Everyone’s journey is different.

That’s the message Dons star midfielder Georgia Nanscawen highlights in her recent interview, where she shares her journey of discovering her Indigenous family history.

Connected to the Waywurru Mob in north-east Victoria, Nanscawen speaks to the importance of having a sense of belonging, no matter where you are on your journey.

Ahead of Essendon’s Dreamtime in Darwin match against Richmond, Nanscawen shares more of her story so far and reflects on the privilege of being part of such a momentous occasion in the Northern Territory.

Connecting through the Club 

I’m very lucky to be part of the Essendon Football Club, which has such a rich history with Indigenous players and what they've done in the Indigenous space. 

I've been really fortunate that through connections with the Club, I've been able to discover more, and maybe wouldn't have had that opportunity if I wasn't involved with the Essendon Football Club.

I certainly feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to have those connections.

Uncovering connections to Waywurru Mob

My family are connected to Waywurru Mob, which is in north-east Victoria around Wangaratta. 

We've known for many years that we have had an Indigenous ancestry, but it's really only been recently when we've discovered what mob (we are from) and where we were located. 

It wasn't until we had that connection through the Essendon Football Club, and they were able to connect me with Waywurru Elders and we were presented with a full family history and family tree, which was really cool to see. 

For anyone uncovering more of your family history, it’s something really special. 

Seeing what it's meant to my other family members, particularly my grandmother on my mum's side, and really what it's meant to her.

There’s always been these missing pieces in her life that she hasn't fully known, and for her to start understanding more, it's really special to see.

There’s things that we don't know, but for that to start being uncovered and even recently just being connected to distant family is really cool. 

I think what was really interesting as part of my conversations with the Club and those connections. I was presented with a folder of my whole family history dating back many years, I'd never seen any of that information.

But to see the breakdown and the connections and that history there was really cool. 

Being able to piece those bits and pieces together has allowed us now to be able to connect with sort of members of our extended family that we didn't even really know existed.

It's just a constant journey and there's still plenty more to uncover.

It’s really exciting. It means a lot to my family.

A sense of belonging

I think it goes back to that identity piece and those missing pieces of the puzzle, and probably more so what it means to my family members. 

I think for anyone to uncover these things, and I think everyone has a story to tell with ancestry, it's just really something special and something to be proud of.

Everyone’s journey is different

I think that it's a journey and everyone's going to be on a different one. 

For me, we've known for years that there's that history there, but have never been confident enough to really embrace that, whether it's fear of not knowing the answers to questions that you might be asked or not fully knowing that history and as I said, still needing to uncover quite a bit.

Whether it's an Indigenous heritage or, many other people are going to have other cultural heritage, to really explore that. 

And it's really exciting to put those pieces together.

Dreamtime in Darwin has an even more special meaning this year

We're so lucky to get to be involved in the Dreamtime game. 

Having been in Darwin the last couple of years, and during those games, I've known that we've had that Indigenous ancestry, but until this year, I haven't been confident enough to publicly say that. 

I think it just adds an extra element this year to really sort of embrace identity and culture and feel proud that I get to do that.

It’s such a privilege that we get to go up there and not only play a great game of footy with a really passionate crowd but also experience some of the local schools and clubs.

The next steps

We would love to head out to Wangaratta and at some point. 

Waywurru is a very small piece of land compared to many of the others, but to head out to Country and get some of the family together that we actually don't see very often, I think would be really cool.

I’m not sure when we'll get to do that, but I think that would be a really special moment for our family.