Yartapuulti's indigenous stars Peter Burgoyne, Byron Pickett, Shaun Burgoyne, Gavin Wanganeen and senior coach Mark Williams played significant roles in the club's first AFL premiership.

HE was different because he played bare-footed. He also stood out from the rest for his skill, his running power, his sharp understanding of a game that was still finding its way to our national identity.

He was not judged nor excluded for the colour of his skin.

Harry Hewitt (also known by "Hewit", "Ewart" or "Hewett") was Indigenous, of the Bungandidj people from South Australia's south-east. His talent as a footballer and cricketer - nurtured during his upbringing at Port McLeay (Raukkan) - gave him fame and admirers ... and the path to South Australian football history as a pioneer.

On August 1, 1891 Hewitt wore the Yartapuulti magenta guernsey while working a back pocket at Adelaide Oval in an exhibition match against Fitzroy, the Victorian Football Association club that decades later embraced Sir Doug Nicholls - the symbol of the AFL annual celebration of First Nations people and their meritorious part in Australian football.

During the second term Hewitt, as we would say today, intercepted a Fitzroy clearance from centre after the first goal of the game was scored by the Victorian visitors. He made his trademark run to the wing where he was called, much to the dismay of the 4000 spectators at the Oval, holding-the-ball by umpire Schaeffer.

In the third term Hewitt leapt with his trademark high energy and sharp reflexes to spoil a Fitzroy attempt at goal from a free kick. "Hewitt jumped up and touched the ball as it was going between the posts (sending the ball away from the goal face to the boundary)," the South Australian Chronicle recorded. Earlier in the third term, Hewitt - having adventurously left the back pocket to run through centre - also delivered, as we say today, the goal assist for John McKenzie, brother of Yartapuulti captain Ken.

Yartapuulti won that game, four goals to two (or 4.10 to 2.5 had behinds counted in official scorelines).

Harry Hewitt became the first Aboriginal man to represent Yartapuulti when he took to the field against Fitzroy in 1891.

Hewitt is considered the first Indigenous player to represent Yartapuulti Football Club in a senior game. He was a "guest" player being technically tied to the Medindie Football Club (the forerunner to North Adelaide) having made his South Australian Football Association (SANFL) debut – bare-footed - against Yartapuulti two years earlier. According to the report in the Port Adelaide News "his alacrity (eagerness) all through the game eliciting the applause of the spectators ... he appeared to have a thorough knowledge of the rules of the game, as he never had a (free kick) given against him the whole of the afternoon".

More than a century later, the spirit of Harry Hewitt - and his playing style - seemed to live on with another adventurous and creative back pocket who created history while drawing the cheers of the fans.

Yartapuulti opened its AFL chapter in 1997 (replacing Fitzroy in the AFL) with a First Nations man as its captain: Gavin Wanganeen. He also was the first Indigenous player to reach the 300-game milestone in the AFL competition. And the first to advance from the changerooms to the board room as an AFL club director.

Between Hewitt's guest appearance with Yartapuulti in a match against Victorian opposition, and Wanganeen leading the Yartapuulti Football Club on the national stage, the club's records tell:

Malcolm Cooper became the first First Nations man to represent Yartapuulti in league football with his SANFL debut in 1954. In two seasons, he played five league games. 

After Cooper, and until Gavin Wanganeen became the 11th Indigenous player in senior ranks at Alberton in 1990, the record of First Nations footballers at Yartapuulti was enhanced by the trailblazing performances of players including Richie Bray (77 games, 1959-1966); Wilf Huddlestone (24, 1961-1963); Peter Talman (11, 1965-1966); Stephen O'Brien (56, 1973-1975); the goalscoring prowess of Ross Agius (53, 1979-1984); Brenton Owens (41, 1984-1989) and Michael O'Brien (66, 1985-1989).

100 years after Harry Hewitt broke barriers at Adelaide Oval, Gavin Wanganeen was making his mark on the game for Yartapuulti. Image: AFL Photos.

And since Yartapuulti put on the table its intentions for a place on the national stage in that dramatic winter of 1990, the club has lived to the spirit of the inclusive Haydn Bunton Senior (who finished his playing career at Yartapuulti). The Brownlow Medallist championed the passage of First Nations people to the elite playing fields of Australian football when he purposely sat alongside Doug Nicholłs in the Fitzroy changerooms at the Brunswick Street Oval at the start of the 1932 VFL season. Earlier, the future governor of South Australia was rebuffed at Carlton because his skin "smelled".

At Alberton, First Nations people - male and female - have achieved their dreams and become inspiring to all (not just to Indigenous people) by enriching the game of Australian football in the SANFL, the AFL and AFLW. The long walk of fame includes the footsteps of AFL Rising Star winner Danyle Pearce, Norm Smith Medallist Andrew McLeod, club SANFL captain and State team representative Corey Ah Chee, inaugural AFL squad member Fabian Francis, John Cahill Medallist Chad Wingard, All-Australians Patrick Ryder and Gemma Houghton, the Bond brothers Shane and Troy who are the eternal image of the Showdown rivalry, the effervescent Che Cockatoo-Collins ...

But there is no more powerful image of First Nations accomplishment at Yartapuulti than the photograph of Peter and Shaun Burgoyne, Byron Pickett and Wanganeen at the MCG after they played significant roles in dethroning Brisbane in the 2004 AFL grand final.

Pickett has the Norm Smith Medal as best-afield in the grand final.

Byron Pickett and his daughter leave the stage after being presented with the Norm Smith Medal during the 2004 Grand Final. Image: AFL Photos.

Wanganeen kicked a team-high four goals.

The Burgoyne brothers left their mark - Peter with his 25 disposals, 10 contested; Shaun with his 11 touches, four tackles and a goal - against one of the most-lauded midfields of our time.

All four changed a stereotypical theme that the big stage of grand finals would overwhelm Indigenous players.

Shaun and Peter Burgoyne celebrate their Grand Final win. Image: AFL Photos.

The Yartapuulti Football Club has championed far more than just opportunity for all - regardless of skin colour - on the football field. With its national profile as an AFL team, the club has proudly and determinedly stood as a community leader in furthering education among Indigenous youth with the ultra-successful Santos Aboriginal Power Cup for 16 years.

At a club where the combination of black and white gave Yartapuulti such a distinguished image during the 20th century, the words of Pastor Doug Nicholls echo with greater significance today: "What a beautiful song the black and white notes on a piano make, even when you play them separately. But play them together and you have harmony."

Hewitt proved such at Yartapuulti in 1891. Many others have followed to build greater harmony beyond football.