Over the next two weekends, Super Netball will celebrate First Nations Round, two years on from the Jemma Mi Mi incident that rocked the sport.
A lot has happened since then and netball has made huge strides in this space, but it doesn't make it any less painful for Stacey Campton to talk about.
The Netball Australia high performance umpire coach is a proud Gungarri woman, whose career as a professional umpire spanned 14 years from 1992 to 2006 and included stints at the world championships and Commonwealth Games.
Campton could not help but weep when she reflected on netball's darkest moment – when the league's one and only First Nations player was left off the court in Indigenous Round.
"I was talking to [former Diamond] Sharon Finnan-White after the match, because she was at the game, and we first and foremost just wanted to know about Jemma's welfare," Campton said as she wiped away tears.
"Whether we know Jemma personally or not, whether we know her family or not, I think that was lovely from Sharon to stand next to her and let her know everything was going to be OK.
"It was a watershed moment, because we were so angry, but we realised we couldn't stay that way otherwise we'd just be seen as angry black women, so we turned all of that anger into action."
When Campton refers to the collective 'we', she is talking about a group of some of the most high-profile Indigenous women in the game – herself, former Australian players Finnan-White and Marcia Ella-Duncan, as well as former Australian squad member Ali Tucker-Munro.
In the aftermath of netball's missed opportunity to showcase real representation of First Nations people in the sport, many other former Indigenous players went public with their stories, exposing the ways the sport they loved had also let them down.
Campton said in one way or another, each of these women had identified with Mi Mi, as she stood in the substitution box with a minute left on the clock, hoping to be injected onto court before being told to sit back down on the bench.
Mi Mi had been marketed as the face of the league for the themed round and had already told a dozen or so media outlets in the lead-up about the pressure she felt representing her people as the only First Nations player in the league.
Campton too, was the only umpire that identified during her career at the top level and said it could feel like a burden.
"It can be lonely, and you can feel isolated, and I was not just the only Aboriginal umpire at that level, but also the only umpire from the ACT at the time."
Campton's netball journey
Campton's netball journey started at the age of nine, on a bitumen court in the South Australian desert, where "it's stinking hot and there's no shade".
Her father Barry worked at the Woomera army base and her mother Elizabeth – a netballer herself – had encouraged Stacey to give it a go.
The family moved around the country a lot for work, but Campton's love for netball followed her from there on, later developing a passion for umpiring once they settled in Canberra.
She slowly worked her way up the ranks, umpiring at her local association, then at ACT state level, where she was hand-picked by Australian stalwarts Chris Burton and Maureen Boyle to officiate at the national championships in 1989 and 1990.
Campton's Indigenous heritage comes from her mother's side, hailing from the small town of Mitchell in south-west Queensland and growing up on a mission during the 1950s and '60s.
Her father and Campton's grandfather, Jack Kearns, was a member of the Stolen Generations and worked hard as a long-paddock drover to ensure he kept the family together and that they got a good education.
They did not have much, living in a tin humpy at some points, without electricity and under the control of white settlers, whose laws prevented them from mingling with other Aboriginal people.
Her family's history of sacrifice, as well as her own lived experiences, that have shaped Campton's passion to improve living standards for future generations.
And so, outside of netball, Campton works as a director at Children's Ground – a non-profit organisation that helps disadvantaged Indigenous children in the Northern Territory.
"When you think about it, it wasn't that long ago, and those are the sorts of the historical things that you think about in your life as you move forward.
"My Mum is a really strong black woman that has brought us up to understand where we come from and what's expected of us in respect to community, family and having a voice in Aboriginal affairs.
"As a privileged Aboriginal person, I know I have a responsibility and accountability back to community, to make sure that I continue to support other Aboriginal people and that others are afforded the same opportunities."
Turning anger into action
In the two years since Mi Mi could not get on the court, Netball Australia has introduced its Declaration of Commitment and various states have taken that pledge a step further by implementing reconciliation action plans and officers, and in some cases, introducing Indigenous advisory committees.
The number of First Nations players in Super Netball has risen to three this season, with Donnell Wallam making her debut at the Queensland Firebirds alongside Mi Mi, and Melbourne Vixens training partner Gabby Coffey appearing for the Collingwood Magpies under COVID protocols.
Finnan-White has started up her own Indigenous Diamonds team competing in the Townsville netball league, and under the new broadcast deal with Fox Netball, is now a regular commentator for the Super Netball competition.
Meanwhile, Tucker-Munro will oversee the second annual First Nations All Star exhibition match this weekend, and is working hard in the pathways as the head coach of the Giants Academy and as an assistant with the UTS Randwick Sparks in the NSW Premier League.
Heading into her second year as Netball Australia's high performance umpire coach, Campton too, hopes to make change. As it stands, there is just one Indigenous umpire at Super Netball level – Wiradjuri woman Jordan Kiss. Still, that is one more than we had back in 2020.
Campton said the current system largely relies on the states to identify First Nations talent coming up through the ranks, but she does not think quotas are the way to go, preferring to grow participation in a more organic way.
"It's about going out there and finding umpires that happen to be Aboriginal and looking at those organisations or clubs that have a strong base already, or even working with people like Sharon and Ali who've got these Indigenous teams and asking them 'does anyone want to umpire?'," Campton said.
"I'd also love to see us engage selectors that are Aboriginal and can sit with our non-First Nations selectors and look for those strategic points that enable engagement – none of us want to be in a team at the high-performance level if we're not good enough – but we also need to find ways to encourage more diversity in that space."
