Last weekend, Belnorth Football Club debuted an Indigenous Playing Kit, inspired by the first people of Australia and the traditional owners of the land.
From Belnorth Football Club
While soccer is traditionally a multicultural sport in Australia, it has not been as strong with the indigenous players as the AFL and NRL – although we note that this might be changing with players like Kyah Simon and Canberra’s own Lydia Williams representing Australia at the highest levels, and Capital Football is seeking players to represent the Canberra region in the 2018 National Indigenous Football Championships in November this year.
Earlier in the season, the Belnorth committee looked at Reconciliation Day and the overall movement towards the great recognition of Australia’s first people and wondered what we could do to contribute to increasing Indigenous awareness. We took a lead from the AFL and NRL Indigenous Rounds to commission a special shirt that Belnorth teams could use for special events, tournaments and whenever our teams would like to use them and we see this as one means to help build this awareness.
We were honoured to be joined by Tara Cheyne MLA, Member for Ginninderra, and the shirt’s designer Dion Devow, of Darkies Designs and Canberra’s nominee for Australian of the Year 2018, to launch the shirt.
Dion and the team from Darkies Designs created a shirt design that combines images of water and stars, representing Kaleen and Giralang in the language of the Wiradhuri Aboriginal tribe. We are not aware of any team in the Canberra Football community having had an indigenous shirt and are very excited to breaking new ground.
Images: Belnorth Football Club