Coreeda

Coreeda is a style of Folk wrestling practiced in Australia and is based on Aboriginal combat sports that existed in the pre-colonial period before the 19th century.

Although centered mainly in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, new Coreeda clubs have recently been formed in Bourke (Western NSW), Melbourne and on the Gold Coast with other new ones planned for Adelaide, Broome and Canberra. Combining the movements of the traditional kangaroo dance as a warm up ritual, with a style of wrestling that utilizes a yellow 4.5m diameter circle that has black and red borders (similar to the Aboriginal flag), Coreeda is often compared to sports as diverse as Capoeira and Sumo.

Developed since 1998 the sport has slowly grown and the Coreeda Association of Australia is now a member of the UNESCO acknowledged World Martial Arts Union, as such is considered an important part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Australia. Although Coreeda still struggles for recognition within its own country, the plan for the Coreeda Association of Australia is to one day create a "First Nations Coreeda Championship", with teams selected to represent indigenous nations rather than modern Australian regions and to ultimately to build a professional league for the sport called ProCor.

Coreeda wrestlers often participate in other styles of Folk Wrestling practiced in Australia at ethnic community festivals, such as Korean Ssireum, Turkish Yagli Gures, Celtic Wrestling, Russian Sambo and have even represented Australia at international Sumo tournaments. Most recently Shane Parker, who began his coreeda training in childhood, competed at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games for the Australian Greco-Roman Wrestling team and it is an important part of the philosophy of the sport that Coreeda wrestlers regularly test themselves in other styles of wrestling, believing that this promotes world peace.

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