The SSN will commemorate the league's dedicated First Nations Round over two weeks this 2024 season. The first will be in round seven, and the second in round thirteen over NAIDOC week.
Bayley Mifsud, also known by her Aboriginal name, Merindah-Gunya, is a contemporary Aboriginal artist who the Melbourne Mavericks were privileged enough to have design their inaugural First Nations Round dress.
Bayley is a Peek Whurrong woman of the Maar nation from Warrnambool, and began creating Aboriginal artwork at a very young age. Now living on Wurundjeri Country, where the Mavericks too reside, she practises and teaches Aboriginal art and meaning, creating stories using sacred symbols which she has always had a connection with.
The Mavericks dress’ beautiful design has many key story elements, including:
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A centralised meeting place symbolic of the home ground of the club, with seven people surrounding such, symbolic of the seven players on the court.
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The seven players are also found to be surrounded by other people that make up the coaching squad, other team members and followers of the club.
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There are meeting places surrounding this centralised meeting area, which have dual meanings. The first is that they represent where everyone has come to. The Mavericks, being a new club filled with exciting opportunities, has allowed a new group of players to come together and compete in a brand new environment. Second, these meeting places note the different locations that the team will travel to and pay respect to those different countries and places that they will go to.
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Another key story element is the symbol of a bird which is important to the club as we are building, and look to be connected with all as we travel across the country.
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Additionally, there are symbols of water throughout the artwork which is a key story element to Wurundjeri people, as well as an identification of Melbourne being close to the water, which is incredibly important to its traditional owners.
The Mavericks will wear their First Nations dress with pride, celebrating Indigenous First Nations and Torres Strait Islander peoples, not just within the SSN, but within the broader community. It is an honour to wear our First Nations dress as designed by Bayley Mifsud, and an incredibly important round to pay our respects to those who came before us.
The Melbourne Mavericks acknowledge that we train and play our home games on Wurundjeri Country, and would like to pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging.
The Mavs will take on the Giants in both round seven and thirteen.
All First Nations Round matches will be live and free on Kayo Freebies.
