Keanu Pinder: Always Was, Always Will Be

Written for NBL.com.au by Liam Santamaria

When the Adelaide 36ers stepped out for a pre-season hit-out last night, new recruit Keanu Pinder checked in for his first NBL action midway through the opening term.

When he did, wrapped neatly around his left ankle was a window into his heart and soul.

It’s subtle. In fact, it’s so subtle it’s unlikely anybody noticed. But it was there; a tightly woven band with the colours black, yellow and red.

“I wear it every day, I don’t take it off ever,” Pinder told NBL Media.

“I wear it to show how proud I am to be Aboriginal. It’s just one thing that people can see that says ‘I’m proud to be who I am.’

“It’s for my people, for my family.”

Pinder has joined the 36ers this season after two years at the University of Arizona and a rookie pro season in Poland.

He is well known among basketball circles as a lob-catching, rim-protecting son of an infamous dad.

His father, two-time NBL champion ‘Tiny’ Pinder, was a Bahamian backboard-smasher who starred for the Perth Wildcats in the late 80s and early 90s but whose career was cut short due to off-court issues.

But having a pro-baller for a dad is only part of Pinder’s fascinating story.

Now, having returned to Australia to play in the NBL, the 25-year-old is keen for people to know a little more about him; particularly his strong Indigenous roots.

You see, Pinder was born and raised in Derby, Western Australia, among the Nyigina people of the West Kimberley region.

His mother, Tracey Smith, is an Indigenous woman whose ancestry weaves through generations of First Nations people.

It’s a family heritage that is significant to Pinder and, from his earliest experiences, has helped him form a strong sense of self.

“I’ve always been very proud to be Aboriginal. That’s what I identified as growing up because that was all I knew,” he said.

“My dad’s from the Bahamas but I didn’t really know that other side of my family. I just knew my family that was Aboriginal.”

That family are the Nyul Nyul people of the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome, and the Banuba people of the Fitzroy Valley in central Kimberley.

As a youngster, Pinder was fully immersed in the culture of his people.

“I grew up doing everything my Indigenous family did,” he explains.

“We’d go hunting, fishing, diving, snorkelling... just doing those kinds of things.

“We lived off the land. That’s what I loved doing when I was younger and it’s one of my favourite things to do whenever I go home.”

In fact, Pinder describes visiting family and reconnecting with his culture as a powerful and nourishing experience.

“We call it ‘Liyarn’. You’ve got to make your ‘Liyarn’ strong by going to your country and living off it; making that connection to home really strong,” he adds.

“Whenever I go back to Derby I always come back to the city feeling really well.”

Interestingly, it was Pinder’s mother, not ‘Tiny’, who first introduced Keanu to basketball. That’s because she was herself a pretty deadly baller. An athletic forward, she represented WA Country as a junior and, in the early 90s, had a brief stint with East Perth in the SBL (now NBL1 West), where she was named club MVP.

Smith, who now works as a Senior Advisor for WA’s Water Corporation (where she deals with Aboriginal Heritage and Native Title engagement), encouraged a young Keanu to start playing ball.

Unsurprisingly, he took to it like a duck to water.

When he was about sixteen Pinder travelled to Adelaide to play in an Indigenous basketball tournament and it was there that his athletic exploits caught the eye of legendary Indigenous baller Danny Morseu.

“Keanu was dunking and played well in that tournament,” Morseu told NBL Rewind.

“That day when I watched him play I had to go and have a talk to him and get him into the fold.”

With the help of former NBL coach Ian Stacker, Morseu helped facilitate Pinder’s entry into the Australian Institute of Sport.

“I’ve had a lot of influence on his life and got him involved in the game,” the two-time Olympian said.

“He’s done exceptionally well and it’s going to be great to see him play in the NBL this season.”

Despite never having watched him play – “All his tapes are too old,” Pinder laughs – the youngster benefited greatly from Morseu’s guidance, just as others like Patty Mills and Nathan Jawai had done before.

“It was awesome to get to know Danny and have someone to talk to who was Indigenous who played for Australia,” Pinder said.

“I would like to reconnect with him, actually. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, so if we could reconnect again that would be awesome.”

To be fair, Pinder’s been doing a fair bit of reconnecting recently. He has returned home to Australia after seven years away and, in Adelaide, has reunited with childhood friend Sunday Dech.

He now wants to connect with the traditional owners of the Adelaide area, the Kaurna people – whom he says he thanks for welcoming him to their land – and continue to reconnect with his family and culture.

“When I get a chance I would like to sit down with my grandma and the rest of my family and just talk about things,” he said.

“I would like to learn a lot more about my culture. I want to learn to speak my language. That would be really meaningful to me.

“Just because I’ve been away since I was a teenager I’ve lost a little bit of connection to my heritage. That’s something I can always get back though, because my family is really strong.”

Part of that comes from wanting to embrace his status as a role model to the next generation. It’s an arena in which Mills, the NBA champion and star of Australia’s National team, has set an incredible example to follow.

“Patty does it so well, portraying how proud he is to be an Indigenous Australian,” Pinder said.

“He wants to help a lot of Indigenous people because he knows how it is to grow up as an Indigenous person in Australia.

“That’s something I would really like to do. Once I get a bigger platform, I feel like I would be able to help a lot.

“I want to help my people because I know exactly how it is back home. I know how it is to grow up in a city being Indigenous also. It’s hard for people to go from The Kimberleys to big city life.

“If I could figure out a way to support kids to stop giving up on school and just make things easier for people… that’s one of my goals in life, honestly, is to help my people.”

This week the NBL launched its inaugural Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) as part of NAIDOC Week 2020 celebrations. The plan aims to strengthen pathways and create greater opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ballers.

Pinder described it as a “huge step” , praising initiatives that support clubs to bring young Indigenous players into the league.

“There are a lot of talented basketball players who are Indigenous and they just end up quitting after a while,” he said.

“They go back home, back to The Kimberleys, and don’t do anything. It’s sad to see such good talent go to waste sometimes. So for this to happen, I think this is huge.”

Pinder’s plan is to inspire those youngsters with some high-level play for the Sixers this season. He couldn’t get it going last night against Brisbane but will look to bounce back when the two squads go at it again tomorrow afternoon.

“I’ve got so much to prove in Australia,” Pinder said.

“Nobody’s seen me in Australia for the last seven years so for me to come back now, it’s a good time.

“Especially my grandma, she’s getting really old now and it will be good for her to watch me play.

“That’s one thing I really want to do, play in front of my family.”

He’ll get that chance soon enough. When he does, that anklet will be there.

They probably won’t see it… but they’ll know it’s there.