Former Bomber Nathan Lovett-Murray has expressed how proud he is of his heritage ahead of the club’s Dreamtime at the ‘G clash on Saturday.
Lovett-Murray is being honoured as this week’s Bomber Legend, and said the annual blockbuster against Richmond is always a big occasion for him.
“The reason why it’s so big for me is I’ve got a big family and I get a heap of tickets and get to give them all out to all of the family and they all come there,” Lovett-Murray said.
“I remember one year I reckon I nearly had over 200 tickets to give out.
“It’s just great to run out there knowing that all of your family, your tribe, is behind you and you see them in the crowd.
“It’s been great (that) the AFL and both teams, Richmond and Essendon, just the way they’ve got behind the concept and they’ve really built it up.”
Lovett-Murray is a great-grandson of the legendary Sir Douglas Nicholls, whose name accompanies this week’s Indigenous Round, and he said the week provides a great opportunity to educate all Australians.
“It’s a big part that education for non-indigenous people just to learn about Aboriginal culture,” he said.
“We’ve got the oldest living culture in the world and I’ve been fortunate enough (that) I’ve been able to learn my culture growing up and it’s something that I’m consistently doing and (what) I love doing is teaching other people about my culture.
“Through football it’s a great game to bring people together – non-indigenous and indigenous – and to share and learn stories about what we’ve been through, but also looking at ways of how we can do things better.”
After fighting back against racism throughout his childhood, Lovett-Murray says his main focus is to continue to teach people about Aboriginal culture and history.
“When you get older you learn to sort of educate people and talk to people instead of getting into a violent situation.
“I think it just goes back to educating people where what I’ve learnt through my time at Essendon and coming across a lot of non-indigenous people – they really want to learn about Aboriginal culture.
“And what they see is in the media and a lot of the time what’s in the media is probably negative, so I’ve learnt a lot about that.
“Just being able to go back on my country and walk my country and learn from my uncles and my elders, but I’m in a position now to teach my kids and my nieces and nephews, even the wider community.”
Lovett-Murray is immensely proud of his heritage, which stretches to several traditional countries within Victoria, and encourages all Victorians to learn more about the state’s pride and culture.
He is passionate about closing the gap and is dedicated to using his experiences in the AFL to empower his people.
“Aboriginal people need to have a voice. We need to have a voice and I feel that our people are probably not listened to,” Lovett-Murray said.
“Through football it’s given me so many great opportunities.
“It’s given me profile, it’s given me a voice, I’ve been able to travel all around Australia and over the world trying to look for answers on how we can do things better for Aboriginal people.”
Lovett-Murray said Dreamtime at the ‘G allows the community to get together in a different setting to celebrate Australia’s indigenous culture.
“In the Aboriginal community we don’t get many positive times to meet up and have a good time.
“A lot of times we’re meeting up for funerals and stuff like that, so to be able to have this event for our people to come together and just to enjoy football and just spend time and have a laugh it’s just great to be a part of that.”
To join Lovett-Murray at Dreamtime at the ‘G, get your tickets HERE and don’t forget to be there in style with the team’s Dreamtime Guernsey and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti’s 2018 Indigenous Cap available HERE.
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To see more of Lovett-Murray's interview with Rohan Connolly, watch the video above.
