Ash Barty opens up about the moment she discovered she had Indigenous heritage
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Ash Barty talks about the moment she found out she had Indigenous ancestry: ‘I’ve tasted the bitter edge of racism’
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Ashleigh Barty admitted she’d tasted the “bitter edge of racism” due to her Indigenous heritage and revealed that she may never have found out about her background without her father’s dedication.
In her new autobiography My Dream Time, out November 2, the former tennis great lifted the lid on her journey to discover her heritage and the vile abuse that came with it.
“I’ve seen glimpses and tasted the tiniest bitter edge of racism,” Barty wrote.
Ashleigh Barty revealed that she learned about her native heritage at the age of seven
“I would win a Deadly Award, but be vilified online. I would become a Tennis Australia First Nations ambassador and then find a muppet who questions my heritage.”
Barty, who retired from tennis in March, saw the insults and abuse as evidence that much work remains to be done to educate people about the importance of Australia’s Indigenous heritage.
“We didn’t have to talk about that at the moment, but it was definitely something that confused me a little bit about why someone would criticize something so personal to me,” the three-time Grand Slam winner said. NewsCorp.
“Looking back now, it’s all about education and giving people the tools to understand others and appreciate what happened for us.”
Barty’s memoir My Dream Time will be published on November 2nd
In her book, the former World No1 describes a visit to Central Australia as ‘the most important journey I’ve ever taken’.
The trip convinced Barty that her future lies in helping First Nations youth across Australia.
“Going to Central Australia and connecting with who I am and where I come from was really powerful. I didn’t know I would feel that until I got there,” she told NewsCorp.
“At least it has reassured me that the path I want to take in the future is to try to help First Nations youth across the country.”
In her memoir, Barty reveals her future lies in helping First Nations youth across Australia
In her memoir, the 26-year-old revealed that she would not have known about her parentage without her father, Rob.
When he was 13, Rob was told by a cousin that he had indigenous ancestry, something his parents denied, claiming the family had ties to Maori in New Zealand.
Undeterred, Rob traced his family history and discovered that his great-grandmother Nancy was an Indigenous Australian who married a white man.
He told the story to Barty and her two sisters when the former tennis champion was seven years old and since then they have all registered their names as part of the Ngarigu Nation.
Barty retired in March, just two months after winning the Australian Open (above)
In the book, Barty admitted that her grandparents were unwilling to discuss her father’s heritage with him.
“It wasn’t a conversation his parents could have with him,” she wrote.
“For his parents, Aboriginal descent was something to be ashamed of, not something to be curious about.”
My Dream Time: A Memoir Of Tennis & Teamwork by Ash Barty will be released November 2.