South Australian disadvantaged and at-risk youth will become the nation’s first indigenous representative ice hockey team when they take to the global stage in Darwin this week.

The 11 players, aged 16 to 23, will compete for the first time as the Kaurna Boomerangs when they face the Territory Tiger Sharks on April 30 at the international Arafura Games in Darwin.

It will be the first of three gruelling exhibition games for the Boomerangs aimed at highlighting to the nation, and the world, their skills, persistence and resilience, and the redemptive qualities of an ice-based sport rarely associated with indigenous Australians.

Many of the players had never seen ice before they started playing the sport, says co-coach and captain Jarrad Chester, the first indigenous ice hockey player to represent Australia.

“I’ve been playing for a long time now and for a while I was the only indigenous ice hockey player, so to get a whole team of indigenous youth together is unreal.”

The Kaurna Boomerangs will fly – most for the first time - from their Thebarton home base, on Kaurna land, where all have taken part in the Ice Factor program.

The ice hockey program was developed to give disadvantaged and at risk youth, because of absenteeism, behavioural issues or literacy problems, a chance to re-engage, develop self-esteem and learn life skills. More than 200 students from 19 schools in SA are involved annually.

media_camera Shaquille Burgoyne and Jaidyn O'Neill developed the concept of an all-indigenous team after finishing Year 12 and missing their Ice Factor teammates and volunteer staff. Picture: AAP / Brenton Edwards

Joanne Burgoyne - mother of four boys who participated in the Ice Factor program and three of which are now part of the Kaurna Boomerangs – says ice hockey kept her sons off the streets and out of trouble.

“If it wasn’t for the program, a lot of our kids wouldn’t be here,” Ms Burgoyne says.

Her son Shaquille, 20, and nephew Jaidyn O’Neill, 19, developed the concept of an all-indigenous team after finishing Year 12 and missing their Ice Factor teammates and volunteer staff. The Ice Factor program runs for high school students only.

“Jaidyn and I both noticed how many indigenous kids were part of Ice Factor,” Shaquille says. “And we thought maybe if it was possible we could start an indigenous team to keep them out of trouble too.”

The cousins proposed the concept to Ice Factor founder Marie Shaw QC in late 2017. They then chose the team name, team colours, designed jerseys and attracted sponsors.

The Kaurna Boomerangs now habe their hopes pinned on attending the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Canada in 2020 and establishing a second indigenous team in SA.

The ice hockey matches this week will debut the sport at the Arafura Games, established in 1991 and attracting more than 2000 athletes from 33 countries from the Asia-Pacific region to share sporting and cultural knowledge.