The Yarraville Seddon Football Club has honoured Indigenous history, with players donning the club’s inaugural National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee [NAIDOC] Week jerseys on Saturday, July 2.
Mangunk Gjang woman Lorraine Kabbindi White designed the artwork featured on the jerseys named ‘Fly Up and Out’, which incorporated local Yarraville landmarks such as Cruickshank Park and Stony Creek.
Club president Naime Siddell said the event was a success.
“We had a good crowd,” he said.
“Everyone enjoyed the afternoon.”
Mr Siddell said the club had started celebrating NAIDOC Week as part of their fixture about five years ago through the junior team to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land – the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and the Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation.
He said the club had been unable to hold an event during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We embraced it as part of AFL’s Indigenous round,” Mr Siddell said.
Mr Siddell said the special jerseys were a new addition to the club’s NAIDOC Week celebrations and reflected the club’s connection to the surrounding land.
“It’s kind of a map of Maribyrnong,” he said.
Players from the 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2012 Yarraville Seddon Football Club premiership teams also reunited during the day and reminisced into the evening.
Matthew Sims
