AFL Barwon Umpires to wear Indigenous uniform

The AFL Barwon Umpires in one senior match across the three leagues, will support AFL Barwon Indigenous Round this weekend by wearing specially designed uniforms.

Designed and created by proud Noongar Wandandi Boodja first nations man Joshua James, umpires will wear the Indigenous uniform in the South Barwon vs Leopold Seniors, Portarlington vs Anglesea Seniors, and the Apollo Bay v Birregurra Senior match.

The full story and meaning of the artwork and the artist, Joshua James can be found below.

Artwork Design

The artwork is called Yongka Kaaleepga which means “Kangaroo Homeland” in Noongar language. There are two narratives within the artwork design. One being the story behind the pathway’s that Kangaroos use to travel around the region, covering off the Bellarine, Otway’s and inland around AFL Barwon.

The second story covers the umpiring fraternity, showcasing the communication and strength umpires have along with the resilience and unity of people coming together from all around Australia regardless of peoples skin colour, culture, sexual orientation or beliefs. The artwork also includes the family of the artist, Joshua James.

Artwork Design in detail.

From a far – The artwork outline is a view from above of the land in the region through the eyes of Bunjil, the eagle who is the spirit and creator of these local lands. The land covers the Bellarine, Surf coast, Otway’s, Bay, Inland and Djilang.  The landscape also covers Hovells’ Creek coming through Lara and the Barwon river that crosses the land and enters the sea at Barwon Heads.

Inside the land – There are 11 yarning rings, these rings identify the 11 people that are key to have a successful umpiring campaign. This is including, 3 Field umpires, 3 Boundary umpires, 2 goal umpires and 3 coaches, 1 of each discipline for the duration of the season.

Inland pathway – from the bottom left of the design being the southwest, around the design working its way up along the west side and then along the top being the north is a trail of Yongka Djooroot (Kangaroo Tracks). This represents the journey of the kangaroo that covers the entire region.

Three identifying symbols. – Middle-left. This yarning circle includes 4 figures. These figures are the 4 people from the artist family including Joshua James and his 2 children being Karda and Maali along with his wife and children’s mother Sian James. Sian is also an umpire and umpire coach in AFL Barwon.

Second symbol – bottom left. This yarning circle has 5 people around the fire which represents each football league that’s embedded into AFL Barwon. This includes, GFNL, BFNL, GDFNL, CDFNL, all women’s leagues and Junior Football grades.

Third symbol – bottom right. There is a yarning circle with 8 “U”figures around, this symbol represents how many people there are on field to umpire a game of Australian Rules Football. 3 Field, 3 Boundary and 2 Goal umpires in most AFL Barwon senior matches of football.  

Artwork Outcome

Joshua hopes that this artwork unites and connects people over the next three years as this is worn by AFL Barwon umpires across the region in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Umpires will wear this design while umpiring in marquee games across all grades and leagues in AFL Barwon.  Josh will ask each umpiring panel that while they wear this design to take just a brief moment pre-game to acknowledge what the artwork represents and how they can impact the aboriginal community in a positive manner.

Artist Background

Joshua James is a Proud Aboriginal man from Noongar Boodja in the Southwest of Western Australia. Josh has been involved heavily in umpiring for 20 years, including the last 7 years here in AFL Barwon. During this time, Josh has some fantastic achievements including, umpiring all around the nation which includes umpiring Senior State league football and umpiring over 370 Senior matches and 9 Senior Grand finals. Josh originally started umpiring in the Southwest Football League in Bunbury, Western Australia in 2003. Since moving to Victoria in 2015 Josh has been involved with AFL Barwon and the Geelong Umpires. During this time Josh umpired 3 Senior Grand Finals and has been a field umpires coach for the past 6 seasons, with season 2023 being one of his biggest as he takes on the Senior Coaching role in Geelong for the first time. In doing so he becomes the first ever Senior Aboriginal Coach in the region.

One of Josh’s proudest moments was in 2022 when he was selected as a matchday coach for AFLW Season 7 making him the first Aboriginal umpiring coach in the history of AFLW.

Along with umpiring and coaching Josh is the Umpire AFL Aboriginal Ambassador which is a Nation-wide role which looks at assisting Aboriginal umpires and coaches in further development. Josh has implemented several programs to help in umpire recruitment and retention which he is extremely proud of. Josh is driven and committed to increase Aboriginal participation in umpiring and to see more Aboriginal people involved in umpiring, coaching and achieve a higher representation of first nations people at state league level and the AFL.