Richmond Indigenous star Shane Edwards has provided an engrossing insight into what the AFL’s annual ‘Dreamtime at the ‘G’ event means to him.
Edwards, who will line up in his eighth Dreamtime match for the Tigers against Essendon this Saturday night, is thrilled with how significant the whole occasion has become.
“The best thing for me about Dreamtime is you get a lot of coverage, and people at the Club ask you questions,” Edwards said on the ‘Marngrook Footy Show’.
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“Back in the day, they’d tip-toe around and wouldn’t ask you anything.
“Now, it’s I want to know more about you.
“It’s been like that the last few years, and I love where it’s going.
“For me, being a shy kid coming into the system . . . I don’t look like I’m Indigenous, I guess, stereotypically, and no-one would know.
“And, now, it’s just everyone knows about my background, kids come into the system, everyone knows everything. So it’s awesome.”
Edwards expounded on his own experience of the playing in the Dreamtime game . . .
“You get the butterflies in the stomach,” he said.
“The last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to play in a final. But before that, I hadn’t had any idea what finals football was like, and the Dreamtime game, it was larger than life . . . just seeing the performances, the build-up.
“For myself, being Indigenous, everyone treated me really like I was the captain of the game . . .”
Edwards discovery of indigenous roots
