Culture

Patty Mills Named Our First Indigenous Olympic Flag Bearer, And It’s About Time

Basketballer Patty Mills is named the first Indigenous Australian flag bearer for the Olympics Opening Ceremony, joined by swimmer Cate Campbell, in a new decree that a man and a woman each carry the national flag.

by Edwina Storie  8 July 2021
Patty Mills

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Basketballer Patty Mills will be Australia’s first-ever Indigenous Australian to carry the flag into the Olympics Opening Ceremony at the Tokyo Olympics this year.

He and swimmer Cate Campbell will represent the Australian team in a new tradition that requires a man and woman from each competing nation carry a flag. This is the fourth Olympic Games for both Mills and Campbell.

“As the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flag bearer my connection between our country – the land, the sky, the sea, our culture, our history and this particular moment runs extremely deep,” Mills said.

In the before times, the announcement would have be made at a special function in the Olympic Village, this time flagbearers learnt of their new status during a live virtual ceremony that was streamed to the world.

“It’s going to be hard for me to really wrap my head around this moment and even describe the feelings both me and Cate are feeling at the moment,” Mills said.

“I could probably try my hardest to describe it but I think, what does it mean to everybody else throughout Australia.

“The team, the thousands of expats that live across the world, the next generation — the young ones that are coming through, the ones that have come before us.

“At the end of the day I think it’s about identity, I think it’s about being proud of who you are and really showing that and being passionate about that.”

Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates told flag bearers in a letter that being “selected to carry the flag and lead our team into the Olympic stadium is the highest recognition of achievement and leadership that can be bestowed on any athlete in any Australian sport or multi-sport team.”

It’s yet to be clarified if Mills will carry the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags into the Opening Ceremony. Back in 2000, Cathy Freeman was warned against carrying the Aboriginal flag because it breached International Committee Rules. Of course, she did it anyway.

Last year Mills committed to donating his entire paycheque from his eight games in Orlando to Australia’s Black Lives Matter Movement.


“I’m playing in Orlando because I don’t want to leave any money on the table that could be going directly to black communities,” Mills said in 2020.

He told reporters “for the first time in my career, I have white people — teammates, old teammates, old coaches — telling me they never knew the level of racism that exists in sport, especially in Australia.”

“They haven’t felt comfortable asking me, as a black Australian, about racism before, which speaks to the impact and value of the Black Lives Matter movement and the millions who have participated in protests around the world.”