DKA pro­gram man­ag­er Michael Lid­dle came up with the idea for his work­shop Codes 4 Life while watch­ing a foot­ball game. He realised that, while play­ing foot­ball, Abo­rig­i­nal men are strong, proud and dis­ci­plined. They play with­in the rules of the game, because that’s the best way to bring home the win. But when the game is over, what are the rules? Who are the umpires that Abo­rig­i­nal men will lis­ten to? 

Codes 4 Life uses foot­ball as a lens through which respect for rules — both West­ern and Abo­rig­i­nal — can be dis­cussed. Observ­ing the rates of sub­stance abuse, phys­i­cal vio­lence and the cycle of recidi­vism, Michael saw that, in many cas­es, this law­less behav­iour stemmed from a loss of cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty. By recon­nect­ing with cul­ture, Abo­rig­i­nal men can strength­en their ​‘Abo­rig­i­nal hearts.’ As Kier­an Finnane writes, ​“that strong sense of who he is brings a calm­ness of mind allow­ing a man to observe all of the clear require­ments of the skin sys­tem, about look­ing after coun­try and their families.”