KARL “WINDA” TELFER loves the Sir Doug Nicholls Round in the AFL.
He watches on avidly every year as the AFL holds its celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture.
Having designed Port Adelaide’s special Indigenous guernsey for Sir Doug Nicholls Round in 2020, Winda has extra reason to be excited this year.
“Sir Doug Nicholls Round is really really important because it links back to the history for us as a First Nations people in this state,” Winda said.
“(Sir Doug Nicholls) was, and still is to this day, the only first nations Governor of any state in this whole country.
“I’m really proud to just be a part of that story, that legacy, and really proud in the 150th year of Port Adelaide to be asked to play a part and just to be involved in coming up with something creative from country that represents everybody over those 150 years, all the ancestors that have come before us.
‘I’ve tried to pay that respect through the design on the guernsey.”
The guernsey named “Bukko Tjidna – Bare Foot” features 62 small boomerangs to recognise each of the Indigenous players to have represented the club over its 150-year history.
On the back there is a circle featuring seven pairs of footprints, one for each of the Indigenous players on the current list.
“The sets of footprints that are coloured in the colours of our flag are all the current (Indigenous) players and the one in the centre represents the leadership, the first footprints – paying and honouring the first fella who took to the park and opened up the door.
The design is called “Bukko Tjidna”, which means barefoot, which is how we originally played this game in our country here, which is not the same but a version of it.”
It was an emotional moment when Winda saw the guernsey he had designed for the first time – a moment he shared with his family.
And the Pennington-local admits the emotions will be running high when he sees Port Adelaide run out in the guernsey against Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval in Round 13.
“I’m just going to be pumped, that sense of pride,” he said.
“Our people just continue to break the stereotypes and we continue to mould the future generations with the deepest respect on and off the field.
“This is all about educating the wider community as well, because there are things that have happened and continue to happen in our sport that there’s no room for.
“I hope that with the boys running out, the whole team black fellas and white fellas, is a testament to the solidarity that we need, to stand together in the spirit of humanity.”
Winda is a senior custodian of the people known as the Kaurna Nation from the Adelaide plains region which includes Port Adelaide’s home at Alberton.
He is a cultural educator, designer and artist, and is best known for co-founding the group Yellaka – which performs traditional and contemporary Aboriginal dance, song and storytelling.
Winda has two daughters involved in Port Adelaide’s Women’s Aboriginal AFL Academy, who have also taken part in the Aboriginal Power Cup – the club’s flagship Aboriginal educational program for secondary students.
And it fills him with pride to go down in history as the man who designed the club’s Indigenous guernsey in its 150th anniversary year.
“From what I’ve seen, the club is the benchmark,” he said of the club’s work with Indigenous people.
“What the club does for the young people with its programs, and it employs people like Pauly Vandenbergh and his team to do what they do, which his so important and sets a foundation for young people to launch from.
“I’m just so proud, honoured and humbled to be a part of it.”
The guernsey is now available online and in store at the Port Store.
