“I’ve run against people from every race and culture, and whilst we have seen a wonderful representation of Indigenous athletes in the explosive sports such as AFL, league, boxing and sprinting, I’ve been surprised by the lack of Indigenous representation in distance running or the marathon.

“With research we have discovered that there are no avenues or opportunities for Indigenous long distance runners. I believe that we need to explore the possibilities and beg the question: How do we create champions without opportunity?

“At the moment, there’s no real culture of distance running among Indigenous Australians, but I believe there is potential given the history of endurance evidenced by a nomadic existence, traditional hunting and recorded history of an extraordinary ability to cover vast distances.

“The overwhelming response we’ve had demonstrates this latent interest in marathon running. I think we have the potential of identifying some real talent New York takes front stage when it comes to hosting and delivering a truly spectacular marathon. It is a 42.195 kilometer, river of mankind and everything good about our human spirit.

“What better event than this to take our Indigenous running team to, to highlight their potential on an international stage.”

World champion marathon runner
Robert de Castella is Australia’s greatest ever marathon runner.

He set the world record in 1981, became Australia’s first Track and Field World Champion in 1983, won two Commonwealth Games marathons in 1982 and 1986 and dominated the event worldwide for most of the 1980’s.

While he represented Australia at four Olympic Games, finishing 5th, 8th, 10th and 26th, Robert is probably best remembered for the Brisbane Commonwealth Games when he came from over a minute back to catch, and eventually run away from, duel Tanzanian champion JumaIkanga.

Robert’s dominance resulted in him being voted World Best Marathoner of the 1980’s decade.

In 1983, he was voted Australian of the Year and honoured with an MBE. In 1986 he was inducted into the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame and in 1990 he was named World Marathon Runner of the Decade by Track and Field News.

As Director of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) for five years in the early 1990s, Robert re-positioned the AIS as a centre of excellence after the drugs in sport debacle of the late 80’s. He was also involved in establishing the elite sports system being used today by our Olympic athletes and teams.

In 1995 Robert established his own not for profit company, SmartStart for Kids. SmartStart works through schools to encourage children to be healthy and active. It especially targets escalating obesity, poor nutrition and inactivity and has resulted in large improvements in child fitness and health. The SmartStart longitudinal database of children’s health and fitness statistics has enabled valuable reports to be generated and a range of follow up services for students, parents, schools and government.

DAMIAN TUCK – HEAD COACH/PROGRAM MANAGER
Damian joined the IMF team in February 2021 after spending two and half years working and living in Maningrida NT - a small remote community in West Arnhem Land. In this role, Damian designed and implemented AFL football themed health and fitness programs for the school students of Maningrida as well as managing the local Men’s competition and established Women’s football in Maningrida. He found this role particularly rewarding and it is where he was first introduced to the Indigenous Marathon Project (IMP) through Juan Darwin, one of our first graduates. Juan and Damian worked closely together for AFLNT and have developed a strong friendship.

Before his Maningrida experience, Damian was employed by the Commonwealth Government in Canberra working across various policy, program and corporate roles largely in health and sport.

Damian’s sporting background is mainly in AFL football being a player, coach, administrator as well as recruiting work for the St Kilda Football Club – he sees these skills as being very transferrable to his role as Head Coach of IMP. Damian is very excited about joining the IMF team as he has seen first -hand the wonderful impact the Foundation makes on an individual and the community they are a part of.

Tristan Nelliman-Adams is a proud Wuthathi descendant of Eastern Cape York and a Meriam, Badhulayg and Kirriri descendant of the Torres Strait Islands currently living on Wulgurukaba and Bindal country in Townsville, QLD.

Tristan was a member of the 2021 Indigenous Marathon Project squad and went through a roller coaster of a year severely affected by Covid-19 restrictions. This journey changed his life and after completing the Alice Springs midnight marathon, proudly became IMP Graduate #119.

