Today, there is no team in the NRL (National Rugby League) that does not have a player of Polynesian heritage. These young men get paid enormous amounts of money and play the game on a full-time basis.
But in 1980, the first Polynesian (he is Samoan) professional rugby league player was paid $5,000 and worked as a garbage man to support himself after migrating to Australia to play with the Balmain Tigers in Sydney.
Patrick Skene, the author of 'the BIG 'O' has spent the past decade writing about people from the margins of society who excel in their pursuits.
"I wrote a story on Ian Roberts [the openly gay rugby league player and actor], the first ever Aboriginal Wallaby, and on Aboriginal Greco-Roman wrestlers. But it was my story on Olsen Filipaina that went absolutely viral - the most read story for Guardian Australian sport that year [2017], 250,000 people read it, and 3 years later we have a book," he said.
The Big 'O' is more than a story about a rugby league player of Samoan heritage. It is a story about Australian sport and society, and it resonates in the experiences of Aboriginal players in all codes of football, like the story of Aboriginal AFL great, Adam Goodes.
Olsen Filipaina was born in the suburbs of South Auckland, New Zealand, and in the 1970's, the conservative government in office targeted Pacific Islander homes (mostly Samoan and Tongans) in what became known as the 'dawn raids' on Pacific Island over-stayers.
Patrick Skene: "Two thirds of the over-stayers were from Australia, English or South African background, and one third from the Pacific, but the Pacific Islanders got targeted and evicted from their homes, get deported. When you you see that blatant racism where one group who has committed the same offence are treated so differently from another, that's going to stick in your brain."
Olsen Filipaina says he grew up wanting to be an All Black, the New Zealand national rugby union team, but "after I left High School, my father decided he wanted me to play league, and that was that."
From the poorer suburbs of South Auckland to Sydney, the transition was not much of a culture shock for Olsen, and he realised that "I copped a lot of racial abuse and all that because Australians had never seen, they didn't know what a Polynesian was."
It was also very much based on colour. Two other New Zealanders, brothers Kurt and Dane Sorrenson of Tongan heritage, moved across the Tasman and played for the Cronulla Sharks in the early 1980's. Olsen recalls a conversation he had with Kurt Sorrenson.
"I said to Kurt when we played against Cronulla at Leichardt - do you and Dane cop the same racial abuse, you know black this black that? And Kurt pointed to his forearm and said No, because we're white, we're not as dark as you."
Patrick Skene says - "Without context, Olsen's story is a very sad story. He encountered a lot of racism. But with context, and what it has led to with the Pacific Revolution, he can actually be looked at as a Pathfinder, and not only in New Zealand, Samoans and Maori but a lot of Aussies love Olsen on this side of the ditch."
Olsen Filipaina is still a garbage man, but he also spends time mentoring young Pacific Island boys about playing rugby league.
When asked about any advice he would give to the highly-paid professional players of Polynesian heritage in the NRL today, he says - "Never forget where you come from. A lot of them need to get out of what I call 'you-know-who-I-am' syndrome. When they get all this big money and then when they get their head up there, it's very hard to get it back out again."
PRAISE for the BIG 'O'
Sir Graham Lowe (former coach of Kiwis, New Zealand national rugby league team) - "He was a great player who was misunderstood, and this is a very important book to explain his role in the Polynesian rise in rugby league."
Wally Lewis, NRL Immortal - Olsen's strength was far greater than anyone else I faced. With that Black and White jumper on, he was something else."
