'It's a fabulous design': Swans to don NAIDOC bibs on return

Due to the school holidays, no netball has been played for the last three weeks.

This forced the Swans to delay the debut of their bibs, which were designed by local Gomeroi artist, Rosie Geale.

"It's a fabulous design," Swans netball coordinator Hannah McKenzie said.

"What Rosie did is absolutely awesome, and it's transferred onto the bibs and the jerseys really well. It's really amazing and a credit to her work."

Geale's bibs depict a black swan, which are native to the Gomeroi region, with its wings spread. It stands over its eggs in a protective gesture, which the artist said was inspired by her childhood.

"The journey and the eggs and the swan watching over them, it reminds me of my mum protecting us when we were littler and now how we are older, us older ones are protecting our younger siblings, so basically family protecting each other," Geale said in a statement posted to the Swans' Facebook page.

The Swans initially planned for their footballers and netballers to wear the custom uniforms on the same weekend.

However, once they realised the school holidays would interfere with the netball schedule, McKenzie decided the players would wear them at the next available opportunity.

After their break, the Swans are "really keen" to get back on court, McKenzie said.. All ten senior teams will don Geale's bibs this weekend, with four set to play from 2.30pm and the remaining six to get their matches underway at 4pm.

Along with their eagerness to resume the season, the Swans players are also acutely aware of the importance of NAIDOC Round.

"It's really good for us as a club to be respectful and to honour our Indigenous community," McKenzie said.

"It's good for netball to join in and be a part of that, even on a different day.

"Within the club, we do have members of the Indigenous community and it's a matter of paying respect to them and showing that we respect them and they are included within our organisation."

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