{"id":7623,"date":"2024-02-05T01:49:43","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T16:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/competitive-play\/national-indigenous-tennis-carnival-nitc"},"modified":"2025-07-10T16:39:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T07:09:36","slug":"national-indigenous-tennis-carnival-nitc","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/competitive-play\/tournaments\/national-indigenous-tennis-carnival-nitc","title":{"rendered":"National Indigenous Tennis Carnival “NITC”"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIGENOUS KIDS FROM ALL OVER AUSTRALIA CONNECTING WITH EACH OTHER THROUGH TENNIS<\/h2>\n
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Indigenous children at the Darwin International Tennis Centre for the National Indigenous Tennis Carnival on Friday, August 11, 2023. MANDATORY PHOTO CREDIT Tennis Australia\/ SCOTT BARBOUR<\/p><\/div>\n

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The National Indigenous Tennis Carnival<\/strong>, also known as NITC<\/strong>, is an annual event hosted at the Darwin International Tennis Centre. The NITC is more than tennis, it brings together Indigenous kids from every state and territory across Australia to connect with each other through tennis, cultural activities, health workshops, and ultimately getting to know each other and sharing stories about themselves and their own communities.<\/p>\n

The NITC was created in collaboration between the Evonne Goolagong Foundation<\/a>, Tennis Australia<\/a>, and Tennis NT.\u00a0 This event relies on the continued support and advocacy from the Northern Territory Government<\/a>, the Evonne Goolagong Foundation, Tennis Australia, and each of the Tennis Member Associations<\/a> from the states and territories of Australia.<\/p>\n

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TENNIS<\/strong><\/p>\n

For many players, the NITC is the pinnacle of the Indigenous tennis pathway, and for some players it is the beginning of their journey. Participants at NITC span across three streams of tennis – some players from more remote communities have had little exposure to tennis before, and so will play in a beginner level competition. More established players are in the “Future Stars”. The top players participate in the “Showdown” stream.<\/p>\n

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CULTURE, HEALTH and WELLBEING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Culture, health and wellbeing are integrated into the event from Opening Day. The Welcome to Country ceremony on is performed by Larrakia Nation<\/a>.\u00a0 This is followed by a performance from\u00a0Ian Goolagong and a speech from\u00a0Evonne Goolagong-Cawley<\/a> herself.<\/p>\n

NITC is proud to have partnerships with Deadly Choices<\/a> and Danilla Dilba<\/a>\u00a0who are leaders in providing culturally safe healthcare.<\/p>\n

The event also has a regular highlight of Indigenous performers. Past musical acts have included Eurovision 2024 entrants Electric Fields<\/a>, and BAARKA<\/a>. This year’s musical act will be announced soon.<\/p>\n

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AWARDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

All of the tennis being played across the event contributes points towards a state or territory’s total. The winning state\/territory are awarded the coveted\u00a0Ash Barty Cup.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Individuals play off against the best-of-the-best in the\u00a0Showdown\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>stream and one person will also be hand-picked by Evonne Goolagong Cawley herself to receive the\u00a0Evonne Goolagong Cawley Medal of Excellence.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In 2023, the first R<\/strong>oger Cawley Outstanding Support Award<\/strong><\/em> was given, to recognise the efforts of our amazing team of supervisors who take care of the kids during the event.<\/p>\n

Multiple Deadly Awards<\/strong><\/em> are nominated by the staff at the event, to recognise participants who display leadership, sportsmanship, and look out for other participants through the event. Last year’s NT Deadly Award winner, Kimally Puruntatameri from the Tiwi Islands, went to the Brisbane International and had a few brushes with fame – find out about his experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PATHWAYS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The NITC also provides the start of a pathway for aspiring ballkids. Read up about NITC attendee\u00a0Lorenzo Retchford from Palmerston, as he talks about his experience at the Australian Open.<\/a><\/p>\n

Careers in tennis start at any time, from any skill level. At the event, kids are also shown the range of career opportunities that are opened up through tennis, whether it be through coaching, officiating, and administration.<\/p>\n

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MEDIA & ACCREDITATION |\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>contact:\u00a0 tennisnt@tennis.com.au<\/p>\n

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The National Indigenous Tennis Carnival is a CLOSED EVENT – spectators will not be admitted<\/h2>\n

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EVENT INFORMATION<\/h2>\n

Information Pack:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The 2025 National Indigenous Tennis Carnival Information Pack<\/a> for players and their parents \/ guardians.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Event Policies for supervisors and participants:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Participant Consent Form<\/a>
\nParticipant Behavioural Guidelines<\/a>
\nSupervising Personnel Behavioural Guidelines<\/a>
\nSupervising Personnel Screening Requirements and Other Matters<\/a>
\nMember Protection Declaration<\/a>
\nTerms & conditions of entry for the National Indigenous Tennis Carnival<\/a>
\nTerms & conditions of entry for Darwin International Tennis Centre<\/a><\/p>\n

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Group photo at the National Indigenous Tennis Carnival Opening Ceremony and Welcome to Country at the Darwin International Tennis Centre for the National Indigenous Tennis Carnival on Thursday, August 10, 2023. MANDATORY PHOTO CREDIT Tennis Australia\/ SCOTT BARBOUR<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

VIDEOS<\/strong><\/p>\n

National Indigenous Tennis Carnival 2024 – video<\/a><\/p>\n

National Indigenous Tennis Carnival 2023 – video<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INDIGENOUS KIDS FROM ALL OVER AUSTRALIA CONNECTING WITH EACH OTHER THROUGH TENNIS   The National Indigenous Tennis Carnival, also known as NITC, is an annual event hosted at the Darwin International Tennis Centre. The NITC is more than tennis, it brings together Indigenous kids from every state and territory across Australia to connect with each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6376,"featured_media":0,"parent":7504,"menu_order":1000004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7623","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7623\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/nt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}