Artist: Darryl Bellotti
Artist’s community: Yamatji and Nyoongar
Artist’s connection to the West Coast Eagles: Darryl is a relative of former West Coast Eagle, Laurie Bellotti, who played 24 games for the club across two season (1999-2000).
Story behind the Guernsey: “The Guernsey depicts the Waugul (Rainbow Serpent) as it travels the land and watches over the West Coast Eagles journey to the Grand Final at the MCG,” Bellotti said.
“To Nyoongar people, the Waugul is widely regarded and is known as the Creator Spirit and in the Dreaming, what Nyoongar call the Nyitting, only Spirit beings inhabited the land.
“It was the Spirits that gave the world form and meaning. One of these Spirits was the Waugul.
“It is said that the Waugul journeyed from the east, creating valleys and hills with its body as it travelled."
“Water gathered in its tracks, creating the creeks and rivers, and the Derbal Yerrigan, otherwise known as the Swan River, where the new Stadium is located.
“The white circles and lines represent the journey of the club, and the yellow lines represent the Interconnecting pathways and songlines throughout the land.
“The blue patterns represent the land being pushed aside as the Waugul travels.
“It gives it a deep, spiritual meaning and significance to the water sources, allow you to develop that kind of respect, especially to the younger people who need to learn about that sort of stuff."
“The water sources traditionally are very precious, because when you travel around, you travel and follow those water sources, because that is the source of life, everything revolves around that.
“From my perspective, is you want everyone to grow and not just see all of the buildings and roads and parks, but to give them another lens which to look through, to see the sprits here in the land and that greater mythology.
“They can see it’s richer than what they first assumed, even people that lived here their whole lives.
“I was saying to the players before, ‘you are carrying around this big story, this big mythology, you’re carrying it around on your shoulders, but don’t feel the weight of that, feel the strength within it’.
“You can’t accept who you are today without the journey that got you here, your ancestors, the journey that they went on, everything that they endured to get you here in the first place.”
