In 2023, Richmond Junior Football Club, in partnership with our friends at Melbourne Indigenous Transition School (MITS), launched an indigenous jumper, to be worn each year in the Sir Doug Nicholls Round by all players in our club, and also to be used as a clash jumper when required at other times during the season.
Who designed this jumper?
RJFC welcomes MITS students as players to our club during their stay in Melbourne, with their involvement resulting in a strengthening of cultural connection to land and community by all at the club. The RJFC 2023 indigenous jumper was designed by recent Year 12 graduate Kenita, an Alumni student from MITS alongside a project team of Year 7 students from the class of 2022. All the students had the opportunity to design a jumper. Kenita’s design was then chosen with some help and modifications from the other students. To help with the process, staff from the Korin Gamadji Institute showed them previous designs used for Richmond’s AFL club.
The jumper design, in the words of Kenita (MITS Alumni)
The 2023 RJFC indigenous jumper consists of two main design elements:
- The sash running through the middle of the jumper represents 2 teams travelling from their respective land to meet at the football oval. The series of circles are the players and their families travelling to the game. The journey is represented by the lines and dots which all come together to meet in the middle, the football ground. Richmond Junior Football Club is purposely kept close to the heart representing the love of the game and the local community. The football ground in the middle of the guernsey is central to the design and the dots and lines represent all the players, families, supporters, volunteers, and officials gathering as a community to watch the football game.
- The second element of the guernsey is the circle placed to the side of the design. This circle represents one class of MITS children, with each of the 22 children depicted as a symbol within the border. The series of lines and dots depicts each student’s individual journey they take travelling from their homes around Australia to arrive in Richmond, the central circle of the design.
RJFC recognises and pays respect to the traditional owners of the land on which we play football, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin nation.