With a strong background in education, Tristan has worked in numerous roles within the education sector helping teach young minds and guide them throughout their schooling journeys understanding that the greatest weapon to change the world is education.

In 2023, Tristan started with the foundation and assists the Head Coach of IMP with all coaching duties for the IMP Squad. He is also responsible for coordinating the FrontRunners Program allowing both IMP Graduates and IMF Runners and Walkers Leaders to have access to personal development and running opportunities.

Tristan is passionate about ensuring that all First Nations people have access to education and strives to help all First Nations people be educated, stronger and striving within their lives. He believes that IMF can play a huge role in ensuring that First Nations people live a healthy lifestyle being physically, mentally and spiritually healthy.

Kylie Young joined the Foundation in June 2022 as the IMF Regional Manager. This is a newly created role will see the establishment of IMF’s first regional office, based in Cairns Queensland. Kylie works across a range of projects to expand the IMF footprint across Australia, with a primary focus on regional and remote communities in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Kylie has over a decade of experience working in community development and program management across North Queensland with both government and non-government organisations. She has vast experience working with vulnerable communities having managed youth support services, youth suicide prevention programs, early intervention and diversionary programs across Cairns, Cape York, and the Torres Strait Islands.

A strong advocate for promoting holistic health and wellbeing of individuals to make real impact on communities, Kylie has delivered Mental Health First Aid training to service providers and community member since 2016.

Being an active member of Cairns RAW since 2017, Kylie has contributed to the growth of the group through volunteering her time as run leader and assisting in the co-ordination and delivery of numerous fun runs and events. Throughout this time, she has grown on a personal level and has made many strong friendships and connections with IMP Graduates and fellow RAW members from across Australia.

Jesamine joined the IMF team in December 2022 after working 17 years in the sporting industry with various local governing bodies. She spent 8 years with Basketball ACT running participation and development programs for children, which is where she credits her passion for getting out into the community and working with kids. In her previous role with ANU Sport, Jesamine was working with university students and had the privilege to take teams away to multiple UniSport Indigenous Nationals. “I have been involved with many state, national and international sporting events over the years, and the Indigenous Nationals has been my favourite event. To see students from different mobs and country come together to embody community and culture was both humbling and inspiring.”

Before delving into the world of sporting bodies, Jesamine completed her Certificate IV in Fitness and worked as a Personal Trainer and Fitness Instructor, and she’s excited to be able to reapply her knowledge in that space, as well as bringing her experience in working with school communities to the I-CAN Officer role.
“IMF already feels like family, and I am so excited to get to work with and meet some amazing people.”

Taneshia is a Yorta Yorta and Bangerang woman living on Bundjalung Country.

In 2019, Taneshia graduated from the Indigenous Marathon Project after completing the New York City Marathon, sharing that the journey changed her life.

Taneshia is a freelance writer and has experience working at state and federal levels of government, and experience designing and facilitating workshops for First Nations youth through her former work with the Brisbane Broncos.

In 2021, Taneshia started with the foundation and is responsible for our social media, marketing campaigns, media presence, and helping us tell our story and the stories of the incredible people we work with across our various programs.

Taneshia is passionate about storytelling and celebrating First Nations peoples and their journeys, and believes the IMF plays an invaluable role in normalising running and walking in communities all over the country.

Elna describes her job at IMF as the dream triangle: people, running, empowerment. “That basically sums up my life-purpose, and I get to do it every day.”
Haling from South Africa, Elna spent her childhood idolising Olympic distance runners and remembers her track coach using the Dick Telford method in the 80s.
“And here I am today, thousands of miles across the ocean, working for the man who was coached to world marathon glory by Mr Telford himself.”
As an avid endurance athlete, Elna’s greatest achievement to date was completing the 90km Virtual Comrades Marathon in 2020 – right here on home soil around Lake Burley Griffin.
“I love setting myself seemingly impossible goals and then through discipline, focus and tenacity achieve them, primarily to inspire others.”

