Essendon unveil Dreamtime at the 'G jumper inspired by school students

Jarred Cross Published May 2, 2023 at 4.35pm (AWST)

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Alwyn Davey dons Essendon's 2023 Indigenous round jumper. image: Essendon Football Club Facebook

Essendon will don a Country and community-inspired guernsey for their Dreamtime at the 'G against Richmond in 2023.

In its 19th year, the Dreamtime game predates the AFL's Sir Doug Nicholls round, or Indigenous rounds, and draws near to 100,000 spectators as the centrepiece of the annual celebrations.

Now, a couple of Melbourne school kids will have their design seen by the packed stands.

Thornbury Primary School students Jackie Sinclair and Yawuru girl Momo Willcox worked side by side with the Bombers to put the jumper together.

Sprawled across the front of the chest is Waa the Crow, a totem of Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people.

"I have chosen to include Waa the Crow into my design. Waa is the Protector Spirit and is one of the two main moiety totems for the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people," Willcox told essendonfc.com.

"I have also used the Aboriginal art symbol for long journey within the design of Waa to represent the journey that the AFL is on to be inclusive of First Nations peoples and cultures in the game."

Waa displayed proudly on Essendon's Dreamtime at the 'G jumper worn by Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti. image: Essendon Football Club Facebook

The many backgrounds of Essendon players over the club's history are represented along the bottom of the guernsey with depictions of people, hand in hand, in a nod to teamwork.

"Being with others and working together is really important to me. This is why I've got the figures holding hands in the design," Sinclair said.

"I have included the Aboriginal art symbol for campsite and waterhole as it represents to me a meeting place where people would socialise and be together.

"I guess that this symbol could also represent the meeting places and football ovals where people gather to watch AFL games together."

It's not the first time the pair have worked with the Bombers.

Last year they helped design the club's VFLW Indigenous Round jumper for their clashed with West Coast and Richmond.

.@essendonfcw will wear their inaugural Indigenous guernseys for their round three match with West Coast and in their first-ever Dreamtime game against Richmond in round four.#AFLW | #AFLWDeadly pic.twitter.com/ukYTjOxCBV

— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) September 9, 2022

Waa similarly stretched proudly across the front of the 22 players taking the field.

Essendon face the Tigers at the MCG for Dreamtime at the 'G in round 10.