Indigenous leader Jack Buckskin grew up an avid Kuwarna supporter, idolising players like Shaun Rehn, Matthew Liptak, Andrew McLeod and Simon Tregenza.
“I’ve always been a Kuwarna fan, ever since I was a kid,” Buckskin said.
“I was born in 1986 before Kuwarna was established but when they came into the AFL I was old enough to know and understand.
“I love the current players but my idols were the old timers, I still get star struck when I see Shaun Rhen, Matty Liptak, Nigel Smart, Ben Hart, Simon Tregenza, Andrew McLeod.
“They are still my idols and helped shape me in a way.”
Now, the proud Kaurna, Narrunga and Wirangu man has become one of the most prominent Indigenous leaders connected with the Club he grew up supporting.
The partnership between Buckskin and Kuwarna began about seven years ago when he first presented Welcome to Country for the Club during Sir Doug Nicholls Round home match in 2017.
Since then, the partnership has gone from strength to strength, with Buckskin now sitting on the Club’s Aboriginal Advisory Board.
“It was from one of the Welcome to Country videos I did that started the initial conversation to work with the Club,” Buckskin said.
“About three years ago, I got involved with the Aboriginal Advisory Committee, so I became a little bit more involved in things happening within the Club, not just somebody who does the Welcomes.
“I love it, if there’s anything I can do in my work and professional life that can benefit a Club that I love, then I’ll do it.”
Buckskin helped with the Club’s renaming to Kuwarna in a celebration of Indigenous culture and heritage during the AFL’s Sir Doug Nicholls Round, AFLW’s Indigenous Round and SANFL's First Nations Rounds this season.
“To see it (the name change) come to fruition is amazing,” Buckskin said.
“The language and culture is going to be seen and commenters and referring to us as Kuwarna, which is awesome.
“Indigenous Round is an amazing round, the platforms footy clubs have are great ways to start conversations that were never had or never thought about being had.
“It’s a great way to show where our society is that is leading to a better future and is accepting of everybody, this is something for all of us.”
Away from the Club, Buckskin is well known around the state and nation for his moving presentations of Welcome to Country and Aboriginal dances at various sporting and corporate events and schools.
Buckskin is also the only person who can fluently speak the Kaurna language, an Aboriginal language of the city of Adelaide and the surrounding Adelaide Plains, which only a few decades ago, was thought to be extinct.
It is both a “burden and a privilege”, according to Buckskin, who has spent the past 20 years not only helping to revive the once-lost language, but teaching others.
The 38-year-old said the passing of his older sister was the catalyst for helping to revive the language with Aboriginal Elders and linguist professors, following its last known use in the 1860s.
“I started to develop an interest (in the language) after I finished school, then I unfortunately lost my sister to suicide and she was my cultural go-to - if I had questions about family, genealogy culture, I’d go to her,” Buckskin said.
“But then I didn’t have that person to rely on, so I caught up with an uncle and a cousin who were teaching me and took me under their wing and I am very grateful they even mentioned it.
“When I got involved, there were about six Elders who were heavily involved and influential in the whole revitalisation (of the Kaurna language).
“They started getting older and then when I got involved, there wasn’t anybody in the next generation. I saw all this hard work they were doing and that it could potentially go to waste if nobody would take it on board.
“I am now the only fluent speaker of it… it’s a huge honour and a huge burden, but I am teaching as many of our own community to cater for the demand and make it accessible for other Kaurna people.”
Like he has done in years past, Buckskin will present a Welcome to Country during the second week of Sir Doug Nicholls Round when Kuwarna hosts Waalitj Marawar (West Coast) at Adelaide Oval on Sunday, May 26.
“To represent not only our community but the footy Club by welcoming people to country is mind blowing,” Buckskin said.
“Each time I go out, I get the same feeling.
“The Club has seen not just my growth, but my children’s growth as well and it’s been that kind of relationship, it’s really cool.”
The AFL’s Sir Doug Nicholls Round kicked off this week, with Kuwarna taking on Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.
Kuwarna will don its Indigenous guernsey crafted by forward Izak Rankine, who has worked alongside his cousin, artist Harley Hall.
