Olivia Fox leads Wallabies players ahead of Argentina match in singing the Australian national anthem in local Indigenous language; it is the first time the joint-language anthem was performed at an international sporting event in Australia
Saturday 5 December 2020 12:27, UK
The Wallabies made history as they became the first Australian sports team to sing the national anthem in an indigenous language ahead of their clash with Argentina.
Olivia Fox lead the players in singing Advance Australia Fair in an Australian Aboriginal language of the Yuin-Kuric group that was traditionally spoken in the region of Sydney, New South Wales.
Fox then continued to finish the anthem in English, before receiving rapturous applause from the crowd at the Bankwest Stadium on Saturday.
It was the first time the joint-language anthem was performed at an international sporting event in Australia.
The spectacle was made all the more impressive by the fact that all Wallabies players sung the first half of the national anthem in the aboriginal language.
The Sydney Herald had reported that the players had learned the words with Fox in the run-up to the moment, so as to show the utmost respect to the historical first.
It was not the first time Fox had been involved in celebrating the Indigenous culture and history alongside the Wallabies either, as she also performed the national anthem in the Eora language during the unveiling of the First Nations jersey.
