Chloe and Ashalea - On the Design of The New Indigenous Unif
Chloe Purvis and Ashalea Perry
My name is Chloe Purvis, I’m a proud Narungga and Arrernte woman coming from the Yorke peninsula and
I have been part of the Woodville Basketball Club for 3 years now. In that time I have not only played but have had the opportunity to coach lots of different age groups and kids. In this time I have also had the opportunity to be a mentor and coach at the Aboriginal Basketball Academy.
I was so happy when I was asked to design this years Aboriginal uniform as I have never had the opportunity to do anything like this. After being asked I knew, to make it even more special, that i would have to ask Ash (Ashalea Perry) to help me too. Working with Ash and her cousin Scott to create this artwork has been one of the best experiences I have ever had. We have had the opportunity to create something that can represent our club, our heritage and just something that we can be super proud of.
The Design
The uniform this year has a major theme of connectedness and coming together. Earlier in the year Scott took a workshop with the womens team to give them a better understanding of what Aboriginal art is. We spoke about the importance of iconography and how Aboriginal people used art as their way of communication and representing stories. We thought that giving the girls the opportunity to have a go at creating their own artwork would give them more of a sense of pride when wearing the uniform. All of the ladies were given an opportunity to draw some new symbols which they thought represented our team/club best. Each of the corners represents different communities or families outside of Woodville.
The Symbols
The middle circle represents Woodville District Basketball Club and St Clair.
The four lines connecting to the middle represent the individual paths that people take to get to Woodville. The dots within those paths represent all the different people taking their own journeys to get to Woodville.
There are four seperate symbols that you can see in each section. These symbols were created from the ideas of some of the girls in our team. Each symbol has its own special individual meaning.