The Essendon Football Club are proud to wear their AFLW Indigenous guernsey across rounds seven and eight, including in their Dreamtime clash with Richmond this Saturday.

Designed by former assistant coach and proud Noongar woman Kirby Bentley, the guernsey tells the Dreamtime story of Waugal, the spirit of the Noongar people and central to their beliefs and culture.

Noongar people believe that the Waugal dominates the earth and the sky and makes the koondarnangor (thunder), babanginy (lightning) and boroong (rain).

During the Nyitting, it created the fresh waterways such as the bilya/beelier (river), pinjar (swamps, lakes) and ngamma (waterhole).

The Darling Scarp represents the body of the Waugal, which created the curves and contours of the hills and gullies. As the Waugal slithered over the land, its track shaped the sand dunes, its body scoured out the course of the rivers, where it occasionally stopped for a rest, and created bays and lakes.

For Noongar people, this is hunting from the front, building a stronger connection with each other through the waters and the land.