THE juniors at the Wangaratta Baseball Softball Club will enter next season sporting a new Indigenous-inspired playing jersey, thanks to recently received funding. The Rangers received $4000 from the Rural City of Wangaratta’s Community Grants Program, which allocated $160,000 to support 29 local community groups and not-for-profit organisations. The Community Grants Program aims to help community organisations within the Rural City of Wangaratta deliver projects that help improve accessibility and equity, provide cultural or arts experiences, increase community resilience, safety, mental health and well-being, or encourage healthy behaviours and environmentally sustainable projects. The project has been spearheaded by committee member Hannah Clancey, who said the committee felt it was important to include Indigenous designs in the club’s attire. “The idea of it was to get a traditional owner from Bangerang to design a new Indigenous jersey for our junior baseball teams,” she said. “We’re probably a bit behind in term of recognising Indigenous people at the baseball club. “You see a lot of other sports doing an Indigenous round, they’ve all got their Indigenous jerseys. “It’s around recognising Aboriginal people and making sure our club is recognising Aboriginal people and their culture. “We’re very happy about it.” Clancey said the timing was perfect, given the club’s rapid growth. “It’s also time for some new jerseys as well, we’re running thin,” she said. “We’ve gone from two teams, this year we had four junior teams when we united with Benalla as well. “The club’s really growing, so time for a new jersey, time to move up with the times. “We were just waiting on the grant – while we were hoping we could’ve still done it, I don’t actually know if we would’ve been able to afford it as a club to do the Indigenous design.” The design with be completed and finalised in the coming months in consultation with traditional owners.
