Eltham Wildcats Basketball Club would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, the Wurundjeri people, and pay our respects to elder’s past, present and emerging. Today and every day we choose to stand with our indigenous community.
The 3rd – 10th of July is NADOC week! This week is to celebrate and recognise the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
In honour of this week, we would like to make a special announcement about our First Nations Indigenous uniforms and for you to get to know our talented artist, Bonnie Hampson.
About the design:
Star and Sun
The stars and sun hold great significance to Indigenous Peoples. They refer to the stars as totemic beings. Indigenous peoples use their knowledge of the stars to navigate across the country and use them as a compass, clock, and a calendar. The sun signifies the source of life and death, bringing life and warmth to their people. Our artist used stars to represent the path followed by a team to achievement and the sun to signify the enjoyment to one’s life when doing something you love and the heat and sweat that the game brings to our players.
Meeting place and journey path
This represents a meeting place and journey path. A meeting place is culturally a very significant site for Indigenous peoples. It’s a place in which their people meet, gather around, and sit in circles. Our artist used this to symbolize the significance of a team connecting deeply with each other similarly to a family and regularly meeting for trainings and games. The journey path again was used to symbolise the journey throughout the season.
Connection
The constant touching and flow of the symbols through the guernsey signifies connection and working together as a team. The shape that the symbols make represents water flow like a stream of water.
Men and Women
The U shape used represents a person. The altering direction of these icons symbolizes men and women. The constant flow of the people down the guernsey further signifies working together like a stream of water.
Artist – Bonnie Hampson
About the artist:
Bonnie Hampson is an 18 year Indigenous Australian from Ourimbah on the central coast of New South Wales in which her mob Darkinjung is located.
After growing up in Ourimbah Bonnie moved to Eltham in 2020 and chose to attend Eltham High School for their arts program in which she completed V.C.E studies in Studio Arts.
“I always found myself making art from a very young age, it is a constant form of expression for me. I like capturing emotions and moments in time through my art as well as encapsulating and exploring myself.” – Bonnie
Bonnie was approached by former CEO Greg Jeffers and Child Safety and Wellbeing Officer Sophie Foote to complete our design after being recommended by the school as a talented, young, indigenous woman with a keen interest in the arts. Which made her a perfect fit for the role!
We worked with Bonnie to come to a final design and all parties loved her work! Bonnies states her favourite part of her design was: “the continuity of the design as I feel like it’s an enclosed loop encapsulating the constant message of team and togetherness.”
Eltham Wildcats Basketball Club is so proud to have their NBL1 players represent these uniforms and to recognise and pay respect to our First Nations peoples. Bonnie states: “The uniforms are important as I feel it’s crucial to recognise the first peoples land in which you play on as well as providing a sense of pride.”
Bonnie Hampson is a proud Indigenous woman and would like people to know that: “The indigenous community is very beautiful when you look past the stereotypes that white Australia has labelled. You have to be open and unbiased when learning and respecting the people, customs, art, and language because when you let go of the ideas that you’ve made, and society has made it is truly life changing.”
On behalf of the Eltham Wildcats Basketball Club, we would like to thank Bonnie for her tremendous work and the education she has provided the club around her culture.
NBL1 Double Header
You can see the new design in action this Saturday night when the Eltham Wildcat NBL1 teams play Launceston & North West Tasmania at Eltham High School. The evening will be a special event in celebration of First Nations Round. There will be a special acknowledgement of country & didgeridoo performance and a talk/poem about identity plus much more fun and entertainment for the whole family. The Women tip off at 6pm, Men at 8pm. Grab you tickets on the link below.
Tickets: https://www.intix.com.au/events/elthamwildcatsnbl1-saturday9thjuly
