Kookaburras don jersey celebrating Australia’s indigenous people

ROURKELA: The Australian hockey team’s ‘alternate’ orange-and black uniform, highlighting the ‘Abori

The Australian hockey team’s ‘alternate’ orange-and black uniform, highlighting the ‘Aborigines’ theme, in its match against South Africa here on Friday was a pleasant change for many hockey lovers.

The mighty ‘Kookaburras’, who normally sport the famous green-and-gold colour combination, paid tribute to the original inhabitants of Australia by donning the ‘alternate’ jersey.

“The significance of the jersey is that it is a special indigenous one that celebrates and acknowledges Australia’s first people, the Aborigines,” said Hockey Australia communications manager Nic Kerber in an email response to The Hindu’s query about the jersey.

Here’s an explanation of the design elements on the jersey which was painted by Aboriginal artists:

Top left circle represents the female Australian hockey team, the Hockeyroos, the circle on the right represents the male Australian hockey team, the Kookaburras.

The symbols around the circle represent the females and males and the straight lines represent the hockey sticks.

Underneath these circles are smaller circles. These circles represent the grassroots clubs and the junior players that are up and coming. Between the circles are pathways, these pathways show how the Australian players came from the junior ranks to become Olympics and world champions.