ADELAIDE THUNDERBIRDS
Elizabeth Close, a contemporary Aboriginal artist and muralist from the APY Lands, designed the dress. The Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara woman from central Australia honoured the past while moving forward and incorporating the concept of ‘fierce together’ as a means of bringing the community together to embed Aboriginal perspectives and celebrate what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people bring to the game of netball. The two circles acknowledge the past and present but are also explored from the perspective of those two circles having abstract reference to the goal circles on the netball court. The dot designs and the spokes represent the team and the importance of team building, but also playing with integrity, tenacity, strength and fairness. It’s a way to recognise just how important netball particularly, but sport more broadly, is to the Aboriginal community.
COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES
The story behind the creation of Collingwood’s design has been given over to AFL player Travis Varcoe and his family. The design tells of how friends, Collingwood and the broader football community wrapped themselves around the Varcoe family following the death last year of Travis’ sister, Maggie Varcoe. Maggie passed away in September 2018, several days after being injured in an on-field collision. There are four layers to it. The inner circle represents the players I’m surrounded by every day. The next circle of dots is all of the people outside of the playing group who support us and enable us to perform at our best, especially in tough times. The circle outside of that is for the friends and family we rely on so heavily for their love and support and then there is the fans and the Collingwood community who glue it all together. It brings together all of the elements of being a Collingwood person and acknowledges them for their support in good times and bad.
GIANTS NETBALL
The GIANTS’ design was once again done by young indigenous netballer Krystal Dallinger. It builds on last year’s design with a focus on family with the tree of life placed prominently in the middle of the dress as it is central to everything. Due to the recent drought in Western Sydney there are no rivers represented in the 2019 design however the emu and title symbols are prominent as they have a special connection to Krystal and her roots in the Dubbo region.
MELBOURNE VIXENS
The Vixens,worked closely with Indigenous artist, Ky-ya Nicholson-Ward, her mother Mandy Nicholson and apparel partner PUMA to create the dress. The Boorimul (emu) footprints walk over the shoulder and across the durrung (heart) of the Vixens. These 10 footprints represent each player and resemble coming together and going on a journey and path. The emu does not step backwards, it only looks forward into the future.
The passing on of knowledge from generation to generation holds importance for Ky-ya and her family, and this is illustrated in the middle panel of the dress. The horizontal lines are placed in a way to represent this passing on of ngagu (knowledge) from generations.
The side panel features circles, this symbolizes how culture has no beginning or end. It illustrates the ripple effect culture has on people and how one person can give so much knowledge to the people they meet.
The triangle lines featured on the bottom half of the dress represent balit (strength), standing by each other and unity. The strength of standing together is powerful and like the Vixens team, we are stronger together.
NSW SWIFTS
Designed by 2018 NSW 19/U player Courtney Jones, of the Biripi Tribe, the dress shows the journey of young netballers becoming professional athletes.
The circles on the outside represent children, young netball players who aspire to be play professional netball one day.
The lines are the journey of their netball pathway. Some journeys are pretty straight forward and are not. Each curve in the line represents a challenge along the way.
These challenges could include injuries or missing out on opportunities etc. At the end, the child grows up to become a strong woman.
There are seven women around the meeting place in the middle which symbolises each player that takes the court.
At the centre of the artwork, is the NSW Swifts, depicted by the swift bird. The artwork also shows that these athletes have been brought together, no matter how long, short, easy or difficult the journey has been.
QUEENSLAND FIREBIRDS
Dress designed by Rachael Sarra, the dress, called Uniting Flames, celebrates Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander culture and the core values of the Firebirds acknowledging the success of the team and the support network for the players that includes coaches, families and fans.
The Queensland Firebirds are more than the seven players on the court at one time.
Every step or pass you make, it ignited by those who have come before you and the people who show support.
It is the strength in diversity that fuels unity, maintaining balance and harmony on and off the court.
You are vessels for change, awareness and equality, each pass connecting different stories and identities.
Your roots strong in the Queensland landscapes.
With every game you bring fire, and at every final buzzer, comes new growth.
SUNSHINE COAST LIGHTNING
Lightning have collaborated with local Kabi Kabi artist Lyndon Davis to create their Indigenous dress and the design has special significance to the traditional owners of the land. Community and locality underpin Davis’s artwork, which incorporates Bunya Geometry – a symbol that has an intrinsic connection to the Sunshine Coast.
The history of the Bunya is what brought people together… one of the biggest land gatherings in the world took place in the Maleny, Mapleton, Montville, Blackall ranges.
The people that lived here before us had an affinity for the Bunya, it sustained their lifestyle for countless generations.
The placings of the Bunya on the dress and the symbols around the Bunya fruit represent the netball positions. It’s connection to country, custodianship, community… it’s all those things that the pattern signifies, harmony, coming together.
WEST COAST FEVER
The symbols have been designed and created by Kylie Graham, in keeping with correct Noongar cultural protocols (a female Aboriginal artist must create designs for female symbols).
The top of the uniform has seven circular symbols that in Aboriginal culture represent gathering or coming together as well as water and its unpredictable path it weaves throughout this continents landscape.
The seven circles represent each player on the court; and the water represents the path the team is making throughout its own history in the sport.
There are 90-degree angles that also symbolise the sections of the Netball court the sometimes-sharp turns that life takes each individual on their own journeys.
The bottom of the uniform communicates what the top does, but in two parts.
There are 12 of the symbols in Aboriginal culture that represent the female; this makes up part of the whole 12 women squad that is West Coast Fever.
