As a part of National Reconciliation Week, last weekend was the fourth annual Suncorp Super Indigenous Round for Netballers. With the theme for 2021 being “More than a word. Reconciliation takes action,” the Netball community came together in celebration and recognition of the contribution Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have made to netball and sport.
For St Brigid’s Netball Club in the Kalamunda and Districts Netball Association, the significance of Indigenous Round was acknowledged at a grassroots level. The Club believes that it is participation in Netball and an inclusive club culture, that creates a platform for the development and maintenance of strong and respectful relationships with people from many cultures.
For the Indigenous Round this year, St Brigid’s Netball Club reached out to players and parents to ask what they believed the Club could do to continue its acknowledgement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players.
Since 2021 has been the St Brigid’s Netball Club inaugural year, they chose to dress their most senior team in an Indigenous Round outfit, with a long-term plan to have the other teams at the club wearing the dress in the future too.
Chosen and designed by Michelle Laylan and her daughter Keira, this year’s dress illustrates St Brigid’s Netball Club as being the meeting place, with each circle design representing the support the players receive from the Club, their coaches and managers, parents and guardians, as well as the Kalamunda and Districts Netball Association.
It is the whole community involved in St Brigid’s Netball that is recognised in the design. Using the Indigenous symbol for the person to surround the circles is symbolic of the Club’s players. The lines connecting the meeting place highlight the theme of the Indigenous Round, representative of the journey the Club’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players make to attend St Brigid’s College and netball club.
Kangaroo footprints are a symbol of designer Michelle’s hope that SBNC will leave a significant footprint in the dirt that other clubs will recognise, similar to the Kangaroo.
President of St Brigid’s Netball Club, Kate Read said “We hope to have more teams wear dresses next season for the Indigenous round with hopefully some sponsorship to support this!”
