Marcia Ella-Duncan facts for kids

Marcia Lynne Ella-Duncan OAM (born 1963) is a former Australian netball player. She became the first Indigenous netballer to represent the Australian Diamonds.

Personal

Ella was born in 1963 in La Perouse, a suburb of Sydney. She is a descendant of the Yuin nation. Her parents moved to Sydney from South Coast, New South Wales. She was the ninth of twelve children. Three brothers - Mark, Glenn and Gary represented the Wallabies. She attended schools in La Perouse and Matraville. She retired from representative netball at 26 after marrying rugby league player Phil Duncan and having her first child. She has two daughters - Lauren and Maddison.

After retiring from netball, Ella-Duncan has been involved in numerous Indigenous Australian issues criminal justice, family and child well-being, community development and land management.

Netball

Ella represented New South Wales (NSW) at eleven and then selected in NSW 16 Schoolgirls and then NSW U21 teams. She started off as a goal defence but then moved to play centre. In 1983, Ella took up a netball scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and became the first Indigenous Australian to take up an AIS scholarship. From 1983 to 1985, she held an AIS netball scholarship. Between 1984 and 1987, she was regular member of NSW State Team.

Ella became the first Indigenous player to represent Australian Diamonds when she played against the Silver Ferns on 3 May 1986 in Christchurch. She was a member of the Australian Diamonds in 1986 and 1987 and this included winning a silver medal at the 1987 Netball World Cup in Glasgow, Scotland. She represented the Australian Diamonds 18 times.

Recognition

• 1988 - Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to netball
• 2015 - Australian Netball Hall of Fame
• Aboriginal and Islander Sports Hall of Fame
• Photographic Portrait held by the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.