registered online and more would turn up this morning.

Wandiyali has doubled the Open Women's prize money and will also be raffling a hand-painted surfboard from Wiradjuri/Unkya woman Lauren Freestone.

Surfest organiser Warren Smith says: "After witnessing some outstanding surfing in excellent conditions in 2020 Surfest is again very proud to present the Wandiyali Indigenous Classic.

"To see the event grow over the years to now have four divisions is a testament to its popularity. The surfing is of the highest level and the support from the community is great to see."

EARLIER YEARS:

Indigenous surfers have been making their marks at the highest levels of competition.

Prominent names include two northern NSW men, Soli Bailey, a fixture on the QS who made the CT in 2019, surfer/artist Otis Carey, who's made the cover of surfing magazine Tracks and had his painting nominated for the Wynne Prize, and dual national Indigenous champion and former QS surfer Russell Molony.

Paralleling Indigenous attitudes more generally, Indigenous surfers are as proud of their mob as their more high-profile footballing brothers and sisters.

Surfing, after all, is a pursuit that was popularised by whites, but pinched from another mob of colour, the Polynesians.

Early European invader/explorers reported wave-riding in Tahiti, Hawaii and Samoa, and Hawaiian waterman and Olympian, Duke Kahanamoku, famously surfed in front of thousands at Sydney's Freshwater Beach in 1914.

South Americans may have been the first wave-riders, with 3000-year-old pottery showing pointed lashed-reed craft called caballito de totora, or "little horse", that were still being ridden when the Spanish ended the Inca era in Peru in the 16^th century.

Brazilians have become increasingly successful in professional surfing, so much so that their countrymen have been crowned world champions for five of the past seven World Surf League world Championship Tour (CT) seasons.

Gabriel Medina won the first of his three championships in 2014, following up again in 2018 and last year. Adriano de Souza won in 2015 and Italo Ferreira in 2019.

Ten Brazilians are on the CT this year.

Peruvians have also made it to the CT, with Lucca Mesinas in 18^th place at the moment, and Miguel Tudela in 31^st.

Peruvian woman Sofia Mulanovich won the women's world championship in 2004.

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