WHEN the Arnhem Crows Football Club won the women's Grand Final for the second year running, the community of Barunga was bare, everyone was 45 minutes away at the game in Katherine.

The remote Indigenous community, with a population of approximately 400 people, hired a bus to get everyone there and club president Helen Lee made sure everyone knew they belonged.

Lee has dedicated more than 15 years to growing football in Barunga, where she grew up after being born in Darwin.  

"It's not just a club thing, it's a whole community thing. Everyone gets together," she said.

In her second year at the helm, Lee describes the club as a community base where anyone in the area can come to gather.

"Everyone's welcome at training, we do not push them away, we encourage the 12-year-olds to 13, 14, 15-year-olds too, they actually lead the way for the older ones because they're more energetic," she laughed.

"Our club is growing and at footy training, our parents come along and watch them and sit down and have a chat, they give us ideas of what they want to see, and what we can achieve."

Lee's passion for ensuring Indigenous people are represented in all aspects of life and in the community was the driving force behind the establishment of the first-ever full-time senior women's Indigenous community team for an NT football competition (the Big Rivers Football League).

"When women's football got introduced in the Territory, probably five years later, local women and girls asked me to put an expression of interest in the Big Rivers Football League for a woman's team," she recounted.

"Without any hesitation, I assisted, and we got in and we won our first year and then the second, we went back-to-back."

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Lee grew up playing soccer, netball and basketball, but once she had children of her own, she began driving them to Darwin to play football.

Spurred on by the growing enthusiasm in women's footy, Lee is happy to assist in any way to help develop the game, and was recently acknowledged for her outstanding contribution as part of the 2022 Chemist Warehouse AFLW Community Ambassador program.

"We've had young ladies from a community about 300km away from Barunga that played in our team and won a premiership, and now, they just formed their own team to participate in the competition," Lee said proudly.

"My influence in women's football has now grown to another community team, it doesn't matter if it's an Indigenous team or non-Indigenous team, but it's about the love of women's football. If I could do that and encourage other communities or clubs, I'll be very proud of myself for doing that."

Creating a community hub is just as playing the game according to Lee, who is in contact with surrounding communities day to day in her role with the Minister of Housing.

She is also a local councillor, a role her sister held before her, and locals encouraged her to take over.

"I've reached out to so many communities, asking if they want assistance in getting their footy club established properly, with good governance, good leadership, I'll help them - it’s just a matter of them reaching out to me now," she said.

It's the health side of things that she sees as the biggest advantage to the remote community, who she says benefit from the education they receive from being involved.

"My passion about any sport in general is the betterment of our Indigenous women and men's lifestyle, if we can better our lifestyle by playing sports and being healthy, I will endeavour to continue to lead this club to that."

Part of the club's code of conduct is that all women must have a health check, something which is about "closing the gap and promoting a generally healthier lifestyle".

"We need to educate our mob, with better healthy choices and getting them to play any sport is good, and the women have opted to play football," Lee said.

"We don't know who has rheumatic heart disease, we don't know who has a renal condition and if they find that out before they start playing footy it's lucky.

"That's why we're really passionate about how we deliver sport in our community, and how we care about our young men and women."

With pre-season training underway, the Arnhem Crows are into their third year in the Big River Football League and Lee says they're looking for a three-peat.

Mostly though, it's not the competitiveness that the president thrives off, it's the betterment of the health and wellbeing of the communities and helping them have the opportunities they deserve.

"I hope our community shines the light and encourages all other remote communities to step up and help the young women join in," Lee said.