Footy feat heightens Hala's hunger to help

It is fulltime in the Australian Rules Football International between Papua New Guinea and Fiji, and Halamehi "Hala" Tuilomania is shaking hands.

Her opponent generously congratulates Hala on a good game. The young Fijian smiles and using gesticulations reserved for the sign language illiterate, explains that she can't understand what is being said because she is deaf.

Her opponent looks genuinely shocked, pauses briefly and then smiles broadly and throws her arms around Hala.

Moments like these illustrate how far Hala has come as a footballer and as person.

"Performance-wise, I feel really good," she says, via her mother Mere.

"I feel I've really developed. I feel that my running style has improved and that has given me space to show my skill."

Many expert judges agree with her self-assessment and her dream of one day playing in Australia's premier football competition, the AFLW, remains alive — her disability is clearly no barrier to success. But Hala's focus has shifted somewhat, from herself to the cause of disability inclusion.

Hala's journey, and her mother's extraordinary devotion, has become legendary in the Pacific. When Hala was a young child, Mere abandoned life as she knew it, left her job, and intensively studied sign language until she became adept.

She then attended school with her daughter every day for eight years, interpreting every word the teacher said. She turned her existence over to the pursuit of a full life for her daughter. Hala has developed into a genuine star of the Australian Aid-supported women's AFL programme in Fiji.

"We just decided that if she's here, we have to look after her," Mere says.

"We had to make quite a few choices in life. We just took a stand.

"You have to make good use of whatever possibilities and opportunities she can take."

Those same words could be used to describe her daughter's change in focus. Hala has been forced, partly by financial pressure, to put her Library and Information Studies course at the University of the South Pacific on hold and instead has a scholarship to study disability at the Australia-Pacific Technical College.

It has given her a new perspective and she now wants to ensure others have the same chances she has had to pursue their potential in sport.

"My drive right now is to be involved in sports with persons with disabilities and promote AFL," she says.

"And I am thinking of ways how."

"Now that I am studying this disability course, it has really focused me on what I want. That is what I want — for people with disabilities to be more involved with sports."

All the while, mother Mere's devotion has not wavered. She travelled with her daughter to the AFL International Cup in Melbourne, and translated every word for her daughter — from the words of the Fijian national anthem, to the inspirational speeches from the coaches. Mere also rode the full spectrum of emotions as the Fijians flew and faltered and flew again, ultimately finishing fifth in the world.

And Mere might need to rug up and ride the boundaries in Melbourne again in three years' time, because her determined daughter wants the world to know Fijian football — the female, AFL variety.

"I'm just so focused now on 2020," Mere says, watching Hala's lips and hands tell the story.

"Focused on taking the International Cup home for the Fiji women's team."

Maybe Hala's work with Fijians with a disability may turn up another player or two just like her, to help make that dream come true.

This story was produced by ABC International Development as part of the Pacific Sports Partnerships funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

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