Sport dies if the Arts are forgotten

It's time for two worlds to unite

Melbourne became AFL Premiers for the first time since 1964 on September 25th. But the meaning of this win, the story behind it, it’s still being written. Who will tell it? Who will write this tale?

The players? Well, maybe in a few years when the inevitable autobiographies come out.

The Fans? Possibly, but they will be celebrating too hard to explain it properly.

The Media? They might report it, but their stories will be shaped by what has been written through the year. They will start the narrative, but the story is not theirs to tell.

Who does that leave? That’s simple: artists, creatives, writers. The people who are always trying to explain the world and tell the stories.

But the arts are in a crisis right now. Government underfunding and societal undervalue has left the industry in a dire situation.

Who will tell our stories when the arts are dead?

No one. And with that, our sports will suffer.

Why do we still remember Don Bradman? Or Ted Whitten? Or Les Darcy? Or even Phar Lap? It’s not only, or even primarily because of their deeds on the field. It’s because of the stories that have been told about them.

Les Darcy didn’t die of septicemia, he died of a broken heart after his country abandoned him.

Ted Whitten wasn’t just a footballer, he was Mr. Football.

Phar Lap didn’t die accidentally, he was killed by the Mafia.

Don Bradman wasn’t just a cricketer, he was ‘Our Don Bradman’. The greatest of all time.

These are stories that have entered the popular consciousness. They’ve been immortalised in song and poem and story.

The arts are what turn mortals into legends. And legends live and last forever.

Who wrote of curses and droughts? Who tells of great deeds on the field? Of players doing the impossible? Of heroes and of villains?

It was not the players. It was not the fans. It was the artists.

But the arts have been ignored for too long by Government, and taken for granted by society.

Without stories, crafted by skillful hands, sport as we know it will die. This is not hyperbole. No amount of funding will replace the arts and save sport. The arts give sports life, just as they do to every aspect of life.

It is the arts that get people excited about players and games. The artists create the stories we tell.

As we stand at the turning of the seasons; when goalposts transform into cricket pitches and a tiny near 140-year-old urn becomes the focus of the sports mad, we must remember the Ashes started from a myth. A myth that was then shaped, perpetuated and perfected by storytellers.

The Ashes of a cricket stump became the basis of one of the oldest international rivalries in world sport. It was not only the cricketers that has kept this series strong, it’s built on myth upon myth, of legends never to be seen again and unbreakable records that have become legend.

And in the lead up to the Melbourne Cup ask yourself how this became “The Race that Stops a Nation”. I can tell you, it wasn’t through the actions of Horses, Jockeys or Trainers, it was through poets such as Banjo Patterson and other, now forgotten, artists whose stories of horseflesh, of Archer, Carbine, Phar Lap and Peter Pan live on in popular memory.

With Women’s Sports finally gaining prominence in our national story, it will be the storytellers who will elevate their tales from mere acts of sporting excellence to become immortal memories of our nation. This is what will attract the crowds. And the crowds bring money. And money brings influence, and the ability to produce an even higher quality product.

Without the arts, this will not happen.

The arts are fundamental to our society. Let the arts flourish, let the stories become legends. Let the arts and sport combine as they always have.

We are the keepers of the stories. Let us keep telling them so future generations cannot forget them.

We must fund the arts properly. Without them we are lost.