Nicky Winmar and (inset) Wayne Ludbey's iconic 1993 photo. Picture: AFL Digital

"AS SOON as we walked out… boom," an impassioned Gilbert McAdam states. "It just started straight away."

The day McAdam is referring to is an infamous one: Collingwood vs St Kilda at Victoria Park, April 17, 1993.

"That day was the worst day of my life," says Nicky Winmar.

For Winmar and for others, the pain of that day remains clear and palpable and is the confronting subject in the new AFL On Demand Original, Unveiling an Icon.

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When Nicky stared down racism, streaming in AFL On Demand

Unveiling An Icon is a powerful, must-watch documentary featuring some of the game's most important First Nations heroes

Featuring interviews with the man himself as well as McAdam, Adam Goodes, Andrew Krakouer, Michael O'Loughlin and more, this short film adopts a duality to revisit that painful day of 29 years ago and the environment that surrounded it while also celebrating the immortalisation of Winmar's stand against racism with the unveiling of his statue outside Optus Stadium in Perth.

NOW STREAMING Unveiling an Icon in AFL ON DEMAND

From candid accounts of shared on-field experiences of racism, through to the articulation of Winmar's stand being a moment of pride, Unveiling an Icon explores one of the defining public moments in the country's history. 

As summed up by the Tanya Hosch, the AFL's Executive General Manager of Inclusion and Social Policy, "it is an image that is bigger than Aussie rules football."

NOW STREAMING Unveiling an Icon in AFL ON DEMAND