An entrepreneur and business owner for over two decades, Elna has pioneered many social impact programs which delivered significant change in the lives of individuals and communities. As the Fundraising & Partnerships Manager at the IMF, she will tap into this experience to spread the #RUNSWEATINSPIRE word and to cultivate reciprocal relationships with our supporters and funders. “I believe that we are a national organisation with a global message that knows no colour, culture or creed. I look forward to engaging with corporate Australia, government and international bodies to celebrate our collective vision of building a resilient, healthy and inclusive society, be it through running or the shared journey”.

Next on Elna’s sporting list is the long road to Ironman completion with a few ultra runs mixed in for fun.

The first order of business is the name. Yes, Theresa and Robert share the same surname, but the similarities between the two begin to diminish from there. Robert is an endurance creature whereas Theresa’s forebears have gifted her with fast twitch fibres, more suited to sprints and efficient endeavours. One other similarity worthy of note is their passion for martial arts. Theresa is a 4th Dan Black Belt in a traditional Okinawan karate style, Goju Ryu. Theresa incorporates her knowledge of dance, yoga and personal study of movement mechanics to teach formal karate classes and private functional movement sessions at their home dojo in Canberra.
Theresa’s skills, qualifications and experience is varied and has worked in both private and government sector in different capacities and roles. Her quest for a depth of knowledge has led her to achieving formal qualifications that include a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, a Bachelor of Design (with Honours), Master of Applied Linguistics Program and Graduate Diploma in IT - Database Management.

What Theresa brings to the Foundation is years of design knowledge, skill and industry experience having achieved Honours in her Bachelor of Design degree and applying her skills in the marketing, advertising and design world with Grey Advertising Australia, The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, The Australian Bureau of Statistics, Department of Foreign Affairs and as a freelancer working for clients like The Canberra Casino, Australian Customs and Border Security, Summer National, Fish Sunglasses, Canberra Medical Ecology Centre, SmartStart for Kids Ltd, The Australian National University, Pep Colour, National Institute of Bioenergetic Medicine, and many more.

Theresa often channels her inner nerd, having a passion for gadgets and all things IT. Theresa’s goal is to elevate the status of IT from a “support” role to one that is integral to the Foundation’s corporate strategy and one that serves as a key component in the delivery of its programs and communication to communities.

Sue has an Information Technology as well as a statistics background and has attained a Bachelor of Social Science. Her previous experience includes working for IBM in IT Service Delivery for almost 15 years in varying capacities, including technical, reporting analyst, team lead, and delivery analyst roles.

In 2015, Sue reached out to the IMF to offer her services as a volunteer after a deep personal loss, and she has now been a supporter and volunteer for the past nine years. While not a runner previously, Sue was inspired to start running through her journey of supporting IMP graduates and squad members, and is now even committed to running the six Abbott World Marathon Majors (with five completed) to finish what her sister started.

Sue is passionate about supporting and contributing to the IMF Team and greater IMF family, and she sees the work of the foundation as invaluable to providing opportunities to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities around the country.

Greg is an experienced senior executive with over 30 years of commercial, marketing and customer leadership as well as governance experience of large-scale businesses in transport, government, telecommunications and NFP. Greg’s background includes senior marketing leadership roles at Telstra and in digital transformation and customer services at Transport for NSW.

Greg is also an experienced non-executive director and recently retired as long-term Chair of Learning Links. Learning Links provides children who have learning difficulties with the skills, services and family support to enable them to realise their potential. Greg is currently a non-executive director of Metro Tasmania and Chair of the People and Culture sub-committee.

Besides corporate life, Greg undertakes a lot of community work including fundraising and is a long-time ultra-marathoner - and also race organiser and race director of Coast to Kosciuszko. Greg and his family have also participated in the IMF Warrior Father’s Day fun run. Greg is excited by the opportunity to add value to IMF as it brings together corporate and governance, leadership, operations and execution, sport and community and the ability to support outcomes for First Nations peoples and communities.