Canberra Raiders Indigenous stars Sebastian Kris, Xavier Savage, Hohepa Puru and Tommaya Kelly-Sines spent time at the Murrumbidgee River last week to help launch the Raiders 2024 Indigenous jersey.
The theme of this year’s jersey is “Where the water meets the land,” with the jersey designed by Birpai and Worimi woman Kulka Fahey.
Ms Fahey was selected as the artist for this year’s jersey following submissions from a wide variety of Indigenous artists from across Australia, with her concept and design featuring on the jersey in consultation with the club's NRL Indigenous playing group.
The design for the jersey uses the overall theme of “Where the water meets the land” with the river running through the centre of the jersey and land either side of the design. The design depicts Ngunnawal landmarks and celebrates the countries of the Raiders current Indigenous players by featuring their totems (Wedge Tail Eagle, Dugong, Crocodile and Emu).
Along where the water meets the land you will find multiple symbols that represent men, women and children. This represents not only those who live within the Canberra region, but also the Canberra Raiders supporters throughout Australia.
The meeting circles that are all connected within the artwork portray some of the significant places located within the Canberra region. These include:
· Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve
· Namadgi National Park
· The Australian Alps
· The Woolshed Creek Geological Monument
· Lake Burley Griffin.
These five landmarks of Canberra listed above are a mix of naturally occurring and manmade sites which make Canberra such a wonderful city to visit.
Artist Kulka Fahey said the design allowed her to draw on her own culture while making sure she included and respected the Ngunnawal Country on where the design draws its main inspiration.
“I grew up next to water and have always loved water, so to have this as the main theme of the jersey allowed me to relate to it through my design,” Ms Fahey said. “Just by looking at the natural landmarks that the Ngunnawal country has was a big inspiration and it was easy to highlight the beauty of it.”
Ms Fahey said the meeting circles and player totems were also significant features of the design.
“In the five meeting circles it was important in my design to highlight the natural landmarks and make them more prominent along with the man-made ones,” she said. “It was also wonderful to work with the totems of the players to make sure they’re situated within the design to give them representation.”
The Raiders Indigenous players who helped launch the jersey all had their own words to capture how they felt about this year’s design.
Sebastian Kris - “I think it’s one of our best Indigenous jerseys so far and how the five meeting places have been incorporated and the water meeting the land in the Murrumbidgee River that runs through Canberra. While adding our totems in gives us that extra string of connection to the jersey.”
Hohepa Puru – “We’re lucky with our design that it represents both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island colours as we have representation from both in our squad. It’s also about including the Murrumbidgee River which is special to the Ngunnawal people here in Canberra.”
Xavier Savage – “It’s a really good interpretation of what Canberra is about and what the club is about too so to involve those two things is really special and the artist has done a great job.”
Tommaya Kelly-Sines – “I’m really excited to share this moment with the boys and display our culture through the designs through Kulka’s work is really exciting.”
The Canberra Raiders 2024 Indigenous jersey and Indigenous playing range is now available through www.raidersshop.com.au
