Marcia Ella-Duncan, the first Indigenous women to represent the Australian Diamonds netball team, has received the prestigious Waratah Award.

The Waratah acknowledges a career of extraordinary success and a commitment to sport that has extended beyond competition.

Having grown up watching her older sisters play netball, a young Ella-Duncan couldn't wait to play the game she had grown to love.

When she was nine the La Perouse Netball Club only had a 14 year-olds team, but she joined the team and held her own against much older players.

The Bidjigal-Yuin woman first represented News South Wales when aged 11, and played for the state's 16 Schoolgirls and U21 teams.

In 1983, Ella-Duncan, became the first Indigenous Australian to take up a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and was a regular member of the NSW team between 1984-87.

Ella-Duncan told the Sydney Morning Herald she was the first Aboriginal person to receive a scholarship into the AIS but also, at age 20, the oldest in the netball squad.

"I overheard a comment referring to me as 'a late bloomer', I remember thinking that was a funny thing to say," she said.

"I had started playing netball when I was nine and playing representative netball when I was 11. I didn't bloom late; they just hadn't ever noticed me."

Ella-Duncan created history when she debuted in 1986 with the Diamonds against the New Zealand Silver Ferns in Christchurch.

The following year she was a member of the silver medal-winning Australian team at the Netball World Cup in Glasgow.

She was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1988, for services to netball and inducted into the Australian Netball Hall of Fame in 2015, having ultimately represented the Australian Diamonds 18 times.

Since retiring from netball Ella-Duncan has had a long involvement in Aboriginal affairs; in areas such as criminal justice, community development, land management, education and child well-being.

She has chaired the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council and the NSW Aboriginal Child Sexual Assault Taskforce.

Ella-Duncan has also been a member of the NSW Aboriginal Child Sexual Assault Ministerial Advisory Panel and the Northern Territory Emergency Response Review Board.

Ella-Duncan was elected as a director on the Netball Australia Board in 2017 and had been a voice for Indigenous netballers.

Sports NSW chairperson Chris Hall said Ella-Duncan was a leader and an outstanding role model for the NSW sports family.

"Marcia was a trailblazer during her netball career and continues to be an inspiring leader as she drives broader community and social outcomes," he said.

"We honour and salute her with The Waratah."

The Waratah is not an annual award, rather it is only given when it is considered there is an outstanding candidate.