"We're only here once so we may as well do something good."

It's a philosophy he has applied in equal measure towards his NRL career, to his ongoing university studies and to the charity work he will ultimately transition into through his fledgling Ryan James Foundation.

He could've easily walked away from footy long before reaching his 150^th cap at the top against North Queensland in Townsville on Saturday night, after back-to-back knee reconstructions in 2019 and 2020 restricted him to just six matches in two years.

But James knew he still had something to offer rugby league. Raiders coach Ricky Stuart felt the same and offered him a chance to resurrect his career at the Green Machine, one which the ex-Gold Coast captain has taken with both hands.

Yet there's so much more to this proud Indigenous man than just a flawless work ethic in the middle of the field, and a penchant for sniffing out a try.

James has completed a bachelor's degree in business and sports management, and is in the process of completing his masters in business admin. Those tertiary qualifications are all geared towards how James can best influence Australia's Indigenous community when he eventually hangs up the boots on a stellar career.

He's linked up with an old university friend in Sinead Dumas, who is working tirelessly behind the scenes to help create the Ryan James Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation which will initially be geared towards helping the Indigenous population of south-east Queensland before heading further afield.

"If we can make a genuine change while we can, why not," James said.

"We got together and talked about I wanted to do, we had the same goal in helping the Indigenous community. We have this circular community model that Sinead and myself have come up with and the stuff that we've written to hopefully get charity status.

"Sinead's been great in the background getting all that paperwork and hard stuff done.

"We've said we'll do south east, where we're from first. I'm from Tweed, there's a museum there that's run down, and can do with a lot of work.

"We're hoping to put a little business hub in there, computers so the kids can go there and use some computers and just have everything there so if any Indigenous kid in the area needs something they can go there.

"We want to hopefully upscale quickly from there and move out west. They're the ones who need it the most at the moment."

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At the end of this year James will visit a host of Indigenous communities out west, something injury and COVID-19 have prevented him from doing in recent times.

The pandemic also affected James' rehabilitation from a second knee reconstruction last season, although the 29-year-old found a way through.

"I had my home gym and I knew how to do rehab from the first time I did it - it was just getting that daily treatment, and being around physios every day, it was more like once a fortnight," James said.

"We lived out on acreage. I was pretty lucky, my family lived out there with us as well so we had people to talk to, we weren't just stuck around the house."

James has already repaid Stuart's faith in handing him a two-year deal to join the Raiders, quickly becoming one of the most respected figures at the club.

He sat out last weekend's disappointing loss to Parramatta, but is set to start on Saturday as the Raiders look to snap a two-match losing run.

"If we can play Raiders footy and just do what we do I think we can go out there and hopefully get the win," James said.

"That's what we've come up here to do and hopefully the time together and everything that's happened this week we can pull together and do it for us."