SIR Doug Nicholls Round is the AFL’s annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and the contribution of First Nations people to the game.

This week against the Cats in Geelong and next week at Adelaide Oval against Essendon as part of the celebrations, Port Adelaide will be wearing a special guernsey designed by defender Lachie Jones and his aunt Madeliene Dirdi.

Following the guernsey’s release, we thought it would also be a good chance to look back over the special indigenous guernseys from recent years and explain the stories behind them.

2013: Fast and Furious Emus - Jingili

This guernsey was worn by Port Adelaide in Darwin in a game against the Western Bulldogs. The emu is the totem of the Jingili language group - the region of the Northern Territory where former Port Adelaide player Jake Neade was raised.

The emu emblem used on the guernsey was designed by the Kulumindi Art Centre in Neade’s hometown of Elliott, approximately 700 kilometres south of Darwin, in conjunction with Barkly Regional Arts. The guernsey not only represents Neade’s language group, but also the established and ongoing special relationship Port Adelaide has with the Northern Territory, with a number of its players throughout its long history in the AFL and SANFL originating from the top end.

2014: Valerie Ah Chee's guernsey - Bindjareb

Brendon Ah Chee's mother Valerie designed Port Adelaide's 2014 AFL Indigenous Round guernsey.

“Mum wanted to represent support networks, family and relationships,” Brendon Ah Chee said in 2014. “The design basically represents relationships with their team mates, with each other, their respective lands because we come from all over the place and it’s important to remember our home country."

2015: Tree of Life - Kaurna

Aunty Barbara Wingard designed the Power's 2015 AFL Indigenous Round guernsey. She explained at the guernsey's launch that the jumper represents the entirety of the Port Adelaide Football Club.

“The seven roots represent our seven Aboriginal Port Adelaide players – who they are, where they are from, their people’s past present and future,” she said. “The ground represents where we all live: our beautiful earth, river and seas.

“The trunk represents our power, skills and knowledge of life. The branches represent our hopes, dreams and goals.

“The four seasons are represented in the top part of the image – we reach out to all people no matter what season of life they are going through: autumn, winter, spring or summer. And as the trees all come together, we make one forest – players, families, coaches, supporters, and community.”

2016: Bambara - Jandai

Karl Amon designed Port Adelaide's 2016 Sir Douglas Nicholls Indigenous Round guernsey. 

“Bambara means ‘journey’ in my language group, which is the Jandai language group from the Noonuccal people on North Stradbroke Island,” Amon said when launching the guernsey.

“The journey it talks about is the one taken by each of our eight players towards the club, the way that they’ve become part of the club.”

2017: Nathan Krakouer’s referendum recognition - Minang

Nathan Krakouer designed Port Adelaide’s 2017 Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round guernsey, as modelled by the club’s indigenous players.

“I placed the year 1967 on the front of the guernsey, which is the year Australia had a referendum where 90% of the country voted for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be included in the Australian population,” Krakouer said.

“I placed boomerangs in the guernsey, shorts and socks to represent our people hunting, fighting and protecting each other like we do at Port Adelaide.

“And the hand prints are in recognition of the traditional art Aboriginal people have made for thousands of years. They would put a mixture of ochre, water and animal fat into their mouths and blow it across their hands onto a surface.”

2018 – Ryder’s river representation - Whadjuk-Yuet-Badimia

Designed by Paddy Ryder’s artist uncle Kevin Bynder, the guernsey was worn against Hawthorn away and Richmond at home.

The design features a big camping place situated in the middle of the guernsey representing the Port Adelaide Football Club with the pathways connecting and leading the players there.

“The story shows the ten indigenous players on the list and where they come from all around Australia and the centrepiece represents the Port Adelaide Football Club,” Ryder said. “It shows the ten players and Kenny sitting around and having a chat at the Port footy club and some of the elders looking down and protecting the players and the club.

“You see some representation of the water that surrounds the Port Adelaide area, the Port River and the beach as well.”

Below that are kangaroo tracks, symbolising the kangaroo as a totem but also its role as a traditional food, which is hunted and shared with family. The top section of the guernsey features circles, representing the football community of Port Adelaide and those past and present who have helped build the club.

2019 – Sam Powell-Pepper’s journey Wadjuk and Ballardong

Midfielder/forward Sam Powell-Pepper designed the 2019 iteration of the guernsey, which was worn three times, including against St Kilda in Shanghai.

On the left of the guernsey is a design showcasing the 16 Indigenous players and staff at Port Adelaide while on the heart is the 46 players, playing together with one heart.

The bottom left circle represents Alberton Oval, the club’s heartland while the teal and white swirl emerging from the V are the flowing waters of the Port River as a way of paying respect to the Kaurna people, who are the traditional owners of the land of the Adelaide Plains.

The Goanna tracks in the teal V of the guernsey represent Powell-Pepper’s totem back in Western Australia and the journey he has experienced in his life.

2020 - "Bukko Tjidna – Bare Foot”

Named "Bukko Tjidna – Bare Foot”, the guernsey designed by Kaurna custodian Karl "Winda" Telfer aims to retell the stories of old and open up new conversations around Indigenous relations. Winda said his design was about honouring all of those who came before us and to respectfully walk softly alongside the footprints of the ancestors.

Featuring small boomerangs which carry the names of each of the 62 Indigenous players to represent the club since 1891, the guernsey was a fitting tribute to the past in a year in which the club celebrated its 150th anniversary.

Among the other key design features, four magpie feathers represent, the players, the coaches and staff, the supporters and the game, four shields represent the warrior brotherhood of the team, and four spears represent the club tradition. The centre circle represents the generations of people coming together, the outer circle are men represented by the red, the yellow circle represents the women and in the older people and children are represented by the white larger centre circle.

2021 – Kangaroos on the coast

Artist Elle Campbell’s design represents her ancestral burial ground in Kingstone in the South East of the state. Inspired by photos and videos her mother sent her of kangaroos emerging from scrub on the burial ground, crossing the sand and seaweed to go have a dip in the ocean on a warm day.

The bottom half of the painting represents the burial ground itself. The brown and yellow colours represent the earth, the soils and sands throughout the area and all the trees that Campbell and her family had planted on the land, while the red and black represents her ancestors that are buried on the grounds.

The upper half of the painting represents Kingston beach, the white sands, the blue waters and green seaweed while the footprints in the centre represent the tracks kangaroos leave from the scrub down to the water, in recognition that the lands belong to them as well.

2022 – Lachie Jones’ design - Yanyuwa

Designed by defender Lachie Jones with assistance from his aunty Madeliene Dirdi, the guernsey celebrates his journey to discovering more about his Aboriginal heritage and the life and legacy of his grandmother.

The guernsey’s centrepiece is a Brolga – the totem of the Yanyuwa people of Jones’ grandmother’s country at Borroloola, in Arnhem Land, south east of Darwin.

The footprints and the lines and circles around the V on the front of the guernsey represent his Nanna’s journey as a member of the “Stolen Generation” from Borroloola to Bute on the Yorke Peninsula, while the teal symbols represent the people who helped along the way.

On the back, the Brolga in a meeting place represents his Nanna’s final resting place at Bute, where her journey ended and his began. Jones’ Aboriginal heritage was key to him being drafted to Port Adelaide as a product of the club’s Indigenous Next Generation Academy.