Echuca celebrates its indigenous heritage with return of Archie Walker round

Created by senior co-coach Andrew Walker back in 2017, the Yorta Yorta man said he had always wanted to bring an indigenous round back to the country level after instigating a similar thing during his time with Carlton in the AFL.

“I just love what the round represents, and it gives us a chance to celebrate our culture and tell a bit more of our story,” Andrew said.

“But it also opens up the opportunity for teammates to ask questions about things they may or may not know.

“I think going into our fourth year now, those uncomfortable conversations for some people are now more comfortable because of the round and that's the whole significance.”

The day is also a major tribute to Walker's ‘Pop’, Archie Walker, who passed away after the inaugural event in his name.

Archie's son Rob Walker, who played with Echuca in the 70s and early 80s, said he never thought he would get to see a day like this come to fruition.

“It's pleasing for me, and the tribute to my dad is just beautiful,” Rob said.

This year the round will extend all the way down to Echuca's youngest players, from under 10s through the junior levels joining senior footballers in sporting the unique jumper designed by John Patten.

Meanwhile Echuca's netballers will wear warm-up tops with their own indigenous design.

The club will effectively don these designs twice, with the Goulburn Valley League hosting a league-wide indigenous round the following week.

“It's so great to see the league have gravitated to what we did and are now celebrating it league-wide,” Andrew said.

“At the end of the day we get to celebrate it two weeks in a row, wear the awesome jumper again and continue to celebrate my culture.”

Many among the Walker family tree will be involved in Saturday's round, with Uncle Col Walker staging the ceremonial side of the smoking and Welcome to Country, while Benny Walker and Madi Colville-Walker will also perform.

Local Yorta Yorta dancers are also involved in the day's events, while Sir Doug Nicholls’ daughter Aunty Pam Pederson will speak at half-time.

Uncle Col said he would be thinking of his cousin Archie when performing the smoking ceremony.

“Archie was well-known, a strong Yorta Yorta man,” Uncle Col said.

“My respect for Archie is high and when I come in to do the smoking, my thoughts will be about Archie, my brother.

“We never called each other cousins. In our culture, it's always brothers or sisters.”

Uncle Col said the smoking had a dual purpose - to drive bad spirits away and for healing.

“It's a healing thing and an understanding that we're together when we do that smoking - it's a get-together,” he said.

Andrew said it was by having these people around the club that would inspire conversations to be had on the day.

“One thing I stressed to the guys back in 2017 in our first year was I have brought people into this football club like Uncle Col Walker, my dad Rob, my aunty Vicki, Uncle Clive Atkinson, and the first year we had Shelley Ware come,” Andrew explained.

“I said, if you are walking next to one of those people, if you have something to ask, just ask them the question.

“They're going to give you a good answer.

“If it was once upon a time uncomfortable, just feel comfortable. It flows on and creates that reconciliation that everyone talks about - non-indigenous and indigenous having conversations.”

Rob agrees, saying it was important for people to ask questions and have those tough conversations.

“A lot of aboriginal history is now out in the open; the conversations can keep going,” he said.

“There is a still a lot of issues within the broader community where a lot of people haven't met an aboriginal person but make generalisations about them.

“We are here celebrating the world's oldest living culture, which from one reason or another, isn't wholly celebrated here (in Australia).”

Rob said by bringing in the younger generation of Echuca players into the day, it would help them grow up embracing the Indigenous people and their culture.

“They can see, this is what is acceptable behaviour and what the club expects,” he said.

“They'll talk to their parents or friends at school, or players might have mates at other clubs, so they have that conversation that it's not acceptable at our footy club.

“It grows from there.”

Uncle Col echoed Rob's thoughts, saying he was proud to see the younger players in the club embrace the day.

“We always talk about the young ones being our future, so to see them getting around with indigenous guernseys on and explaining to them what it means,” he said.

“It's all got a meaning to it, and to even see non-indigenous boys and men running around in these jumpers, we feel so proud, and they do too. You see they're proud to do it.”

As for the on-field battle between Echuca and Shepparton United, Andrew said he was confident the senior group could rebound after a disappointing loss to Euroa last round.

“We're in such a good place - the weekend was a hiccup for us,” he said.

“It was very physical and enjoyable style of football, but we kicked ourselves out of it.

“We just need to get back on and do all the things we do really well and doing it in front of our home crowd and in our indigenous round, what a good time to do it.”

The day will begin at 9am, with the senior game to begin from 2.35pm.