Essendon Football Club officially launched the first RAP on August 28, 2009. Essendon was proudly the first sporting club in Australia to implement a RAP, with a focus to ensure the club’s programs and objectives fall in to line with those on the national agenda. 

The club’s partnerships with the Northern Territory communities including Wadeye and Tiwi, the Rumbalara Football and Netball Club in Shepparton and The Long Walk exist as Essendon’s new ways of engaging with Indigenous people and communities.

In 2012 the Club announced Michael Long as its official Indigenous Ambassador. Long is one of the most recognisable Indigenous figures in AFL football and championed the Indigenous cause within the AFL. Following an on-field racial incident in 1995, Long was a pioneering force behind the racial abuse code that was adopted by the AFL. Long continues to march on in the pursuit of improving Indigenous wellbeing through the work of The Long Walk.

Click here to view the EFC Reconciliation Action Plan.