Corinne Hall is the captain of the Hobart Hurricanes women’s cricket team and also a self-taught artist. She channels her talents into lifting up female athletes and has just released a book with Michael Randall called Victress – an illustrated ode to the women who paved the way in Australian sport. Some of the proceeds of this book will be donated to the Kindness Factory, a global movement focused on fostering acts of kindness.
Corinne is on the blog today to tell us a little about Victress and where she finds her inspiration. Read on!
Corinne Hall & Michael Randall
December 2018 and I am in the midst of our WBBL Season. We are underperforming and after another very close loss I am sitting alone in my hotel room reflecting on the match. I am disappointed in myself because as a senior player I should be contributing more. I’m failing. I am normally a positive person but I’m having a pity party for myself.
Then something shifts and I have this overwhelming sense of gratitude. I get to wake up every morning and play the game I love as my profession, how lucky am I! I started thinking about the trailblazing women who had influenced the professionalism of women’s sport in Australia and had afforded me these opportunities. Then I picked up a pencil and started sketching. The first person I drew was swimming matriarch Dawn Fraser. I hadn’t shared my artwork with many people, but I always sought feedback from my trusted friend Lisa Sthalekar. She loves the picture, we create a list of 100 Aussie female athletes who have been pioneers in women’s sport, and I get busy drawing.
My creative manager, Silvio Marinelli, believed my drawings could become something special and he immediately had a vision for the project. Silvio connected us with Danielle Clarke from Cricket Australia, Wild Dingo Publishing and Herald Sun journalist Michael Randall, who became our author. We started mapping out the components of the book. I was adamant that the focus was on celebrating the Victress athletes but simultaneously wanted this project to benefit as many people as possible. I have been an ambassador for the Kindness Factory since the organisation was established in 2015 by my best friend Kath Koschel. After experiencing an extraordinary amount of trauma, including breaking her back twice and losing her partner to suicide, Kath attributed the Kindness Factory to saving her life. I wholeheartedly believe in the organisation’s vision to make the world a kinder place through their Kindness Curriculum and I knew I wanted Victress to support their efforts whilst also giving back to grassroots cricket.
It was important to me to contact the athletes to inform them about the project. I also had the idea to get their thoughts on kindness, but I was apprehensive about approaching them. I had long admired these people from afar, but now I was sending an email saying I’d drawn a portrait of them for a book celebrating Australian female athletes, oh and can you also please give this stranger your thoughts on kindness?! My apprehension wasn’t warranted though, as every athlete I engaged with was extremely humble and gracious. I was touched by the genuine passion everyone expressed at the idea of celebrating each other, and also the meaningful insight each athlete gave regarding kindness. Leisel Jones believed that you have to be kind to yourself before effectively passing kindness on. Liz Ellis spoke about role modelling kindness for her children, and Karrie Webb spoke about kindness being an instinct rather than a conscious thought.
My most cherished memory occurred the night before our deadline. We had managed to contact all of the athletes, except for Dawn Fraser. I was relieved to hear that Dawn would call before we went to print. My only commitment during that time was a 1-hour training session, but as luck would have it, I returned to my phone to read ‘Missed Call Unknown Number’. Luckily Dawn had left a voicemail and she generously promised to call back. My eyes didn’t leave my phone for fear I would miss her again. Dawn called at 8 pm that evening. She apologised profusely about not being able to be in contact sooner regarding Victress. She explained that she had had a fall, breaking her right wrist and left elbow, and wasn’t able to respond to my email. As far as excuses go, that was more than acceptable. Dawn told me a bit about her experience in sport and how she thought the concept of Victress was well overdue. I was touched by how sincere and warm our conversation was and I hung up the phone feeling proud knowing that we had the blessing of the legend herself, Dawn Fraser.
9 of the 35 Victress athletes were able to attend our launch in Sydney including Lauren Jackson, Leisel Jones, Ellyse Perry and the entire Women’s World Cup Cricket team. Dawn flew in from Berlin earlier that morning just so she could be there! These women turned up to celebrate not themselves or me, but the sisterhood of phenomenal women who have blazed a trail not only through their own sporting achievements, but through their unwavering conviction to continue to grow women’s sport in Australia. Victress is an ode to the sportswomen who have inspired me, and a whole generation of young girls, to believe they can be whoever they want to be.
Thank you Victresses!
—Victress by Corinne Hall & Michael Randall (Wild Dingo Press) is out now.
Victress
Mother, wife, partner, daughter, sister, niece, grandmother: every woman is a VICTRESS in her own unique and special way.
This book is an ode to some of Australia's most cherished female athletes who, not just through achievements in their chosen sport, but through their unwavering conviction and commitment to women's sport, blazed a trail...
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