FROM May 16 to May 29, Melbourne Football Club rebranded to Narrm Football Club in an initiative created to honour and respect the Traditional Custodians of the land on which the club sits.

Narrm is the Aboriginal name for Melbourne which comes from the Woi Wurrung language, spoken by the Traditional Custodians of the city and its surrounds.

During this National Reconciliation Week, in which the theme is ‘Be Brave. Make Change’, we’re taking the opportunity to acknowledge the Narrm initiative and its impact across the club and league over its two-week period.

To learn more about National Reconciliation Week and the ‘Be Brave. Make Change.’ campaign, click here.

Matthew Whelan - Melbourne’s Indigenous Project Officer:
“It’s a chance for us to educate the wider public…It’s a chance for everyone to reflect on that there was life here before colonisation and in a way, it’s a great opportunity for people to do their own research and educate themselves.”

Simon Goodwin - Melbourne AFL Senior Coach:
“The awareness that it generates in the community to ask questions, to talk about Indigenous culture and to bring awareness to a really important element of our culture in Australian history, it’s something we’re really proud of.

“We’re very proud that it’s taken place.”

Gary Pert - Melbourne CEO:
“This is a very big step for such a famous club to be the Narrm Football Club. This is all about creating awareness, creating the conversation, maybe even debate.

“It’s out of respect for those communities and their leaders both past and present that we’ll be renaming the club.”

Toby Bedford - Melbourne AFL Athlete:
“It means a lot for not just the Indigenous players, but the whole group. It’s about learning and educating everyone, and the boys have really embraced that.

“To us Indigenous players, it means a lot to us and our families to get that recognition as Aboriginal people.

“I’m very proud for us to have taken this step forward and I’m sure every other club will start to follow suit.”

Steven May - Melbourne AFL Athlete:
“I think it’s really special and a great initiative by the footy club.

“The awareness that it brings, changing the name and the guernseys…there’ll be little kids watching us play, asking their parents what the name means, that will start conversations and the flow on affect from that is huge.

“The only way we can get better with education is through teaching and raising awareness and this is just another step along the way.”

Jack Viney - Melbourne AFL Vice-Captain:
“It’s a terrific initiative by the football club. [I’m] Incredibly proud of our football club and the efforts it goes to continue to raise awareness for the Indigenous culture.

“It’s education for myself being part of this.”

Max Gawn - Melbourne AFL Captain:
“I personally love how the club has embraced it to a level where everyone is committed.  

“It starts at the leaders…and it filters down to a point where every single person’s terminology and vocab has changed to Narrm, which makes it so much more powerful.

“I’ve been involved for 13 years, and this is as powerful of an Indigenous Round that we’ve done, and it makes me really proud.”  

Tom Sparrow - Melbourne AFL Athlete:
“It’s really important and really good for the awareness [of Narrm].

“It’s a really good conversation starter and it’s good to recognise these players that have brought so much to the game, so it’s been incredibly important for us and the AFL as a whole.”

Aaron Davey – Melbourne Past Player:
“To name themselves Narrm Football Club, it’s truly amazing.

“I can only imagine this as one of the trail blazers and this will grow even bigger and better.”

Mark Howard – Sports Broadcaster:
“For me personally, I’ve got two young kids, they’ve both asked me about and what [Narrm] means.

“We’ve then had a discussion about lands, people and culture and what happened a long time ago in this country.”

Ky-ya Nicholson Ward – Indigenous Artist:
“To have Narrm Football Club represented on such a mainstream platform, it’s amazing because people will ask ‘what does that mean?’ and then they’ll look into it and will be learning more about our culture through that representation.”

Clothing the Gap – Aboriginal social enterprise uniting people through fashion and cause:

Marcus Stewart - First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria Co-Chair:
“I really love seeing the culture and language of First Peoples being embraced and celebrated.

“Our culture is the oldest living culture in the world, but in recent years – as in the last 230 or so – we’ve had to withstand the horrors of deliberate and targeted efforts to eradicate us and our culture.

“So, every time I hear our languages spoken out loud, it rings in my ears like the music of resilience. It fills me with hope that, although our history stretches back countless generations, we’re going to thrive for countless more to come.”