Swan Districts unveil new mural for NAIDOC Week.

Swan Districts have the theme for NAIDOC week covered with unveiling of their new mural at the entrance to the club’s ground. The 2022 NAIDOC theme “Get Up, Stand Up, Show Up” is an example of how Swans demonstrates how its Reconciliation Action Plan and NAIDOC week activities are inclusive for all the community.  

Swan Districts will be hosting Perth at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday as part of NAIDOC Round in the WAFL. That will include the official unveiling of a brand new mural by local artist Kevin Bynder made possible with support of the West Australian Football Commission and Rio Tinto.

The artwork is more than 11 metres long and will be featured at the entrance to Steel Blue Oval. It includes a map of the region featuring significant Noongar landmarks and sacred sites, which will serve as a piece of recorded history for generations to learn from and embrace moving forward.

Swan Districts' Head of Social Impact Matt Hewitson has been at the forefront of making the mural become a reality and he is now excited for the big day to arrive on Saturday for its unveiling.

"For us this is more than about football. It's about community, it's about understanding and knowing where we come from and who came before us," Hewitson said.

"It's going to be a big day and we're really excited about it. We're unveiling the mural to the world and it's a TV game and we've done a lot of filming with Channel 7 to create a package that will broadcast on Saturday.

"It just of ties in really well with everything that we're doing as a club and our Reconciliation Action Plan. As far as we know we're the only sporting club in Australia that has both ends of our ground featuring Indigenous language, and now we've got this significant mural at our entrance gates.

"It's a big day for Swans, a big day for our players and a big day for the Swans Aboriginal Advisory Committee and to see such a big project that we've worked on for a long time to come to fruition."

As part of the occasion at Steel Blue Oval on Saturday, Hewitson is also excited by the special guest speaker who will be at the President's Lunch.

"We've also got Jim Morrison speaking at the lunch and Jim's a highly significant and respected person within the Noongar community," he said.

" It's going to be a celebration of Aboriginal culture on Saturday and we can't wait for it."

The mural has been a significant project which started as an idea to celebrate the Indigenous history and importance to both the Swan Districts Football Club but also Bassendean and the overall Swan area.

A power of work has been done in conjunction with the local community and the Swans Aboriginal Advisory Committee to make the vision to come to life.

"For the last 18 months the Swans' Aboriginal Advisory Committee has been working through a process to have an Aboriginal inspired mural," Hewitson said.

"We've gone through an extensive consultation process between the Advisory Committee along with the community and local elders over the last 12 months. Within the committee itself, we've got a current WAFLW player Amber Ugle-Hayward, past player Garth Taylor as well as other important people from the Aboriginal community who have lived in the area for their whole life.”

"We've been able to do it with financial support from the WA Football Commission and Rio Tinto so it wouldn’t be possible without them and they've been instrumental in helping us to bring our vision to reality."

While the Swan Districts Football Club does have an incredible connection with Aboriginal talent on the field including Phil and Keith Narkle, Kevin Caton, Garth Taylor, Lewis Jetta and Andrew Krakouer, and a whole host of others, this is about much more than that.

At the end of the day, what the mural does is not only pay tribute to Aboriginal culture, but it also serves as a record of history of the good and bad which the Aboriginal people of the area have had to go through. That's something Hewitson is greatly proud of.

"The theme for Reconciliation Week this year was to 'Be Brave, Make Change' and the NAIDOC Week theme is to 'Get Up, Stand Up, Show Up.' What we wanted to be able to do was to work out how we could create a mural that basically depicts 100,000 years of history and 240 years of survival and bravery, and I think Kevin has done an incredible job" Hewitson said.

"Kevin created the concept of an original satellite map that represents the length of the Derbarl Yerrigan from Sandy Beach all the way through to Devil's Elbow on the Swan Valley side. "What's then included on that map is all the key points of significance that have transpired over thousands of years, which includes the last 240 years with massacre sites, burial sites, camp sites, fishing spots areas as well where expecting mothers would go to give birth.”

"Through the process we have learned more about the significance of Bassendean and the parts of the river, including that Bassendean is actually a part of the area known as Mandoon.”

Acknowledging history and even the pain and suffering the Aboriginal people of the area have been through since white settlement is another reason why this mural is going to be so meaningful and of such significance to so many people for such a long time.

"One of the reasons we've done it is we wanted to use it as an educational tool as well. It's a talking point for everybody to see it and know where they are on the map, and essentially it will be like when you look at a map in a shopping centre with the red 'You are here' dot," Hewitson said.

"We want to be able to use that through our cultural awareness training, through inductions and use it as part of our on-going journey to reconciliation and greater understanding about our past,”

"That will include talking about the terrible things that have happened over the past 240 years but also as a starting point to talking about racism and all that has been experienced by Aboriginal people since colonisation. "

As for the artwork itself, the work done by Kevin Bynder is remarkable. He began creating Aboriginal art as a 23-year-old in Fitzroy Crossing before moving to Broome and opening his first art studio in 2020.

He has been working as a full-time artist since and has opened a studio and store in Yagan Square in Perth, and he was a natural choice to complete this mural and he is done a simply stunning job.

"Kevin's done an amazing job capturing the significance of the area and so many people I've spoken with over this whole journey knew the area was significant but it has only been through this process itself that we learned just how significant it was," Hewitson said.

"This is Kevin's grandfathers country as he was born down by the river so this has been a spiritual project for him given he is so connected to this area."