WA Cricket has committed to creating a community that champions respect, belonging and equal opportunity for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Western Australia as a key part of its inaugural Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
Developed by WA Cricket’s RAP Working Group and WA Aboriginal Cricket Advisory Committee which is co-chaired by Prof. Colleen Hayward AM and WA Cricket Chair Hon. Tuck Waldron, the RAP is the first step in WA Cricket’s commitment to implementing reconciliation initiatives and strengthening relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people.
WA Cricket’s Reconciliation Action Plan is known as a Reflect RAP because it focuses on developing solid foundational actions to ensure WA Cricket’s future RAPs are meaningful, mutually beneficial, and sustainable.
The 60-page document, which covers the period of May 2022 to May 2023, details more than 60 commitments and actions.
Message from WA Cricket CEO Christina Matthews
“Sport, particularly cricket, has long been recognised as a powerful vehicle to engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Western Australia. WA Cricket is committed to creating equal opportunities for all future cricketers across our great State and we see this RAP as the mandate for us to create real and lasting change.”
Indigenous Kit Designs
Western Australian Indigenous Playing Shirt
Artwork
This artwork represents the coming together of our teams from the seven regions we recruit from. It showcases the WACA meeting place in the middle, the Darling Ranges and the Derbarl Yerrigan which is the river that runs through the Perth metro area. This is the place of the rainbow serpent, the creator of our land back home. The boomerangs include the emu (waitj) and kangaroo (yonga) tracks which represent the Australian Coat of Arms.
About the Artist | Kevin Bynder
Kevin was born in Perth in 1975 to a Whadjuk-Yuet Nyoongar Mother and a Widi-Badimia Yamatji Father. He started painting at the age of 23 in Fitzroy Crossing before moving to Broome where he had his first art studio. In February 2020, Kevin made the decision to become a full-time working artist and opened a studio/shop at Yagan Square in Perth. Over the last four years Kevin has worked at LaSalle Catholic College, helping teach Indigenous students from remote communities. Kevin likes to donate his artwork to foundations and fundraisers to support the community and promote aboriginal arts and culture. As well as selling hundreds of canvases and painting multiple murals across Perth, his designs have appeared on the sporting guernseys of Australia’s leading sporting codes.
Perth Scorchers Indigenous Playing Shirt
Artwork
The Swan represents the Boorloo (Perth) area, the Swan is surrounded by many lines and circles that represent the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River) and lakes around the Boorloo area.
The U shape represent people and a meeting place, prior to the commencement of the cricket match the Scorchers Cricket Teams and their opponents participate in the barefoot circle. The barefoot circle acknowledges the Traditional Owners, understands, respects the Boodja (Country) we play on, and connect with Aboriginal Culture. The barefoot circle signifies all teams journeys together, reflecting on personal feelings, it represents everyone, what has happened before us, what's happening now and the future, also identifies cricket as a team sport and the sharing of togetherness.
The white lines with dots represent travel, footprints represent the humble beginnings of the first Aboriginal cricket team who travelled by foot from New Norcia to Boorloo to compete in their first cricket game. The white circles with dots represent a campsite (home) coloured circles represent waterholes where the Aboriginal cricket team camped on their travel to Boorloo.
The U shape with the line represents the male Scorchers team and the U shape with one line on each side represent the women's Scorchers team, each team is very diverse. Circles with many dots represent happy home. The teams have a special bond supporting each other in their isolation when travelling, always returning home safety.
Orange lines with dots and meeting places represent the WACA Ground Improvement Project which will provide a sustainable community hub for sports and community, a collaborative journey for the Boorloo residents and wider community.
The feet around our cricket teams and improvement project acknowledges our ancestors and cricket history.
About the Artist | Linda Loo
I am a Nyoongar woman born in Corrigin and am connected to the Balladong/Whadjuk clans of the Nyoongar Nation. The Nyoongar Nation is located in the Southwest of Western Australia, Australia.
I am a self-taught artist and began painting at the age of 37, as part of a journey to self-healing.
All paintings are significant to me as they represent my family, connection to land, culture and childhood from growing up in the Kalgoorlie area (Golden Ridge and Zanthus) before moving to Perth. Growing up in the bush and having a sense to country is important to my life.
Painting gives me a sense of spiritual connection and family wellbeing.
WA Cricket's Cultural Narrative
WA Cricket is undertaking a WACA Ground Improvement Project (WGIP) with a vision to create a community and sporting hub, with cricket at its heart. WA Cricket is implementing a cultural narrative that infuses Aboriginal culture into the planning and design process in recognition of the traditional owners of the land on which the WACA Ground resides.
Dr. Richard Walley OAM has written a detailed cultural narrative that will inform decisions on artistic and landscaping choices for the WGIP. The Ground will link Aboriginal cricket history, tell our cricket story through murals, local Aboriginal artwork as well as exhibitions in the new museum. Central to the WGIP’s new plaza will be a Mandala that depicts the stories of the surrounding area and WA Cricket’s place within that. The overall theme of the mandala artwork is one of past, present, and future; about the land, the people that have lived, played and used the land surrounding the WACA Ground. The mandala artwork will also feature on WA Cricket staff shirts.
Aboriginal Cricket Programs and Resources
Aboriginal Cricket
WA Cricket and the WA Aboriginal Cricket Advisory Committee (WAACAC) support many programs for Aboriginal communities that target all areas of the cricket pathway, from grassroots through to the high-performance level.
Many of these programs, supported by the WA Cricket Foundation, help engage young Aboriginal people in cricket and build their skills and love of the game.
Inclusion and Diversity Club Resources
Click here for resources for clubs looking to be more active in this space.