A journey through aboriginal history and culture in Port Adelaide FC’s Indigenous guernsey

A journey through aboriginal history and culture in Port Adelaide FC’s Indigenous guernsey

The Port Adelaide Football Club and Macron have unveiled the new Indigenous Guernsey, the sport's signature sleeveless jersey. Designed in collaboration with defender Lachie Jones and with the help of his great aunt Madeliene Dirdi, this special jersey celebrates the athlete's journey to discover more about his Aboriginal heritage and his grandmother's life and legacy.

The centrepiece of the Indigenous Guernsey is a Brolga (Australian crane), a totem of the Yanyuwa people of Jones’ grandmother’s country at Borroloola, in Arnhem Land, southeast of Darwin. The footprints, lines and circles around the V on the front of the guernsey represent Jones’ grandmother’s journey, as a member of the so-called ‘Stolen Generation’, from Borroloola to Bute on the Yorke Peninsula. Meanwhile, the teal symbols represent the people who helped her along the journey. On the back of the jersey, the design with the Brolga in the centre represents the grandmother’s final resting place: Bute. Another symbol in the jersey’s graphic is the boomerang, an ancient tool used for over 60,000 years and still to this day by Aboriginal people.

Lachie Jones is the eighth Port Adelaide player since 2013 to have contributed to the design of the club's Indigenous Guernsey. "It is a huge honour to be given the opportunity to design this guernsey. - Jones said - I have been collecting the club’s Indigenous guernsey over the last five or six years so I’m pretty stoked to add to that with this design."

A unique and powerful shirt that pays homage to its roots, its culture and its people. Black and white, with some teal details, distinguish the Indigenous Guernsey where the Macron Hero stands out in white in the centre of the chest. A label on the inside edge of the collar reads ONE COUNTRY ONE CULTURE, while the year the club was founded, 1870, is printed in white on the backneck. A garment that confirms Macron's attention to stylistic innovation whilst utilising extremely high-quality materials - details that make the Italian brand's jersey designs unique and exclusive for its clubs.