Speaking to the media following the launch ceremony at the Beedawong Meeting Place, Headland said the club was proud they get to kick off the round at home.
“It’s a good concept by the AFL to have an Indigenous Round this weekend,” Headland said.
“All the support that came here today was great to see.
“Hopefully we can get out there on Friday night and do it for our people and have a good win.”
Fremantle has eight Indigenous players on its senior list, the most listed at one time in VFL/AFL history.
The AFL’s current player base is 10 per cent Indigenous. Fremantle boasts a 20 per cent Indigenous player base, with eight of its 40 senior squad members being of Indigenous heritage.
Headland said it was fantastic to have such a high proportion of Indigenous players in the AFL.
“It’s amazing considering there’s only 2.5 per cent (of Australia’s total population being Indigenous) around Australia,” Headland said.
“Ten per cent of players in the AFL is great to see and I’m sure that’s going to be more and more over the next five to 10 years.”
Fremantle’s Indigenous players are Clayton Collard, Troy Cook, Jeff Farmer, Antoni Grover, Roger Hayden, Des Headland, Michael Johnson and Calib Mourish. Headland said there was a real closeness amongst the group.
“We all hang around together and whenever we do something, we do it in a group of eight,” Headland said.
“We’ve got Calib Mourish and Clayton Collard this year and we’ve been taking them along the way.”
With Headland growing up admiring the likes of Nicky Winmar, Chris Lewis and the Kickett brothers, the 26 year old said he, like other Noongah players in the league, understood their responsibility as role models to their younger brothers.
“Being a Noongah person, a lot of Noongah kids love looking up to you,” Headland said.
“I was like that when I was a kid.
“Being a role model, you don’t really think about it. It just happens and comes naturally.
“You’ll be respected as a footy player but the way the Noongah culture is, you want to be respected as a man more than anything.
“It’s good that they want to look up to us and want to achieve to where we are.”
Headland said this weekend’s match will be held in higher esteem by Fremantle’s eight Indigenous players considering they have the opportunity to open the round at home in front of a national television audience.
“It’s going to be in the back of your mind knowing it is the Indigenous Round but obviously our main thing is to focus on the game more than anything to get the four points,” Headland said.
At the launch today the Gya Ngoop Indigenous dance group performed two dances including and Wurdaatjii “Respect for the little spirit of the land.”
The Waalbiirniny “Healing Dance” clears all badness and brings in the goodness to the land and its people for what ever purpose and especially to keep all well as we go about our daily work.
The Wurdaatjii “Respect for the little spirit of the land” dance is a “show-off” dance to see who the best dancer is. It also shows how culture is still being shared between different Indigenous groups.
