Hawks present Indigenous jersey to Illawarra community

The Illawarra Hawks recently met with members of the local community to present them with the club's NBL22 Indigenous jersey.

The Snakepit event, attended by the whole Hawks squad, Indigenous jersey designed Lani Balzan and special guests Uncle Peter Button and Aunty May Button was opened by a traditional smoking ceremony.

"This smoking ceremony is aimed to cleanse, purify the land, heal the people and bring everything together for reconciliation - as we've all got to live on this land as one," Uncle Peter said.

Following the smoking ceremony, conducted by uncle Peter, Balzan explained her inspiration for her jersey 'coming together' design, before presenting the two elders present with their own jersey.

"My main objective of the jersey was incorporating the Hawks logo and the important Illawarra community, represented by the gathering symbol on the design," Balzan said.

"On top of that, I wanted to represent Dharawal Country and its connection to sea country."

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Aunty May then addressed the circle and acknowledged the connection between the jersey and Dharawal Country.

The ceremony was wrapped by Hawks skipper AJ Ogilvy thanking the Indigenous community.

"The Hawks are really thankful for the part we've played in growing the Indigenous round concept every year and we hope it continues to go from strength to strength for years to come - as we know how important it is around the Illawarra community," Ogilvy said.

The Hawks debuted their Indigenous jerseys on March 6 against the South East Melbourne at John Cain Arena, before wearing them for their home game against the Phoenix on March 17 - with tickets now available via Ticketmaster.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It gives us great pleasure in announcing the first-ever recipient of the Tyson Demos Medal, Finn Delany from the NZ Breakers! <a href="https://t.co/MlFf7UXnUO">pic.twitter.com/MlFf7UXnUO</a></p>— Illawarra Hawks Basketball (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1223853524569579525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That home Indigenous round fixture will include numerous events and celebrations on the day, including the awarding of the second-ever Tyson Demos Medal, for the player of the game.

The recipient (who was New Zealand's Finn Delany in 2020) is selected by each team’s coaches and an Indigenous community member awarding 3-2-1 votes as to who they believed were the best players of the game.