That’s a wrap for Nations of Origin 2025. Shout out to those young people who competed over the four thrilling days of competition.
Nations of Origin 2025 was held on 14-18 July in Western Sydney. The event held each year in conjunction with NAIDOC week, sees teams compete in four sports, over four days.
This is the second year the Parkes PCYC has competed and they took two boys and one girls rugby league teams, two basketball teams and two gymnastics teams.
Parkes PCYC Club Manager Kimberlly Sherrit said, “Nations of Origin isn’t just an event – it’s a program, the lead up is just as important as the main event.
“Children have to meet the criteria to attend, for example they must have 80% attendance at school, so it’s a great incentive to keep these young people on track.
“In regional towns like ours, it’s important to have these opportunities for our youth, for some it could just be the only opportunity of its kind they are presented with. It’s all about learning, empowering our youth, building strong relationships and embracing culture.”
The kids also got to have a bit of fun and went to aqua golf and an amazing cultural night held at the zoo in Sydney.
“This event was to showcase the many nations coming together and they were all given the opportunity to bring something from their culture from art, to dance to didge playing. Tyrese Robinson represented Parkes PCYC by playing the didge” said Kimberly.
EOI’s will go out again for participants and coaches, Kimberly said “We try our best to get to as many businesses as possible for sponsorship but it was incredible to have some reach out to us. We were thrilled to have 2025 as the first year of our major sponsor Evolution Mines. Without this sponsorship we would not have been able to attend the event or deliver the program the way we did.”