Hockey WA Indigenous State Team Uniform

By Terri and Harry Golding

The black swan, or known in Noongar as maali, is sitting proudly with its wings open ready for any challenges.

There is a total of eight meeting places, representing Hockey WA regions – the Wheatbelt, Goldfields, Mid West, Pilbara, South West, Peel, Great Southern and Perth. These meeting places represent the regions where many people play hockey, making sacrifices when commencing their journey to represent WA in hockey, travelling many kilometres for trials and training sessions, striving to become the best they can be with the hope of playing hockey for WA. The journey lines between each of these meeting places represent the connection every region has to each other. They also represent the roads and country that they travel while on their journey to play the sport we love.

In the foreground, there are two sections – the first section has the symbol for food (mereny), fruit (kamak), flowers (djet) and eggs (nooroks). The following section is full of the symbol for a person, the people are representing the players, coaches, umpires, families and all the officials that make hockey in WA possible.

In the next two sections, the maali is sitting proudly on the river, which is represented by the symbol for river, or known in Noongar as bilya.

The last section has the symbol for rock holes – these give a place for fish and water life to flourish.

Every region throughout WA has their own unique land and waterway systems, which are an important part of all Aboriginal peoples culture and way of life. Bringing all these cultural elements of life into our design gives an understanding of the importance of food, family, people and the connection to country. The journey lines connect us all together along with the rock holes and waterways that move throughout our vast and unique state of WA.

The maali is sitting strong, showing strength through its proud stance. It shows WA teams can meet any challenge that presents. With all the meeting places and the connection shown through the journey lines, allowing players to feel a strong bond to each other.

Every person who earns the privilege to wear their state strip will have their own story, but through our design, it is hoped they will find a continuing bond to each other and a connection to our first peoples and the place we call home – Western Australia.