Tiarna Williams is a 19 year old, proud Awabakal and Dharawal woman. She currently lives in Wollongong, New South Wales and studies a Bachelor of Law\/international studies at University of Wollongong. We spoke with Tiarnna about her involvement in tennis and what NAIDOC means to her as an Indigenous Woman.<\/p>\n
What does NAIDOC week mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n NAIDOC week is especially important to me because it provides all Australians the opportunity to learn more about indigenous culture. NAIDOC week is a fantastic way for both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians to start important conversations for change.<\/p>\n You have been involved with the Evonne Goolagong Foundation, tell us about the experiences you have had and the impact that opportunity has had on you?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have had the pleasure of knowing Evonne for about seven years and since then I have been heavily involved in her foundation, which aims to promote a healthy lifestyle through a good education and the avenue of playing tennis. I have travelled across Australia with Evonne promoting her message and coaching young children on how tennis can provide you with amazing opportunities. In 2018, I was fortunate enough to be awarded the Evonne Goolagong Cawley Scholarship for academic and sporting achievement, which enabled me to attend Pymble Ladies College (a prestigious private school in Sydney). I can’t thank Evonne enough for everything she has done for me and the amazing experiences I have enjoyed thanks to her. She is the most down-to-earth person I have ever met and is truly an inspiration to not only Indigenous Australians, but the entire world.<\/p>\n You are a member of the Tennis NSW Youth Advisory Group (YAG), why did you put yourself forward for that opportunity and what do you hope to contribute?<\/strong><\/p>\n I wanted to join the Tennis NSW YAG because I believe that the voices of young people can make a significant change within a community. Being involved with the tennis community for over 10 years, I have experienced several instances when youth voices could have made a difference to how tennis is advertised and implemented in relation to young people. Through my involvement with the YAG and expressing my opinions on different topics, I believe tennis in NSW could be greatly improved and therefore more enjoyable for young people.<\/p>\n How did you get involved in tennis and what keeps you involved in the sport?<\/strong><\/p>\n I started playing tennis when I was seven. I have been playing sport since I can remember, but when I was about seven I decided that I enjoyed tennis the most. Tennis has taught me so many great life lessons and it is a fantastic way to keep fit and have fun while doing it. When I was younger I competed regularly in tournaments, but now I just play socially, because it is so much more fun! I currently play for the University of Wollongong tennis club, who host a weekly social comp and they often have match-play days against other universities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tiarna Williams is a 19 year old, proud Awabakal and Dharawal woman. She currently lives in Wollongong, New South Wales and studies a Bachelor of Law\/international studies at University of Wollongong. We spoke with Tiarnna about her involvement in tennis and what NAIDOC means to her as an Indigenous Woman. What does NAIDOC week mean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6180,"featured_media":19429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nsw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}