WATCH highlights of some of the great Indigenous players to have played at Port Adelaide on PTV above. Can't view the video? Watch on YouTube.

PORT Adelaide's Danyle Pearce is one of the game's true educators.

Through his off-field work with the Power's Community Youth Program and the Aboriginal Power Cup, he helps indigenous Australians discover their heritage and helps non-indigenous Australians embrace it.

He's currently undertaking an education degree in the hope of one day becoming a teacher. It could be argued Pearce reached that status a long time ago.

While he is well aware of his origins and supremely proud of them, he said there were countless others who were not so fortunately enlightened.

[ Related: Aboriginal Power Cup is Go! ]

As part of the Aboriginal Power Cup, Pearce has visited indigenous children at schools and helped run classes to assist them in discovering and embracing their cultural identity. The results, he said, were incredible.

"It's great to see all the indigenous kids embrace their identity and do some research on where they're from and where their family's from," Pearce said.

"Even over a two-hour lesson, the difference from when we first get there to an hour into it...they know more about themselves, their family, their background, the history of all indigenous people and you can see how proud they are to know this."

Pearce said it wasn't just the children who came away from the classes with a wider knowledge of their people and land, but he also learned a lot - often from the kids he taught.

"To get to know and meet people that might have come from the same place as my family…you walk in not knowing them at all and then suddenly you find out we're from the same place and we have cousins that we both know of and somewhere down the line we know each other," he said.

"That's something that all indigenous people cherish and love - having those bonds and those close family ties.

"I'm definitely a proud aboriginal person and, along with the students, I'm still learning every day about my family and my history."

[ Related: Leading the way in Indigenous awareness ]

Family is incredibly important to Pearce; as it was, he said, to all indigenous people.

He said his history and connection to family and the land they originate from wasn't just a part of who he was, but "it's me all over".

Pearce said he felt an almost unexplainable connection to all indigenous people in Australia, regardless of what part of the country they came from.

"At the indigenous footy camps, you'd have people from each corner of Australia, but once we get together into a room there's an instant connection," he said.

"There's just a bond; we're obviously strangers, but you've got that real link.

"It's like when a club gets a new draftee, the whole group embraces him and brings him in - it's a similar feeling."

[ Related: AFLPA launches Indigenous player map ]

The AFL's Indigenous Round is without doubt one of the most cherished weeks of the year for an indigenous player, but the former AFL NAB Rising Star award winner said it was a special week for all Australians, no matter their heritage.

"It's a great bit of recognition for all indigenous people and to have a round where we really embrace it and celebrate it really puts its it out there for the whole of Australia," he said.

"It's great that everyone gets involved, every player on our list definitely gets involved, and it's great how they take that in and embrace it."

A week is hardly long enough to remember and celebrate the contribution that indigenous players have made to the game of football.

But Pearce said Indigenous Round had a deeper meaning, one that spilled off the field.

He described the game as society's great leveler; a medium "unparalleled" in its ability to bring people together and teach them about each other's culture.

"The AFL is one of, if not the biggest forum to push that out there and get millions and millions of people to really embrace that and take it in and celebrate," he said.

"Footy is just an environment where nothing else matters.

"It's a great forum for every race though, not just indigenous, not just white Australians; you've got Muslims, Asians - it does wonders, it just brings everyone closer together.

"It opens another avenue of knowledge that you probably would never have had the chance to learn."

Regions rich in talent:
Noongar
Chance Bateman (Hawthorn), Lance Franklin (Hawthorn), Harley Bennell (Gold Coast), Jeffery Garlett (Carlton), Cruize Garlett (North Melbourne), Jonathon Griffin (Fremantle), Stephen Hill (Fremantle), Josh Hill (West Coast), Leroy Jetta (Essendon), Neville Jetta (Melbourne), Lewis Jetta (Sydney Swans), Andrew Krakouer (Collingwood), Brandon Matera (Gold Coast), Patrick Ryder (Essendon), Kirk Ugle (Collingwood), Chris Yarran (Carlton)

Kokatha
Shaun Burgoyne (Hawthorn), Alwyn Davey (Essendon), Aaron Davey (Melbourne), Graham Johncock (Adelaide), Terry Milera (St Kilda)