Indigenous All-Stars (Australian rules football)

The Indigenous All-Stars (known as for sponsorship reasons Qantas Kickstart Indigenous All-Stars and formerly known as the Aboriginal All-Stars) is an Australian rules football team composed of players that identify as Indigenous Australian or with an indigenous culture.

The team has also represented Australia (in 2013) in the International Rules Series. The junior (U18 and U16) side is known as the Flying Boomerangs.

Originally based in Canberra, they have been based in Darwin, Northern Territory since 1993. The AFL promotes the concept as recognition of the indigenous Australians' contribution to the national competition, with approximately one in ten AFL players identifying as an Indigenous Australian. Between 2003 and 2015, the team played a regular biennial pre-season match against an Australian Football League (AFL) club; the only exception being 2011, when the scheduled match was cancelled due to inclement weather. The matches were usually played in the Northern Territory, either at Marrara Oval in Darwin or Traeger Park in Alice Springs.

In recent years, the AFL's support for the concept has waned and the league has been criticised for letting its clubs prevent the All-Stars from selecting its top Indigenous senior players, or for placing restrictions on their game time. Additionally, the competing club side often treats the match as a preseason practice match, such that winning the match is less important than developing young players or building match fitness prior to the regular season. Despite this, the match remains popular with spectators in the Northern Territory. The 2003 match retains the record for the highest attended match of any football code in the Northern Territory, with 17,500 in attendance.

The best on ground for the Indigenous All-Stars is awarded the Polly Farmer Medal which is in honour of Graham Farmer.

History
All-indigenous sides have been documented as early the turn of the 20th Century and the first representative teams began playing matches after World War II.

Following his career in the VFA Doug Nicholls was instrumental in the concept of an All-Aboriginal representative side. He organised (assembling players mainly from Taree in New South Wales), captained and coached an All-Aboriginal side against the VFA's Northcote Football Club in 1944. Among the aboriginal players was James Murray, Australian Kangaroos rugby league representative. The match drew more than 10,000 spectators.

Nicholls team's matches against the Northcote Football Club became an annual event becoming a regular fixture in 1945 and 1946. The match led to a number of similar contests springing up around the country. It played a charity match against VFA club Oakleigh Football Club attracting 2,000 spectators.

One of the first major representative matches was a side's defeat the Australian Capital Territory, one of the strongest sides in the country, at Manuka Oval in Canberra in 1970.

In 1973, a team was assembled from the best indigenous Australians across all states and territories to tour Papua New Guinea and play against the Papua New Guinea team. It was originally also scheduled to play against Nauru's national team. Sir Douglas Nicholls accompanied the side. The Australian side lost narrowly and a return match in Australia was scheduled for an Aboriginal Australian Rules carnival to be hosted by the Australian Capital Territory Papua New Guinea narrowly defeated the Indigenous Australian side at Ainslie Oval.

All-Stars take on the VFL
In 1983 the "All-Stars" competed in a once-off post-season exhibition match in Mildura, two games were played in 1985 and another once-off game was played in 1994.

A match between the All-Stars and The Swans was proposed for Canberra in 1984, to be organised by the National Football League but did not go ahead.

All-Stars take on National competition
The 1993 a bi-annual All-Stars vs Collingwood match was proposed.

In 1994 disputes over player releases put the concept into doubt. The St Kilda Football Club refused to release Nicky Winmar and the West Coast Eagles refused to release Chris Lewis to play.

As of 2015, the All-Stars have won six of the ten matches it has played. The record attendance for the match was 17,500, in the 2003 match against Carlton at Marrara Oval.

Uncertain future
No Indigenous All-Stars match has been held since 2015. Postponing the proposed 2017 match, the AFL Players' Association's Indigenous members which managed the team decided that the match should be scheduled for every four years instead of two.

No full Indigenous All-Stars match was played in 2019. The 2019 AFLX tournament in the 2019 pre-season featured an all-Indigenous AFLX 8-player team named "Deadly", captained by Eddie Betts. This team won one of its three matches. However the experimental AFLX format was not popular and has not been repeated since.

At a summit in 2022, a 2023 match was proposed between the Indigenous All-Stars and a newly formed Multicultural All-Stars team to draw from players of a variety of diverse cultures. This fixture is yet to be scheduled as of 2024, but it remains the most likely next full length fixture for the Indigenous All-Stars team.

Sponsorship and naming rights
Until 2005 the All-Stars were sponsored by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, who had naming rights over the team. After the abolition of ATSIC, the team was renamed from Aboriginal All-Stars to Indigenous All-Stars. Since 2006 the team has been sponsored by Qantas through the AFL Kickstart indigenous program.

1973 team
Roger Rigney (SA); Michael Mansell (Tas); Anthony Miller (WA); Brian Warrior (SA); Dennis Lewfat (NT); Patrick Purantatameri (NT); Reg Mathews (QLD); Bill Ellis (NT); John McHenry (WA); Leon Wanganeen (SA); Alec Smith (Vic); John Pepperill (NT); Phillip Archer (SA); Ian Charles (VIC); Robbie Muir (VIC); Ken Liddle (NT); Wilfred Wilson (SA); Tim Agius (SA); Garry Murray (VIC); Paul Hansen (WA); Lloyd Bray (NT)

International Rules
In 2013, the Indigenous All-Stars team competed under the Australia banner against Ireland in the International Rules Series, a hybrid sport which consists elements of Gaelic football and Australian rules football. For the 2013 Series a 33-man squad was chosen, which was reduced to 21-man touring party:

The Indigenous team lost the series 2-0 and by an aggregate score of 173–72, a record high margin for the International Rules series.

Polly Farmer Medal
The Polly Farmer Medal is awarded each game to the best Indigenous All-Stars player.