Nathan Jawai

Jawai in 2012, photo by Pavel Shchegolev/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Nathan Leon Jawai

Place of Birth: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Date of Birth: 10 October, 1986

Ethnicity: Torres Strait Islander

Nathan Jawai is an Australian professional basketball player. A power forward and centre, he plays with the Darwin Salties of the NBL1 North. He has also been with the Cairns Marlins, the Australian Institute of Sport, the Cairns Taipans, the Toronto Raptors, the Idaho Stampede, the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Partizan Belgrade, UNICS Kazan, Barcelona, Galatasaray Liv Hospital, MoraBanc Andorra, the Perth Wildcats, and the Levallois Metropolitans. He is 6′10″.

Nathan is the son of Lynette and Ron Jawai. He is of Torres Strait Islands descent. The Torres Islands are a cluster of islands, located between the Cape York Peninsula, Australia, and New Guinea. He is a cousin of professional basketball player Patty Mills, and rugby league players Edrick Lee and Brenko Lee. His uncle is professional basketball player Danny Morseu. His great-uncle is Indigenous land rights activist Eddie Mabo (Edward Koiki Sambo).

He was raised mostly in the small town Bamaga, north of the Jardine River.

Nathan has stated:

There are two types of culture that qualify as indigenous. There’s aboriginal and then there’s Torres Strait. I’m from Torres Strait but we are all classed as one indigenous people.

He has two children.

Source: http://www.nba.com